By Shelby Brooks
Cardinia Shire’s premier amateur performing arts company, CPAC Musical Theatre, has been providing a safe-haven for creatives in the community for two decades. Gazette journalist and past CPAC performer SHELBY BROOKS caught up the company’s founder to discover there is more to performing than glitter, bright lights and applause.
For 20 years, CPAC Musical Theatre has given people in Cardinia an opportunity to shine on stage.
Founded in 2001, CPAC was the first amateur theatre company to be formed in the shire, timed with the grand opening of the Cardinia Cultural Centre.
Sisters Lee Geraghty and Kim Thomsen established the Cardinia Performing Arts Company, now known as CPAC Musical Theatre, after years of experience creating musicals for schools in the area.
“They were looking for a resident company for the Cultural Centre when the building was not finished yet,” Lee explained.
“We’d been doing it at school long enough that we thought, ‘why don’t we do it for real?’”
In the early years, Kim would be the musical director while Lee directed the actors. Nowadays, Lee runs CPAC by herself.
The first show CPAC did was a fundraising concert, held to raise funds for the first full scale musical they would do in 2002, Les Miserables.
“We did Les Miserables first because we wanted to open with a bang and it’s one of my favourites,” Lee said.
“I love that we had kids that started in Les Miserables in 2002 and they’ve stayed with us and grown up with us and still doing shows with us.”
Monash MP Russell Broadbent played the priest in the production and recalled having a great time performing with the group.
“You have to remember I was tricked into it by Kim,” Mr Broadbent said.
“I guess I had some musical talent for them to keep me around!”
CPAC has been the meeting ground for many friendships over the years and is responsible for two marriages and one engagement.
Nicola and Brock Downie were both in Les Miserables as 14-year-olds in 2002.
“We went on performing together in and out of shows all our teenage years and got together while performing Whistle Down the Wind when we were 25,“ Brock said.
“We are now married and have a beautiful little girl.
“We owe all this to CPAC and Lee for providing us with this wonderful creative and social outlet we call music theatre. There really is no better testimonial than that!“
It’s not just onstage that people have found a creative outlet.
“People can find their niche, whether that be backstage with sets, lighting, sound,” Lee said.
Having staged over 30 shows in its 20 years, Lee has a hard time choosing stand out moments.
“It’s a really tricky one. Every show we’ve done I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it at the time,” Lee said.
“Some I wouldn’t do again though!”
Among Lee’s favourite shows that CPAC have put on are Catch Me If You Can, Les Miserables, Legally Blonde, Whistle Down the Wind, Blood Brothers, Aspects of Love, Beauty and the Beast and this year’s production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Some people have been to every show CPAC has done, they Lee every time they book tickets to the latest show.
The company has performed Annie and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat twice because they’re perfect for children to be involved.
“We like to do shows that include the littlies. There’s a whole new generation coming through,” Lee said.
“They’re the future.”
Reflecting back, Lee said she can’t believe she has been staging shows for 20 years.
“I never thought it would turn into this monster,” Lee said.
“Everyone is always asking me what’s the next show.
“There are so many older classics I’d love to do like 42nd Street and Anything Goes- big dance shows. But they keep bringing out new stuff and I don’t want to be the 25th person doing it.”
So what’s next for CPAC in the next 20 years?
“I’m hoping it will continue, but I can’t do it forever,” Lee said.
“There are people taking on [leadership] roles that are a lot younger than me with a lot more energy.
“But I’ll never not be involved.”
CPAC Musical Theatre’s current show is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a show which the cast has been rehearsing for a year due to Covid-19 restrictions which prevented them from staging the show in 2020.
“I have never seen so many costumes, sets and wigs,“ Lee said.
Priscilla tells the story of three loud, proud and very different friends who hop aboard a battered old bus bound for Alice Springs to put on the show of a lifetime.
Their epic journey is a heart-warming story of self-discovery, sassiness and acceptance, sound tracked by live sung hit songs such as I Will Survive, Hot Stuff and Shake Your Groove Thing.
Tickets can be purchased online through the Midsumma website midsumma-premier.eventfinda.com.au/ or at trybooking.com/BIMZI.
