The woman behind the directors

SYNCHRONICITY Performing Arts’ latest production is titled Shards. It’s a series of four short and sharp one-act plays on stage in November. Throughout this month, the Bendigo Times will be spotlighting the directors behind the shows. This week it’s Wendy Collishaw, Synchronicity’s president, co-founder, and mentor to the Shards directors.

THEATRE flows through Wendy Collishaw’s veins.

Her father was heavily involved in performing arts, while her great-grandfather is a renowned singer.

As the president and co-founder of Synchronicity Performing Arts, she’s been directing theatre for 32 years with a love for the stage that’s lasted even longer.

Right back to when she describes herself as a “little tacker,” Collishaw said she’s had a passion for the theatre.

She’s taken part in productions for decades, at school, with Ballarat National Theatre and avant-garde companies, and then at university.

At 22 years old, she first started directing. Fresh out of uni, she went on to direct her first production, Stephen Schwartz’s musical, Godspell.

Extending her love for theatre and performance, Collishaw has taught music and performing arts in schools for the past 25 years.

In 2013, along with her husband Geoff, she founded Synchronicity Performing Arts.

One of the ongoing highlights, on and off stage, has been her love for directing and the way theatre can help people, and transform their lives.

“Theatre is about community, when people get involved in theatrical things they get involved in a whole community,” Collishaw said.

“I am a person of faith and have a strong belief in what can be done by participation in the arts.”

As part of Synchronicity’s upcoming production of Shards, Collishaw has been lending her skills and experience to the directors of the production’s four short, sharp one-act plays.

Napoleon in Exile, All the World’s a Stage, One Season’s King and Locked In make up the series, on stage at the Engine Room between Thursday, 10 November and Saturday, 12 November, with two plays each night. Visit synchronicity.org.au for more information.