The sign at 18 Collie Street, Fyshwick simply reads "Philo". A driveway leads to a nondescript building joined to a shed as well as a demountable and an assortment of metal, wood and tools.
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It might not look like much, but if you've seen a Philo show, this is where the magic begins.This is where the barricades for Les Miserables were built, where the Strictly Ballroom dancers were put through their paces, and where everything from top hats to sewing machines are found to dress singers and sets.
With all its nooks and crannies, it might also be where the occasional showmance has started.
70 years of setting the scene
"The Hut", as it is called, has been the home of Canberra Philharmonic Society - or "Philo" - since 1968.
But Philo goes back even longer than that. The musical theatre society turned 70 last year and mounted Jersey Boys. But because of the pandemic, its next show, Grease, could not go ahead.
Instead, a concert featuring highlights from the company's history is in the works for November.
It will include material from Les Miserables, the company's most reliable moneymaker.
One of the performers will be Ian Croker, a Philo stalwart on and off-stage for decades. He acts, designs and constructs sets, builds props, and looks after the Hut.
He began as a scenic artist for Philo's 1988 Bicentennial production, Lola Montez.
Croker's onstage highlights include playing Julian Marsh in 42nd Street in both 1997 and 2019 and Max Bialystock in The Producers.
"I'm one of the 'old' people - there are a lot of young people," Croker says.
And if they're smart, they'll learn from people like him.
As well as performing, he's doing the set for the November concert.
The Producers was also a highlight for Soren Jensen, who, in his first musical, played mad Nazi Franz Liebkind. He remembers during one exit, with limbs flailing, he kicked a hole in a piece of scenery, earning him a reproachful look from Croker, who had made it and would have to fix it.
A launchpad for professional careers
Like some other Philo alumni, Jensen went on to a professional career - Philo prepared him for Dracula's Cabaret Restaurant in Melbourne and he played Hagrid and the Sorting Hat in more than 750 performances of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Berin Denham, president of Philo since May, will be directing the November concert. He goes back a long way with the company - his mother was in shows and his father worked backstage.
He's performed in four Philo shows, worked on lights for three and the set for four, crewed in two and did props and graphic design once each. And now he's president.
Denham says the last few years have been hard, taking a toll on morale. Since time and COVID-19 uncertainty were not conducive to mounting a full production, he proposed the revue as a belated 70th-anniversary celebration.
Mike Webster, president of Philo in 1980 and 1984-86, wrote a history of the society covering from 1951 to 1989, a valuable resource for anyone interested in early Canberra's theatrical beginnings. Philo was founded in 1951 by members of the Canberra Male Singers and others. The new society's first performance at the Albert Hall was a concert version of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard, followed in 1952 by The Gondoliers. In 1953 came the first full-scale, costumed productions, Bless the Bride and The Arcadians. Many shows followed and most were well received and made money, the proceeds from each enabling the next to be mounted by the not-for-profit group.
In 1965, Philo began performing in the new Canberra Theatre, the first amateur group to do so, with another Yeomen of the Guard.
While most of those involved in productions, on stage and off, then as now, were Canberrans volunteering their time and effort, outside professional directors and stars were sometimes employed, such as stage veteran June Bronhill, who starred in Call Me Madam.
Donald Cant, whose professional shows included The Phantom of the Opera, was brought in for a concert version of Jekyll & Hyde in 2001. This lesser-known show was not financially successful and led to Philo ending its association with the Canberra Theatre, finding a new, less costly home at Erindale Theatre.
Jekyll & Hyde also marked the end of one couple's quarter-century association with Philo.
Richard Stone, longtime Philo archivist, and his late partner John Thomson, were involved with productions between 1975 and 2000 - an engaging double act.
"John designed 12 shows for Philo after we settled down, and I did props for those 12 shows," Stone says.
Stone was not one to seek the limelight, but did take the stage twice.
"I had two walk-on parts as taxi drivers, in Kiss Me, Kate and No, No, Nanette."
Their first show as a design/props duo was South Pacific in 1979. Doing each show took "six months of our life. We worked hard for 25 years and enjoyed every minute of it, then it was time to hand over."
Another longtime Philo participant who started in the same period was Linda Tregonning.
"I was always in the chorus - I was always a chorus girl and very happy being a chorus girl," she says.
Tregonning was also a committee member for many years, serving as secretary, vice-president and president at different times.
Learning how to fill seats
"I was president the first time we did Les Miserables in 1994 - it was outstanding."
It is, Tregonning says, "a show that seems to touch people's hearts".
Some shows don't work, like The Land of Smiles was one ("That wasn't very good, it didn't go so well"). A Little Night Music, while better received, was a financial flop ("Nobody came").
Not all problems are financial. During one performance of Call Me Madam, Tregonning remembers a piece of scenery started to fall down. "We all had heart attacks. We stopped it and had to fix it and go on."
She fondly recalls the hit 1988 production of Evita, helmed by international opera director Stuart Maunder.
Another professional brought in was actor Normie Rowe, who played Daddy Warbucks in the 1991 Annie.
"He was a bit of a diva. Daddy Warbucks is bald and he assured us he would shave his head."
"You could do Les Miserables in a car park and people would go to it."
- Jim McMullen
When the time came, however, Rowe wouldn't do it and instead wore a bald cap - "There was a bit of a carry-on".
Jim McMullen directed that production - among many others - but his varied association with Philo goes back to 1980.
"Every time you do a show, it's a gamble," he says - but some shows are better bets than others.
"The things that tend to do well are the big ones - West Side Story, Cabaret, Chicago, Les Miserables," McMullen says.
"You could do Les Miserables in a car park and people would go to it."
But Philo has established a reputation for scale. Smaller, quirkier shows haven't fared as well for it as they have for other companies: the Philo audience seems to expect something big.
The Les Mis premiere was among the highlights for longtime Philo musical director and conductor Ian McLean, who names Hot Mikado and The Producers as other fond memories.
"My last Philo show may have been another of the Les Mis productions, the one by Dianna Nixon. Compared to the others, it was not of the same standard," he says.
Besides that 2006 disappointment, and the move to the smaller and less opulent Erindale Theatre, there was another reason for his departure.
"Philo was in some trouble - it wasn't able to hire a professional orchestra any longer."
Believing that musicians were professionals who deserved to be paid, McLean moved on - he's worked regularly with Free-Rain - and Philo has assembled its own musicians.
Not that McLean bears any ill-will or thinks Philo has fizzled out.
"Jersey Boys was terrific - they still do a marvellous job."
McLean says he misses the atmosphere of his early days with Philo - "It came to be like a big family."
And after 70 years, times are a-changing
Things aren't what they used to be. Nowadays people tend to go home after rehearsals rather than chat over coffee, McLean says.
Tastes and standards also change. White actors in blackface performed in Show Boat but that would not be acceptable now. Some styles, like operetta, are less popular.
Companies no longer have "stock companies" of regulars. People are more attracted by a particular show. They might even leave during rehearsals if they land a bigger part somewhere else.
It used to be that Philo was the big ACT musical theatre company. Other companies have come and gone, but some have endured and grown big themselves - like Free-Rain, which mounted Canberra premieres of The Phantom of the Opera and Mary Poppins, and Dramatic Productions, which premiered Heathers the Musical.
McLean thinks the example of Philo encouraged, maybe even forced, other companies to improve their standards. Plans are still not firm for next year, but Denham has other ideas he'd like to try as president.
"At the moment people see each other at a show and then there's no contact until the next show. It would be nice to have some non-show-related social activities."
It's a hopeful sign - and Denham wants to have more intercompany mingling, too.
Despite all the challenges, Philo can lay claim to many triumphs, and still has veterans and newcomers bringing their own expertise, experience and enthusiasm. It looks set for many more years of making musical memories.
For more information visit philo.org.au.