Dalton Hall 2pm to 4pm
The Old Picture House Gallery and Theatre, Gunning, 6pm to 8pm
24 April 2021
Millicent Armstrong was a Gunning soldier settler farmer and a playwright – a reading of four of her one act plays will be the first performance presented by the newly formed Music Theatre Projects P/L under the leadership of musician, teacher, composer and director Dianna Nixon. Dianna is also a Gunning resident and found the story of Millicent, along with her plays, irresistible.
From 1916 Millicent was attached as an orderly to a unit of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service and worked from March 1917 at the ancient Abbaye de Royaumont, Asnières-sur-Oise, France.
Upon her return to Australia she owned and ran a café in Goulburn and in 1921 she applied under the Returned Solders Settlement Act for a land title in Gunning. She was granted 1028 acres.
During her early years in the country Millicent completed at least three one-act plays which were based on her experiences: Fire, Drought and At Dusk
Two other plays, Thomas and Penny Dreadful, both drawing-room dramas, were published with Drought in a selection of her work in 1958.
The works have been little performed since then and it is from a determination to see the Australian literary canon restored that MTP has embarked upon this season. Notably the premiere performances are in a regional setting, so appropriate to the works themselves and to the raison d’etre of Dianna Nixon’s new production company.
Tickets via Eventbrite.: https://www. eventbrite.com.au/e/millicent-armstrong-playwright-and-farmer-tickets-143026669619
Further information
- https://www.facebook.com/MusicTheatreProjects/
- To find out about Millicent Armstrong see the Australian Dictionary of Biography – https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/armstrong-millicent-sylvia-9385
- An excellent article by Hannah Sparks in The Riot ACT/ Regional Media is at https://the-riotact.com/war-hero-playwright-and-farmer-the-amazing-story-of-gunnings-millicent-armstrong/452489