Beaumaris Theatre Inc. presents

Monologue Festival

Artistic Director Andy Payne

Beaumaris Theatre’s inaugural monologue festival is a showcase of original monologues by local playwrights directed and performed by local artists.

The festival will be held on Saturday 15 at 5pm and Sunday 16 June at 2pm.

Please note, that some monologues contain adult themes and language.

The Monologues

Flattering by Alarna Summers

Directed by Alarna Summers, performed by Victoria Hill

Queen of Botox by Amanda Louise Lay

Directed by Kate Squires, performed by Emma Blake

The Funny Thing About Memory by Danny Gibbins

Directed by Danielle Gibbins, performed by Juliet Charles

Douglas by Gavin Williams

Directed by Andy Payne, performed by Gavin Williams

Harry by Juliet Charles

Directed by Andy Payne, performed by Claire Ryan Ruberu

Olympus Divorce Court Hearing: Zeus vs Hera by Kate Squires

Directed by Kate Squires, performed by Emma Stewart

Homecoming by Louise Hopewell

Directed by Paula Armstrong, performed by Harry Brammell

Things to Do by Melissa Forge

Directed by Stephen White, performed by Stuart Anderson

Vigilante Mumma by Paula Armstrong

Directed by Paula Armstrong, performed by Kate Squires

Villain by Stuart Anderson

Directed by Natasha Rayner, performed by Mason Frost

The Playwrights

**Alarna Summers**
Alarna is a passionate drama teacher and performer who has been previously involved with Beaumaris Theatre as the Narrator in their season of *Puffs*.
As a teacher, Alarna is the coordinator of school productions, finding inspiration from the collaboration and creativity of young people. In community theatre, she has frequented the stage with roles such as Martha, Spring Awakening (MLOC), Stratylis, Lysistrata (Dionysus Theatre), and Arvide Abernathy, Guys and Dolls (Panorama Theatre Company).
This is Alarna’s first experience as a writer, and she is beyond proud to be working with Beaumaris Theatre again on this project. She hopes that her monologue will shed a light on the many micro aggressions faced by the plus size community and encourages people to think about the impact and evolution of language.

**Amanda Louise Lay**
In 2018 I signed up to a theatre acting class. We were tasked with finding monologues for classwork. Unimpressed with the options for women of a certain age, I decided to write my own. I started with a sports teacher giving a talk on sex education, a library assistant losing it during story time for small children and continued. My classmates loved them which gave me the confidence to write more. I branched out to ten-minute plays.
Several have been performed in Wagga Wagga’s Once act play festival, I’ve been shortlisted for short and sweet and in April one of mine was performed as part of Sydney’s Short and Sweet. The same play, *Reading of the Will* is being performed in Short and Sweet Hollywood in July. This will be the *Queen of Botox’s* debut.

**Danny Gibbins**
Danny has been writing, directing, producing, teaching and acting in theatre for 3 decades. Along with community theatre projects, her production company Dramazing has had shows headlining in festivals including Midsumma and Fringe. Most recently she wrote for, co-coordinated, mentored and performed as part of a youth theatre scholarship program at Malvern Theatre.

**Gavin Williams**
Gavin has nearly twenty years of experience on the stage as an actor, director, writer and producer.
He has most recently been on stage in *Pack of Lies* (Frankston Theatre Group). Gavin has written one full length play, *Guardian Angel,* which was initially written and performed as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2013, before being further developed. It was most recently performed as a staged reading at Heidelberg Theatre Company in 2019 and is now in the process of gaining publication.
*Douglas* tells the story of an older man reflecting on an experience in his youth. It is a piece Gavin has wanted to write for several years and is very grateful to Beaumaris Theatre Inc. and the Monologue Festival for providing the impetus to bring it to fruition.

**Juliet Charles**
A monologue! Now there’s a challenge! Juliet joined a writers’ group when she retired a few years ago and from out of the drawer tumbled unfinished stories and ideas for ‘the great novel’. Well, the novel didn’t happen but she’s had a wonderful time with a supportive and talented group of writers, creating poems, short stories and radio plays. She has just completed her sixth radio play and the next recording session is scheduled for May. Finally comes the exciting part, when the play is presented on Radio 88.3 Southern FM.
Juliet has performed in many plays at Beaumaris Theatre for over 40 years and also plays and musicals at other theatres. One of her great passions is singing and she belongs to the Bayside Singers.
Juliet hopes you enjoy her monologue. She is chuffed to have hers chosen for performance and to add another genre to her repertoire.

**Paula Armstrong**
Paula began her writing journey with her full-length comedy *Katerina* in 2007, making its debut at Strathmore Theatrical Arts Group.
Her plays have been enjoyed at various theatre companies such as Eltham Little Theatre, Birnam Wood Theatre, Peridot, 1812, ARK Theatre, GAB Theatre, and have appeared in short play festivals around Australia and internationally. Her most recent play Ma will make its debut in May in the *Take 10* (Gemco One Act Play Festival).
Thrilled to be part of the inaugural monologue festival at Beaumaris, Paula hopes you enjoy her comedy, equally inspired by her outrage of graffiti in suburbia and the complexities of motherhood.

Kate Squires

Kate is an award-winning fiction writer. Published through both Harlequin and Pan Macmillan, Kate has penned over a dozen novels, including her title How to Lose Weight and Survive the Apocalypse, which has been selected for TV series development with Screen Queensland.

Kate is an active member of the Beaumaris Theatre community. This is her first foray into play writing, and she is delighted to bring Hera's tale to life for a modern audience.