{"id":99851,"date":"2025-06-08T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/mcivortimes\/?p=99851"},"modified":"2025-06-04T21:52:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T11:52:22","slug":"from-the-desk-of-roland-rocchiccioli-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/mcivortimes\/living\/from-the-desk-of-roland-rocchiccioli-27\/","title":{"rendered":"From the desk of ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE excellent notion to convert Ballarat\u2019s erstwhile Neil Street Uniting Church into a permanent creative and performance space \u2014 Ballarat Performing Arts Community (BPAC), should be supported at every level of government and community. With implacable daring, it will become the enduring legacy of all those who recognise the merit of the intention.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the distant time, beyond the year 2125, when students, academics, anthropologists, and social scientists, are looking to make sense of the 20th -and the 21st -centuries, they will turn first to the performing and visual arts, to architecture, books and writing, television programmes, films, music, and even food, to try and make sense of who and what we were as a people \u2014 how we expressed ourselves, and how we related \u2014 one to the other. The winner of the 2025 AFL grand final will be an historical footnote demonstrating a spirit of community enjoyed, for the greater-part, by those who could afford to pay for the pleasure.<\/p>\n

On recommendation, the international theatrical producer John Frost auditioned a young man from the Ballarat cast of the musical, Hairspray. Ultimately, they offered him a part in The Book of Mormon. That is how the theatre used to work. Now it is not so easy to get a break. The creative live-theatre career I have enjoyed in Australia, England, the United States, and other countries, is \u2014 for the most part \u2014 a relic. The radical changes in permanent theatre company structure would make it impossible for those starting-out on a career to have the opportunities I was gifted when I was 19.<\/p>\n

Small productions in small spaces are less frequent \u2014 which is why the BPAC project is imperative. It is one of the finest spaces I have seen \u2014 ever \u2014 in the world. The London Jermyn Street Theatre studio is a try-out space for even big-stars, and which seats 70. English chums would be green with envy at the Neil Street centre. The church is acoustically perfect \u2014 as all churches are it seems; it has no sight-line problems \u2014 and certainly, you will not fall asleep because the pews are too hard!<\/p>\n

As churches empty of congregations, only to be sold and converted, BPAC is a community endeavour which Bendigo could emulate, with alacrity, following the enviable triumph of the city\u2019s Art Gallery. Neil Street church is a perfect performance space. It could \u2014 with support to raise $2-million for May 2026 \u2014 become a unique and fertile space fostering new Australian works \u2014 a space to mine and discard the dross \u2014 and to find the one, rare, flawless diamond! It is how works are created.<\/p>\n

Michael Whitehead and the originators of this plan should be applauded and championed. If the theatre is to survive, and budding writers, and composers, are to be given the opportunity to breathe life into their work \u2014 and to set it free to soar into the theatrical cannon \u2014 it will happen in spaces like Neil Street.<\/p>\n

There is a richness-in-life to be found in works of great writing. They leave a lasting shadow on the heart and feed the soul \u2014 it is the manna from heaven which sates the spiritual appetite \u2014 and will be found \u2014 in abundance \u2014 in the fruitful Neil Street complex.<\/p>\n

Roland can be heard with Brett Macdonald radio 3BA \u2014 Monday 10.40am. Contact: roland@rolandroc.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE excellent notion to convert Ballarat\u2019s erstwhile Neil Street Uniting Church into a permanent creative and performance space \u2014 Ballarat Performing Arts Community (BPAC), should be supported at every level of government and community. With implacable daring, it will become the enduring legacy of all those who recognise the merit of the intention. In the […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":99852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-99851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the desk of ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI - McIvor Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Support Ballarat Performing Arts Community\u2019s plan to transform Neil Street Church into a premier creative and performance space.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/mcivortimes\/living\/from-the-desk-of-roland-rocchiccioli-27\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the desk of ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI - 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