Limelight Touring Company
Article by Dellaram Vreeland
As a young girl, Brenda Spilva loved the limelight. “You couldn’t get me off the stage,” the fourty-three year old mother of two proudly proclaims. During her adult years, she found herself in the throes of motherhood, taking a break from theatre to raise her children and pursue a career in counselling and therapy. “Then I fell back in love with the theatre.”
Brenda always either been actively involved in theatre or loved attending. “No matter what you see, the act of going to live theatre is really, really special.” It’s this inherent love for performance that led her to launch her own independent theatre company, Limelight Touring Company.
The idea was conceived about two years ago, after Brenda was involved in Allegro Theatre Company Yarrawonga’s performance of The Shoe-Horn Sonata – a play by John Misto about two former prisoners of war reuniting to share their experiences as nurses during World War II. “It’s a beautifully written piece and we were approached to perform it at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, which, you know, is kind of like a dream request.”
Not having the resources to manage such a challenging task, Brenda says the opportunity to perform at the Shrine had to be passed up.
...Until, it didn’t.
Following a seminar hosted by Regional Arts Victoria, an organisation that backs artists and communities across the state to make and experience creative work, Brenda took it upon herself to make the dream request into a reality. “I just couldn’t stop thinking about this opportunity that came our way,” she says. “I thought, we’ve got to get this show on the road, we’ve got to get it down to the Shrine. It just felt like a little niggle for me.”
But she wasn’t going to stop at just one show. “I had a chat with [my friends] and they basically said, why would you just do one show? Why wouldn’t you keep creating amazing shows to tour around the region? You’ve got something really unique and you’ve got interested professional actors.” With her friends and supporters spurring her on, she launched Limelight, soon recruiting another three friends from Yarrawonga and the nearby town of Wangaratta who shared the same passion and love for art and performance. “We’re all very multitalented. We’ve all had experience in directing and producing, and now we all carry those roles in our own theatre company.”
The Limelight crew kicked off its very first tour in November 2024, performing the play Waiting by Melbourne playwright Dina Ross. Starring Brenda herself, as well as her Limelight crew Colette Quin, Laura Gundrill and Kirsty Woods, the show sold over 250 tickets across six venues in regional and rural Victoria, taking to the stage in oft-neglected country pubs, heritage halls and intimate community hubs. “We went over to Swanpool and they have got a beautiful cinema/memorial hall with the old-style cinema theatre seating, ushers dressed up in black tie and biscuits served at interval,” she says.
“The Yackandandah Courthouse only had a capacity of about forty people, so that was beautiful and intimate. And we finished off at a private venue at the Old Stone Hall
in Beechworth, which was part of the Uniting Church hall. We’re having so much fun finding these really unique venues and these small halls where, back in the day, that’s where people would congregate and have their dose of entertainment and community connection.”
In late November, off the back of the busy tour schedule, Brenda and her team received news that their company had received $13,700 from the Victoria Remembers Grant Program, to tour Shoe-Horn Sonata across the state.
The grants went to twety-seven projects that recognise veterans’ service or educate Victorians about the sacrifices and contributions veterans make. Brenda says Limelight plans to liaise with the Shrine of Remembrance in the hope of performing there in 2025. Limelight is also looking to take the show to RSL clubs and other venues across the state.
Brenda says the grant will go towards the financial aspects of the production, including securing lighting, props, a stage manager and “anything else we need to get the show to a level we would be really proud to tour.”
“This feels particularly important when it has such a significant meaning in the commemoration of veterans.”
April 2025 marks the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War II. For Brenda and her team, it will be perfect timing to tour the play. “As an independent theatre company now, it’s just about crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s, getting our budgets sorted and working out what our tour schedule might look like.
“Our priority is definitely performing at the Shrine and even doing multiple shows – some education time slots for the schools, as well as afternoon and evening shows.”
Speaking to Brenda, it becomes clear the entire premise of the company is to shine a light where you least expect it, whether that’s an elusive community hall or an undiscovered writer. While she loves a good classic musical theatre production herself, she says the focus of Limelight, for the time being, is on showcasing writers and playwrights still unknown.
“What we’re looking at is aspiring writers and performers that probably have something in their third draw,” Brenda says. “There’s definitely a space for rehashing all the good oldies, but we’re really interested in supporting new work.”
“That’s the whole premise behind Limelight and calling it Limelight,” she says. “We’re putting regional actors and these small towns literally in the limelight.”
Showcasing the value of community and connection that the arts bring to regional areas is also a priority for the company. “You know, when we opened at Wilby, the committee wanted to put supper on for the audience at the end of the show,” she shares. “That was next level. I had never seen a group of women and men get those trestle tables out with urns, cups and saucers, plates of sandwiches and cream cakes so quickly.
“We did our final curtain call and within eight minutes the tables were just full. Where do you go in a big city and get that?”
For Brenda, access to the arts in regional and rural communities needs to be considered just as seriously as access to other basic needs such as health, education and housing. “Nowadays, we’re starved for real connection with what we’re viewing and our attention spans are less and less,” she says.
“Art in any sense is what can pull us all together. And I think it shouldn’t be just where there’s a big enough population. If we can make getting in the car and driving to our next destination viable, and we can balance that with accessibility, I think that’s a win for everyone.”
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