• Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook Star

By Belinda Nolan

16th September 2008 11:05:55 AM

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Protagonists ... The Dancing Dog in Footscray will be the venue of a play titled Half and Half. Pictured are the two main characters Matthew Molony who plays Luke and Anthony Winnick (background) who plays his brother Ned.

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WESTERN suburbs theatre buffs will finally be able to indulge in their passion for the arts in their own backyard with a new theatre space in Footscray.

The Dancing Dog Café in Albert St is set to become the West’s first independent space solely devoted to theatre, when a new production of Williamstown playwright Daniel Keene’s Half and Half opens this month.

Footscray’s Matt Scholten is directing the play as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the first time the West has featured in the Fringe program.

Mr Scholten said the new space was an exciting development for the area, allowing up and coming actors to perform closer to home.

“We’ve got a lot of artists living locally and we really wanted to have a venue over here where people like myself and others who live around here could actually work,” Mr Scholten said.

Mr Scholten said he spent a lot of time travelling over the West Gate Bridge to go and work in theatre spaces on the other side of town.

“To have this theatre so close to where I live so I’m able to work locally is fantastic,” he said.

The play is an undeniably western suburbs production, even down to the sets, which were designed by Yarraville designer Katherine Branch.

Mr Scholten said despite being a cultural hub, the West had traditionally been overlooked as a location for theatre.

“I grew up out here so I love the place but unfortunately a lot of people have this stigma about it … and you just think get over it, it’s only ten minutes drive from the city,” he said.

“It’s not a place to be frightened of, it’s a place to come out and experience new work.”

Mr Scholten said he had fond memories of the Café’s heritage building from his childhood.

“It’s a real icon from my youth,” he said.

“I remember walking past it on shopping trips with my mum so it’s quite special to me.”

The director said he hoped the new theatre would attract more audiences to the West in the future.

Half and Half will run from 24 September to 4 October. For details/bookings call 9660 9666.

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