After last years huge success with High School Muscial, Wendy Samantha Productions are proud to return to the Doncaster Playhouse and perform the next chapter!

Based on a Disney Channel Original movie written by: Peter Barsocchini

Music adapted, arranged and produced by: Bryan Louiselle

Presented by: Wendy Samantha Productions

Cinderella wants to go to the ball. Jack needs his cow to give milk. Little Red is off to Grandma’s. And a Baker and his Wife are desperate to break a family curse. But when they all head into the woods to chase their wishes, they find that getting what you want isn’t always what you need.

Packed with humor, heart, and unforgettable songs, Into the Woods Jr. is a fast-paced musical adventure perfect for audiences of all ages. Come see what happens after once upon a time — and before happily ever after.

Meeting Date: 27 February 2018 
Meeting Time: 7.00 pm 
Location: Council Chamber, 699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster

Council meeting livestream

Barbara Hepworth was one of the leading British artists of her generation and the first woman sculptor to achieve international recognition.

Barbara Hepworth: In Equilibrium brings her remarkable achievements to Australian audiences for the first time.

Forty works from prestigious international and national collections, including sculptures in stone, wood, bronze and other metals and a select group of paintings will be on display.

Developed in consultation with the Hepworth Estate, the exhibition has been designed by award-winning architecture firm Studio Bright.

Entry to Heide is free for Manningham residents.

Image by Clytie Meredith.

Dracula comes to Manningham! 

Playhouse Players' “Dracula the Play” opens on World Dracula Day on Friday 26 May at the Doncaster Playhouse.

Local Director, Peter T Nathan is bringing to the stage Bram Stoker’s iconic work adapted by Steven Dietz. 

Dietz’s 1996 version remains faithful to Bram Stoker’s original story. It evokes the same chilling tone created by Stoker and emulates the style of language common at the end of the 19th Century.

There will be special prizes on opening night for best dressed and themed food and drink. 

The Unfinished Business exhibition reveals the stories of 30 First Nations people with disability.

Their deeply personal stories are complex and intertwined with Australia’s political and social history, which has resulted in today’s unacceptably high rates of disability in Australia’s First Nations communities. This was a collaborative project between participants and Artist and Social Documentarian, Belinda Mason Knierim OAM.

With thanks to Australian Museum for loaning Unfinished Business to Manningham.

Warning: First Nations Peoples should be aware that this exhibition contains images, voices, or names of deceased persons.

Image: Standing Tall, Uncle John Baxter, Latja Latja/Narungga man. Board Member Reconciliation Victoria and First Peoples Disability Network, Aboriginal Partnership Coordinator - Brotherhood of St Laurence / NDIS. Photo by Belinda Mason Knierim OAM from the series Unfinished Business. Image courtesy of the Artist.

Join JamFactory's Associate of the Ceramic Studio, artist Holly Phillipson, for this specialist clay-colouring and hand forming workshop.

Holly will be teaching techniques employed by renowned artist Angela Valamanesh, such as dying clay with stains and oxides, and a demonstration of the ‘scratch-back’ technique utilised in many of her objects. 

Participants will each create a unique piece that is dyed and formed by hand.

Held as part of the exhibition JamFactory ICON Angela Valamanesh: About being here, on now at Manningham Art Gallery until Saturday 17 September 2022.

Available sessions:

• Friday 2 September, 10.30am to 1.30pm
• Saturday 3 September, 3.00pm to 6.00pm

Please bring a towel and wear covered shoes and old clothes or an apron.

Other public programs

Artist Talk with Angela Valamanesh

Hear more from Angela about the many amazing works in her exhibition About being here.

Saturday 3 September, 2.00pm to 3.00pm

Free event.

Find out more and register online. 

Progeny is a collection of dynamic works, spanning video, sculpture, painting, and digital media by Edwina Green. The works collectively highlight Green’s creative practice and research interests across recent years (2019-2023).

Progeny in its direct meaning is to be ‘the descendants of a person, animal or plant; offspring’ and pulls from the artists continued connectivity between ancestral lines, intergenerational discourse, and concurrence of being both ancestor and descendant.

Informed by her identity as a Trawlwoolway First Nations woman, motifs of weaving, hand harvested and sewn bags, kelp, spoken word, organic movements on canvas, images of home, and oysters communicate a delicate ancestral tribute, and the current dance in which Green is choreographing with her multidisciplinary, experimental practice.

Progeny interrogates introspection, historical association, vulnerability, and an ability to invest in the artist's practice with a sense of intentional curiosity and closeness. 

Edwina Green, Oyster. Image by Jordan Halsall.

As part of Craft Contemporary 2023 we are presenting: 

Are you Procrastinating? by Carol Yang. 

Using waste produced by the fashion industry, Carol creates wearable and functional sculptures that highlights the procrastinator as the protagonist.

Carol’s work demonstrates the feelings and activities of procrastination visually in a humorous way, while exploring the emotional state of procrastination.

@carol_yang_

Check out our other exhibit Soil Clay, by Vivian Qiu or explore the full Craft Contemporary program guide. 

_{This exhibition is part of Craft Contemporary 2023, an annual festival delivered by Craft Victoria – the largest celebration of craft and design in Victoria. The festival brings together practitioners, educators, industry, and craft lovers to explore material practice as it is today. See, touch, experience and be inspired by 150+ art experiences, including exhibitions, talks, demonstrations, workshops and open studios.}

Pages of Me is a new multimedia project by Beci Orpin, exploring the journey of finding happiness through individuality and embracing one's unique self.

Drawing from her textile-focused background, Orpin delves into mascot culture, crafting a larger-than-life mascot set within a large textile structure. The textiles will feature oversized pages from her sketchbook, blending bold patterns, random imagery, and messages of realistic optimism. 

In addition to celebrating positive individualism, the work touches on themes of future nostalgia, luck (both good and bad), and femininity. Together, these elements create a visual representation of Orpin's metaphysical self—both weird and wonderful.

The exhibition will also invite viewers to get involved, encouraging them to create their own mascots based on the qualities they appreciate about themselves, fostering pride in their identity.

Image courtesy of the artist.

Follow the trail of breadcrumbs to the Doncaster Playhouse over the July school holidays for Playhouse Pantomimes’ original musical adaptation of Hansel and Gretel.

Based on the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tale, our version tells the story of a young brother and sister who get lost in the woods and discover a gingerbread house, but who lives there?

There will be songs, audience participation and lots of laughs for the whole family.

Presented by Playhouse Pantomimes.

In this workshop, primary school-aged children are invited to join the staff from Awareaway to create fish from re-purposed plastic waste. The fish will then be displayed as part of the 'School of Plastic Fish' exhibition at the Box Hill Community Art Centre. 

Participation in the workshops is free but places are limited.

The exhibition runs from 23 May until 29 May 2022 at the Box Hill Community Art Centre.

'School of Plastic Fish' is an exhibition responding to the alarming study that predicts by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans.

The fish depict an eerie yet beautiful ocean-scape where they are displayed, reminding us of a possible future and encouraging us to embrace positive behaviour change to reimagine a better and more sustainable future.

Awareaway is a social and environmental enterprise, co-founded by Sophie Dahm and Alex Child, dedicated to sustainable and creative design by re-purposing and up-cycling plastic waste.

In this stunning new exhibition by visual artist Katrin Koenning, she intimately explores connection and belonging through a deeply personal and immersive constellation of images drawn from the artist’s archive across time and space.

Artist Biography 
b. 1978. Dortmund, Germany. Lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.

Pursuing intimacy and interconnection, Koenning's work centers practice as relational encounter, exploring themes such as community, kinship, grief and love. In extended image-dialogues, Katrin uses fragments and slippages to suggest narrative spaces and communities that are allied, fluid and multiplicit. Many of her series render non-human human entanglement.

Her work is regularly exhibited in Australia and internationally including in presentations at the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne; Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney; the Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne; Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai; Chobi Mela, Bangladesh; and Paris Photo. Her work is held in numerous institutional and private collections and has been published in The New Yorker, Vogue.com, Zeit Magazine, The Guardian, Esquire Italy, Der Spiegel, Yucca Magazine, California Sunday and many other places.

Katrin Koenning, yanakie (one), 2021, archival pigment print, 40cm x 30cm, Ed. 1/6 +2AP. Image courtesy of the Artist. 

Warning: First Nations Peoples should be aware that this exhibition contains images, voices, or names of deceased persons.

Held as part of Manningham's annual National Reconciliation Week program, Serving Country is an exhibition that recognises and acknowledges the valuable contribution of Australian First Nations servicemen and servicewomen who have served, or are serving, in the Australian Defence Force.

For more than a century, First Nations Australians have had a long and proud history of serving in the defence of our nation in many theatres, from South Africa to the present day. Exact numbers are not known of how many First Nations Australians men and women served our nation, as official defence policy in the first half of the twentieth century was aimed at excluding the enlistment of persons “not substantially of European origin or descent”.  The fact that they served at all at a time when they were denied the basic rights of citizenship is significant – a situation not fully corrected until the 1970s.

The Serving Country photographic exhibition shares the lived experiences of Australian First Nations families and individuals who have proudly served and continue to serve in Australia’s Defence Force.

Many returning veterans are still living with the trauma of their experiences in the battlefield.  Serving Country serves as a platform for sharing stories, both inspiring and devastating, of courage and mateship. Sharing stories plays a vital and healing role in Australian First Nations culture.

Serving Country is the creative work of Sydney-based human rights social documentarian and Creative Director of Blur Projects, Belinda Mason and videographer Dieter Knierim. There are currently over 200 photographed portraits printed on brushed aluminium 60cm x 40cm panels and continues to grow.

Installation view, Manningham Art Gallery. Photo by Charlie Kinross.

As part of Manningham Council's Community Training Program, we invite members of community organisations to find out more about our Community Grants Program.

This session will provide information on the Community Development, Arts, Festivals and Events and Healthy Ageing grant categories.

Interested representatives from community organisations are encouraged to attend this information session.

Community organisations could include:

• community and children’s services
• seniors clubs
• sports clubs
• recreation and leisure groups
• arts and cultural groups.

There will also be an opportunity to receive early advice regarding your proposed activity from Council officers.

The session will cover:

• grant categories
• eligibility
• key dates
• how to apply
• required information
• assessment criteria.

As part of Manningham Council's Community Training Program we invite members of community organisations to find out more about Manningham's Community Grants Program.

This session will provide information on the Community Development, Arts, Festivals and Events and Small Grant categories.

Interested representatives from community organisations including community and children’s services, sports clubs, recreation, leisure, arts and cultural groups are encouraged to attend this information session.

There will also be an opportunity to receive early advice regarding your proposed activity from Council officers.

The session will cover:

• Grant categories
• Eligibility
• Key dates
• How to apply
• Required information
• Assessment criteria

Bookings are essential and limited to 2 people per organisation.

As part of Manningham Council's Community Training Program we invite members of community organisations to find out more about Manningham's Community Grants Program.

This session will provide information on the Community Development, Arts, Festivals and Events and Small Grant categories.

Interested representatives from community organisations including community and children’s services, sports clubs, recreation, leisure, arts and cultural groups are encouraged to attend this information session.

There will also be an opportunity to receive early advice regarding your proposed activity from Council officers.

The session will cover:

• Grant categories
• Eligibility
• Key dates
• How to apply
• Required information
• Assessment criteria

Bookings are essential and limited to 2 people per organisation.