School Of Arts Players Inc. (SOAPI) is a not for profit arts group that is based in Cobargo.
While Cobargo is their base, and they rehearse in spectacular Wandella, their equipment and performances were portable to almost any small theatre, particularly the iconic Australian ‘Schools of Arts’ and ‘Mechanic Institutes’, with local sponsorship, their material was portable to other local communities.
That was before the fires… The fabulous Robyn & Graeme Freedman were the inspiration for starting the group and they had collected an amazing amount of sound, lighting and stage production materials over the years of their journey and very generously brought this SOAPI.They stored the equipment on their property just outside Cobargo and when the fires went through everything was lost – all of the theatre equipment, their home, in fact everything they owned.
Several of the SOAPI members lost their homes and livelihoods in these horrific fires, the experience has been incredibly traumatic for them, impacting the entire community in so many ways.
SOAPI is aware of the broad range of impacts physically, emotionally and mentally flowing from this devastating time and plan to host free drama sessions as a way of moving towards some healing as a community.
They would like to find a way to put a production on in their little town later in the year.
For now, they have to start from scratch with no equipment, props, costumes etc at all.
Retro Replays is Noosa Arts Theatres latest production and will be donating the proceeds from Thursday 20th February performance to SOAPI.
Its Noosa Arts Theatre’s 50th Birthday Celebration, and they are celebrating by returning three of the most loved one act plays from their One Act play writing competitions.
43 years of great one act plays and the three that have made the cut are Nancy Cato’s Travellers Through The Night, John Cundall’s The Eulogy and Debra Chalmers Here’s The Thing.
