Gemco Players Community Theatre Inc. is a community theatre group in Emerald, Victoria and has been active now for 29 years. Gemco stands for the townships in the Dandenong Ranges:
Over that time Gemco has performed to over 45,000 people using some 3,600 people on or off stage. Gemco has had over 1900 young people involved in its Youth/Children’s programs. All leaders and committee give their time voluntarily Gemco has raised over $20,000 for groups within the community and beyond. Over 70% of material is Australian with much of it locally written.
Gemco is a not for profit organisation. The youth theatre has grown in the last 9 years from 15 young people, to 3 groups of 60 young people attending per week and a waiting list. The most recent musical by Gemco - “Hot Mikado” - was not able to be performed at Gemco Hall due to space constraints - in fact, the rehearsals became impossible towards the end when the whole company was assembled.
Aside from all of the productions that Gemco has put on over the past few decades, they have also been involved in the following: A cappella singing workshops by local singer Suzanne Frisk called “Vocal Nosh”; Further acoustic music nights in an informal setting giving local performers the chance to perform in an excellently acoustic environment, run by Carol McCoy and friends. Both these events arose from the performing arts festival.
Involvement in community events include:
Over the past few years, Gemco has hosted:
Other groups who have booked and used the Gemco Hall include:
Gemco's most recent annual project has been the very successful improvised show WotsDaNaymovit?" ("What's the name of it?") in which an ensemble of actors create three completely unscripted one act plays. Following on from this, a new improvisational theatre group, Gempro was formed as part of Gemco.
After decades of effort, Gemco has also recently received a grant from the Cardinia council, the State Government & the Federal Government, allowing them to construct a 150-seat theatre in the local area.