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The WDG experience
(ie what to expect at a performance, and what we expect from you)All performances are at Wyong Memorial Hall, situated in Anzac Avenue Wyong, opposite Wyong RSL. (See Map). We setup the hall in several ways. Currently, the most common way is a hybrid of Cabaret Style and Raked Seating. We have two or three rows of tables, seating comfortably ten people, from the stage back. We can fit five tables across the width of the hall. We then setup three levels of risers on which we put rows of seating in the usual theatre style. This raked seating provides an excellent view, as you can normally see over the top of the people in front of you. If you are on tables at the front, you are all at floor level. This setup provides a good compromise between Cabaret style and Raked style, and allows us to offer you a choice. Other alternatives have been:
We provide free Tea and Coffee at interval (you are welcome to make a donation if you wish), and currently our programmes sell for $1. We aim to keep prices as low as possible, and you'll see evidence that we are undoubtedly the best value theatre group on the Central Coast by a long shot. (Maybe even in Australia)! When you arrive at the theatre, please make your way to the Box Office, to confirm your booking and get your tickets. If you don't have a booking, this is fine, we can provide you with tickets at the door. The advantage of booking, however, is you will generally have a better choice of seats. You will often see several tables in the foyer, one of which will be the Box Office, where you should start. Once you have secured your tickets, you will also see someone selling programmes, and elsewhere there will be someone selling lucky raffle tickets, which will normally be drawn at interval on the night of your show. You won't have to give a name in this case, but please hang on to your ticket stubs for the all-important raffle draw! There may also be other displays or promotions going on in the foyer. As you enter the hall there will usually be ushers to help you locate your seat, however if you are a regular, it's always pretty easy to find your own way in. The foyer is open generally half an hour before the performance time (sometimes earlier). You are sometimes not able to enter the hall itself until we get word from the director or backstage crew, so please don't arrive too early. Conversely please try not to be late. We aim to get the performance underway sharply by the advertised session time (ie 2pm for a Matinee or 8pm for an evening performance). There are toilets for ladies (left side) and gentlemen (right side) in the foyer, and also one disabled-access toilet (to the right-hand-side of the foyer). If you are confined to a wheelchair, there is an access ramp via the supper room doors on the left hand side of the hall, halfway along. You'll need to contact someone in the foyer to arrange to have the door opened, but this is no trouble. Otherwise, there are four steps and a kerb and gutter to negotiate at the front entrance. If you are not as mobile as you used to be, or confined to a wheelchair, it will be necessary for you to book a seat ON THE FLOOR. To access the raked seating it is necessary to climb several reasonably high steps, and safety issues mean that it is not recommended you do this unless you are completely fit and have good balance, etc. Please let us know of any difficulties you have in advance so we can best accommodate your needs. If you are seated at tables, you are welcome to bring your own nibblies and drinks. We do ask that you consider other patrons, however. Rustling plastic in the audience is an incredibly distracting sound. If you can, please open your containers of drink and bags of food BEFORE the show and AT INTERVAL, it will make it all the more enjoyable for everyone attending, not forgetting the actors themselves. Speaking of distractions, mobile phones MUST be switched off for the performance. We have had an example of a patron not only having the phone ring, but answering it and then attempting to carry out a conversation during a performance. "Hi, yes, I can't talk now, I'm watching a play at Wyong". (True story). This is simply incredibly discourteous. It annoys not only your fellow audience members, but it makes the job of an actor incredibly difficult. The actors then had to put up with several other audience members telling the person quite loudly "Aw, geez, don't answer it"! Enough said. Also, please remember you are attending a play, not watching television in your lounge room. If you make comments at the TV set, this is fine. You're not distracting anyone, and the actors on the screen can't hear you. But your fellow audience members and the actors on our stage would appreciate it if they don't get a running commentary. It is incredibly distracting as an actor to come onstage and hear from the audience a comment such as "here comes that man you don't like, Mum". I'd defy anyone to remember their next line after being the victim of that! Strictly, it is completely illegal to take photographs of a performance. The copyright licence only allows us to perform the play, and not make copies of it in any other medium. However, we know that people do infringe this law. If you really must do this, please bear this in mind: there is sufficient stage lighting to illuminate your picture. We have at least 40,000 watts of lighting hanging from the roof, so you DO NOT NEED TO USE A FLASH. Flashes can only illuminate objects less than three or four metres from the lens and you will always be further away than that in any case. Please ensure you manually turn the flash off, and not use the automatic mode of your camera, otherwise it will almost certainly want to use its flash. This makes the photography far less distracting for not only the other audience members but more importantly, the actors. It still does not make it legal. We aim to make the experience as comfortable and as enjoyable as possible, although it is Wyong Shire Council who provides the building. We badly need a new Performing Arts Centre in Wyong (Our neighbouring Gosford Council sees fit to provide not only Laycock Street Theatre, but also the Peninsula Theatre), but Wyong Memorial Hall is the largest such venue in the entire Wyong Shire. You can help us in this aim by letting your councillors know that they should at least match Gosford City in its provision of theatres. We'd benefit, and you'd benefit alike. The council have been promising a new Performing Arts Centre for many years, but there is still no definite plan or venue proposal, and more importantly no sign of the substantial funding needed to achieve this. Wyong Memorial Hall opened in 1964, and we have been there from the word go. It is definitely approaching the end of its useful life however, and we do look forward to moving on to a better venue at some stage in the near future. We are currently looking at ways of improving the acoustics within the hall, working within the constraints of the existing venue, but attempting to improve it without having to spend a huge amount of money. Any comments you wish to share with us on this, or any other matter to do with improving the WDG experience will be highly appreciated. Contact Us Many thanks for your attention to these (some would say pedantic) details. But if you do follow them it helps us to help you, and make your visits to the group better for everyone involved.
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