COMMUNITY theatre group ARENAarts is aiming to start performing in its new home at Maylands Autumn Centre in three months.
Bayswater Council granted the group a two-year lease at the centre last month.
The group was based in Belmont until December 2017 and previously lost out to the West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra to obtain the Maylands Hall site.
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READ NOWSecretary and Bayswater resident Jim Chantry said the 30-year-old group had put in several years of hard work to find a home.
“I live in the area and I want to have something close and handy,” he said.
“We used to store all of our gear in a couple of containers up in Bayswater.
“When we first started off, we were doing presentations at schools as part of our arts development (then) we moved onto general theatre.”
Mr Chantry said he hoped to add to its 200 members after moving into the centre within the next month.
“We need to increase the stage size to have better presentation, get the lighting established and just turn it into a proper theatre,” he said.
“One of the things we did say we would do here is work with the existing lease holders because they would use it outside our theatre time.
“We want to then start including art people…if we could find a choir who sing, they could rehearse here then when we do a musical, we have our singers.”
While he loved acting, he did a lot of set-building to “create the dream” for other performers.
Member Don Weaver of Redcliffe said the group expected to bring more business to food and beverage shops in Maylands.
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