Immerse yourself in one of the most unique productions touring the world. Celtic Illusion, the Irish dance and Grand Illusion sensation that has taken Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada and the USA by storm and will tour nationwide in 2024.

Wednesday 10 July 2024 | 7.30pm | GPAC Main Theatre

Even fans who have seen our previous shows won’t dare miss the 2024 tour that is set to raise the bar once again. This exhilarating production has broken barriers by fusing unparalleled art forms and is more spectacular than ever before.

A breathtaking array of experiences, fusing Irish Dance, Magic and influential flavours of Fosse, Michael Jackson, with a Broadway style. Celtic Illusion is a show like no other.

The show features new spellbinding illusions and choreography, alongside a musical score that will either make you cry or send shivers down your spine.

Starring the multi talented former lead dancer of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance and Star Illusionist Anthony Street, with Georgia May, a marvel in both dance and Illusion. These impeccable performers lead a cast of champion dancers recruited from renowned productions across the world, such as Lord of the Dance and Riverdance, into a theatrical masterpiece that will have you mesmerised from the moment the curtain is raised.

Celtic Illusion will surpass your expectations and leave you wanting more.

Don’t hesitate, and book now to know the hype of one of the largest and most unique Dance and Illusion shows in the world.

Celtic Illusion is not to be missed!

Join us and our talented community members as they take to the stage to perform their chosen dramatic monologue in the relaxed open-call session 'An Evening of Monologues' with local music duo 'Ally Row.'

Sunday 24 September | 7pm | GPAC Foyer

What are monologues I hear you say! Funny or serious, dramatic monologues (or speeches) in a play are delivered by a single character directly to the audience or other cast members to highlight significant moments in a play. 

An Evening of Monologues, held in the GPAC foyer, takes all this and wraps it up in an event which is sure to bring laughter, joy, and maybe mind tingling moments.

Spend an evening supporting local creatives accompanied by a beverage or tasting platter from The Benjamin at GPAC.  Book a seat now, places are limited!

 

About Ally Row:

Currently living in Rural Gippsland, Ally Row are an indie pop-folk/country-folk duo that are breaking the barriers of genres with toe-tapping yet emotive music. 

The multi-instrumentalists perform velvety harmonies alongside blissful guitar and piano, with modernised elements of banjo, harmonica and stomp box. Together, the two-piece band create a powerful synergy with heartfelt memorable originals that will get you dancing. 

For the, Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Sons of the East, The Civil Wars and Of Monsters and Men fans out there.... Ally Row are the next artists to follow. 

Not wanting just to watch? Well, we’d like to hear from you! Express your interest to perform in the open-call session An Evening of Monologues, click the Expression of Interest Form above and follow the submission instructions!

An Evening of Monologues Expression of Interest Form

A monkey? A unicorn? What can you see? Learn to transform scraps and junk into shadow puppets!

Sunday 24 September | 2:15pm | GPAC Town Hall Studio

Over the past 12 years, Jeff Achtem has been doing puppetry, clowning and visual storytelling around the world. Jeff has a diverse background of training in clown, mime, puppetry, street performance and filmmaking.

A great experience to enhance your children's imaginations and get them thinking outside the box. Jeff allows working time during all of his workshops to ensure that his students receive one on one assistance, strengthening their memory and skills; making it easier to replicate puppetry at home.

The kids will love interacting with Jeff and being a part of a theatre play. They also get to show off their very own shadow puppet creations!

Come and join Jeff as he teaches the art of play and theatre using shadow puppets!

A mother’s hope, a woman’s grief – in a world of wondrous stars. 

Friday 22 September | 8pm | GPAC Town Hall Studio

Experience the playwriting phenomenon, Where Worlds Might Exist by Christine Davey where the mysteries of grief, trust, hope and longing are intertwined.

Pandi’s two children have been missing for twenty years. Kaz thinks she knows where to find them. As the Cassini Space Mission slides into the rings of Saturn, two women down here on earth try to piece together the disjointed fragments of their lives. They are out with lanterns looking for themselves. This funny, thoughtful, poignant new work incorporates text, movement and image in a hybrid tale of love.  

‘Writer Christine Davey is a phenomenal playwright. She infuses clever humour into this powerful story of grief, loss, and hope. This story is about fathers, mothers, daughters, friends, destruction, reconstruction, birth, death, and every liminal space between.’ 

Alongside Where Worlds Might Exist, Christine Davey is hosting a Playwriting Workshop: Story Telling. Check out this link to find out more info and to book with a special promo code if you register for Where Worlds Might Exist!

“If you want your kids to have fun at the theatre and fall for all its magic, get them to a Listies show as soon as possible... Nobody else makes Shakespeare this fun.” Daily Review

Friday 22 September | 11am | GPAC Main Theatre 

A very cheeky, very clever, utterly irreverent riff on Hamlet – made especially for children. Australia’s favourite kidult comedy duo, The Listies, are back with their hilarious adaption of Shakespeare’s classic. Hamlet is already full of things kids love in a good story: ghosts, castles, sword fights, bodily fluids and spooky stuff. Add to the mix some supersonic gags and expertly timed stage magic and you have a brilliantly disguised Shakespearean tragedy for everyone aged five and over. 

Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark is a side-splitting adventure that shatters the fourth wall and glues it back together with supersonic storytelling, silliness and plenty of interactivity. Spoiler alert: everyone dies at the end–including the audience! 

Regarded as one of the best contemporary plays ever written 

Saturday 23 September | 7.30pm | GPAC Main Theatre 

Rediscover one of the greatest plays of the 20th Century as Hearth Theatre presents an intimate new production of Arthur Miller’s heartbreaking masterpiece Death of a Salesman. 

Written in 1948, Arthur Miller’s iconic and celebrated play of Death of a Salesman addresses loss of identity and a man’s inability to accept change within himself and society. The play is a montage of memories, dreams, confrontations and arguments, all of which make up the last 24 hours of Wily Loman's life.  

Featuring an extraordinary ensemble of Melbourne actors and directed by Christopher Tomkinson, renowned as one of Australia's finest theatre actors, Paul English takes on the iconic and monumental role of Willy Loman, “a salesman with his feet on the subway stairs, and his head in the stars.”   

Originally from the stages of Broadway in 1949, now reinvented by Hearth Theatre and showing at Gippsland Performing Arts Centre, the Death of a Salesman is a play that has touched the lives of many throughout the ages. 

Class Act Productions is back with Oliver! JR. A 60-minute version of the beloved classic Broadway musical, adored by generations.  Featuring a cast full of Gippsland’s most talented youth, this musical will have audiences begging for “more!” 

Thursday 13 July | 7:30pm | GPAC Main Theatre

Friday 14 July | 7:30pm | GPAC Main Theatre

Saturday 15 July | 3:30pm | GPAC Main Theatre

Saturday 15 July | 7:30pm | GPAC Main Theatre

Sunday 16 July | 1:30pm | GPAC Main Theatre

Consider yourself at home with Oliver! JR., the Broadway Junior version of Lionel Bart's classic musical based on Charles Dickens' novel, Oliver Twist. The Tony and Olivier Award-winning show is one of the few musicals to win an Academy Award for Best Picture and is widely hailed as a true theatrical masterpiece by actors and audience members alike. 

The streets of Victorian England come to life as Oliver, a malnourished orphan in a workhouse, becomes the neglected apprentice of an undertaker. Oliver escapes to London and finds acceptance amongst a group of petty thieves and pickpockets led by the elderly Fagin.

When Oliver is captured for a theft that he did not commit, the benevolent victim, Mr. Brownlow takes him in. Fearing the safety of his hideout, Fagin employs the sinister Bill Sikes and the sympathetic Nancy to kidnap him back, threatening Oliver’s chances of discovering the true love of a family. 

Oliver! JR. is full of classic songs like "Consider Yourself", "Food Glorious Food", and "Oom-Pah-Pah", and is sure to have audiences leaving the theatre with them stuck in their head for days! 

The widely acclaimed debut play from London Laureate and poetry slam champion Zia Ahmed, I Wanna Be Yours, is a modern-day romance that asks whether love really is all you need.

Wednesday 7 June | 1pm | GPAC Main Theatre

By Zia Ahmed. Directed by Tasnim Hossain.

Haseeb and Ella meet at a performance workshop. From opposite sides of the Thames, he’s a poet and she’s an actor hired to help him with his enunciation. Their attraction is immediate. They start dating, get serious and fall in love. Soon there is each other’s family and friends to navigate, and then big questions about the future – moving in together, marriage, children. Does it matter that Haseeb is British–Pakistani and Ella’s a white girl from Yorkshire? Can their love surpass the cultural and physical boundaries between them?  

Through short, striking vignettes, Zia Ahmed builds an authentic and insightful picture of contemporary, cross-cultural courtship. Ahmed’s performance poetry background is evident in his evocative and playful use of language, imagery and symbolism, which combine for a delightful mix of humour, heartbreak and hope. A compelling and topical work of extraordinary vitality, this production of I Wanna Be Yours for Melbourne Theatre Company’s  Education and Families Program stars Oz Malik and is directed by Melbourne Theatre Company Resident Director Tasnim Hossain. It promises to be a powerful, lyrical and big-hearted night of theatre. The play shows Haseeb confronting racism with equanimity and resilience.  

Included on the 2023 VCE Playlist for Theatre Studies.

Photography credit: Jo Duck

Celebrating 15 years direct from a sell-out Broadway season, Cirque Mother Africa is returning to Australia in 2023.

Wednesday 3 May | 7.30pm | GPAC Main Theatre

The heartbeat of Africa pulsates throughout this jaw-dropping show as the musicians and artists transport audience members to the breath-taking continent of Africa. 

“Mother Africa is exuberant, high-energy entertainment” - New York Times

This 90-minute entertainment extravaganza combines the very best talent from nine African countries including Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania to provide the wonder, suspense and joy that is Cirque Mother Africa.

"Pure spectacle, colourful costumes, immense physicality, powerfully rhythmic music, song, dance, cirque acts and comedy, something for everybody" - Glam Adelaide

Seen by more than 2 million people worldwide, Cirque Mother Africa is guaranteed to captivate audiences young and old. Combining the best of contortion, acrobatics, traditional dance, live music, pan spinning, hand balancing and so much more.                     

This brand new show features the amazing hand to hand balancing act as seen on Australia's Got Talent and performed by the Ramadhani Brothers.         

"It’s Cirque Du Soleil with an abundant African flavour"  - Australian Stage

Based on the beloved holiday film, this hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy follows Buddy the Elf in his quest to find his true identity.

Thursday 24 November | 7.30pm | GPAC Theatre 

Friday 25 November | 7.30pm | GPAC Theatre 

Saturday 26 November | 3.30pm & 7.30pm | GPAC Theatre

Sunday 27 November | 1.30pm & 3.30pm | GPAC Theatre 

A title known the world over, Elf The Musical JR. is a holiday musical that is based on the cherished New Line Cinema hit, Elf, starring Will Farrell. Elf JR. features songs by Tony Award-nominees, Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin, with a book by Tony Award-winners, Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin.

Buddy, a young orphan, mistakenly crawls into Santa's bag of gifts and is transported to the North Pole. The would-be elf is raised, unaware that he is actually a human, until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to face the truth. With Santa's permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father and discover his true identity. Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list and that his half-brother doesn't even believe in Santa, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas.

This modern-day holiday classic is sure to make every member of the audience embrace their ‘inner elf!’

Come dressed in your Christmas best and celebrate the “most wonderful time of the year” with Class Act Productions.

After all, the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear!