Bendigo Theatre Company honours lifetime member

THE Bendigo Theatre Company revealed the name of their black box theatre last week to the applause of thespians and community leaders.

After several years of planning, the announcement was made that the theatre would now be known as the Patricia Lyon Black Box Theatre.

The BTC committee chose to name the space after Ms Lyons to celebrate her memory and the lifetime of hard work and passion she dedicated to community theatre in Bendigo.

President of BTC Vern Wall said he was pleased to see ‘the shed’ named; the next step in their journey from humble beginnings.

“I think we thought it was rather bland just always referring to the art shed or just saying ‘come to the black box theatre at the art shed’,” Mr Wall said.

“So for a number of years we’ve been saying we really do need to name this so it gets a profile and gets known in the community.”

Patricia Lyon was a member of BTC for more than 50 years and contributed to up to 200 productions held by the company.

The Lyon family was present on the night to reveal an official plaque bearing the name of the theatre and Mr Wall said the honour had meant a lot to them.

“It means so much to the Lyon family because of their connection to the Bendigo Theatre Company through their mother and grandmother,” he said.

“We thought it was a worthy recipient, we didn’t feel there was anyone else who came close to being the person to have their name honouring that space.”

An honour board for BTC’s life members was also unveiled on the night, as well as an honour board for alumni of the company.

“The first 12 names are people who have gone on to various successful professional careers both in Australia and internationally and we’re very proud of them,” said Mr Wall.

The first production to be held by BTC in their newly named black box theatre is modern drama The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time which is being put on by their Tribe Youth Theatre group.