by Trevor Osburn
Fred has been involved in the Theatre scene in Melbourne for over 45 years. After getting the taste for the applause in school productions, he chased his dream and became a Drama teacher.
He became one of the founding members of Panorama Youth Theatre and Aspect Inc.
Over the years Fred has performed and directed with many companies in Melbourne and these include Opera Australia, Panorama, CLOC, MLOC, Aspect, PLOS and the Melbourne Opera Company.
Some of his directorial work includes Jesus Christ Superstar, CATS, Pippin, Pirates of Penance, Bye Bye Birdie, High School Musical, The Pyjama Game, The Merchant of Venice and Hansel and Gretel.
For Beaumaris - Fred first performed for us in the 2004 production of The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe and went on to direct Dreamchild - Alice’s Musical Adventures, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Vicar of Dibley Sweeney Todd- The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, August Osage County and The 3 Musketeers.
Fred joined the committee in 2014 and stayed with it until 2020 and he brought a wealth of experience with him. He asked us to broaden our horizons and our expectations for the future. Creatively, he pursued the idea we should perform more Australian plays and more challenging plays for the audiences. He looked at Beaumaris being an off-Broadway type of Theatre and sought those smaller avant-garde/ Off-Broadway shows that would bring a different look to some of the work we had been doing. I think he was successful in that - while we still were concerned about our audiences who were “no spring chickens” and often adverse to change we certainly did do several shows that challenged us and the audiences. This mindset continues today as we look to – as Fred puts it - the “Arty Farty bullshit” shows that stretch both us and the audience.
Fred also used his considerable talents in designing and creating the necessary “Sets” for a range of shows. Time and again he created interesting and innovative “sets” that solve problems of how to present plays and musicals within some of the limits the Beaumaris stage has.
With his good friend Pietro helping to build the “set” there was always a lovely sense of comradery at their/our “set” builds Saturdays as we worked to produce something well worthy of the script.
Fred did bring about a positive change when he made us look at the health and safety aspects of our set builds. We became much more aware of some of the dangers that we might encounter, especially when we were hanging lights from the rafters while allowing people to wander willy-nilly through the space below.
Fred was also instrumental in moving the theatre from the old standard lighting to the new regime of LED lighting. He arranged testing and tagging as new government arrangements came into being.
Fred was also keen to make sure our sound/audio arrangements were meeting our standards and again was leading the way in developing and improving the quality of our audio especially as we moved more and more into musical theatre. He led the discussion of - do we hire or buy (still ongoing) - Fred was especially keen to ensure that the theatre was getting value for money from what we did hire.
We would like to think that Fred arrived at an opportune time for our theatre. He sought to improve and challenge us over a wide range of issues, to make better decisions in all areas of theatre life – and to be a little more professional in decision-making.
The last 15 years have included some difficult times for the Pezzimenti family. We would like to thank Katrina Miranda and Lucinda for continually sharing him with us at Beaumaris Theatre. We know he is grateful for your love and support.
We know that Lee would be proud of his achievements.
We would like to think that we have provided a little sanctuary where Fred’s passion for the Arts could be indulged when it needed to be. And we hope that made his life a little bit easier during that time.
During Fred's time with Beaumaris, which hasn’t finished - by the way, he's made us think more about the future. And what we'd like Beaumaris Theatre to be.
He has made it a better place. Not everyone can have that said about them - but Fred can.
Congratulations to our new Life Members Camilla Klesman and Fred Pezzimenti!