Arts & Culture
19 November, 2025
New local theatre company seeking actors for upcoming new production
A new local theatre company called the Mulwaree Amateur Dramatic Society (MADS) based in Goulburn, is looking for cast members to audition for their upcoming play, ‘Vox Populi’, written by former local journalist and writer Chris Gordon and to be directed by well - known Goulburn theatre performer, Ant Lewis.
A new local theatre company called the Mulwaree Amateur Dramatic Society (MADS) based in Goulburn, is looking for cast members to audition for their upcoming play, ‘Vox Populi’, written by former local journalist and writer Chris Gordon and to be directed by well - known Goulburn theatre performer, Ant Lewis.
The auditions will be taking place at the Goulburn Club in Market St. this Saturday 22 November from 9am to 6pm.
‘Vox Populi’ (Latin for ‘voice of the people’) tells the story of two political leaders, the fictional Prime Minister Luka Zelig and her opponent John Burman, who are gearing up for a federal election.
Zelig, who is the youngest prime minister in the nation’s history, was elected on a wave of popular change and immense social media support, but is now facing an uphill battle trying to convince the public to keep that change going.
Burman, however, is the polar opposite, and is looking for a return to what he describes as ‘traditional values’ and an end to all the changes.
Part of the play’s synopsis sums it up well.
“Vox Populi’ examines the toxicity of binary politics, the ease with which division can be sewn, the weaponisation of ideology, the role of the media, the implications of blind partisanship, the limits to which loyalty and duty can be stretched and addresses how quickly freedom can be surrendered,” it states.
Director Ant Lewis agreed with this sentiment.
“Chris Gordon’s play, which I can’t speak more highly of, hits a lot of marks and is really intense and will leave you on the edge of your seat,” he said.
“It’s a very detailed look at today’s political scene, and we sort of needed to get on top of it before America takes all our content! The play was written earlier this year, and every time we would have a reading of it, we’d find that ‘well that happened in the news this week, and ‘that happened the next week’, and it was like it was already pre-written into Vox Populi!”
Lewis also described the impetus behind the creation of the MADS for the people of Goulburn and the Southern Tablelands.
“MADS was set up to fill a hole that we felt was not so much ‘missing’ from Goulburn theatre – there’s the Lieder Theatre, who do a wonderful job – and then of course the Rocky Hill Musical Theatre Company (RHMTC), who do purely musicals – and also Bladwell Productions was around for a while doing contemporary Australian plays,” he said.
“But we just felt that there was nowhere for not so much ‘local’ playwrights, but people who said to us ‘I’ve got an idea, where do I go?
“So, we’ve created this company to invest into the community theatre side of it, and for people who would like to have their play read, and we’ve had a lot of interest from the members from all the other local theatre companies wanting to come on board with us.
“We’ve essentially decided we wanted to fill that little ‘niche market’ and see who would like to have their play performed on the Goulburn Performing Arts Centre’s (GPAC) stage.
“We don’t want to ‘tread on anybody’s toes’ or ‘ruffle any feathers’ – we just want to have an outlet where people can come to us and say ‘I’ve got this idea’ - and then we can then workshop it with them, and I mean ‘Vox Populi’ may be the one and only production we ever do, but that’s fine too.”
A registration form for the Vox Populi auditions is available on the MAD Facebook page.
“We’d ultimately love to have someone auditioning every 15 minutes from 9am to 6pm,” Mr. Lewis said.
“We’re looking for a cast of seven principal actors, and probably another 9 or 10 for the ensemble.
“The ensemble will all be spoken parts and will have a lot of different characters that they will be playing. Some of them will even have more dialogue to learn than the principal actors!”
Once all the characters have been chosen and established, Mr. Lewis said that MADS are looking to have the first table read of the production in early December.
“We’ll probably do another one early next year (after Christmas and New Year) where people can get their scripts and go off and do some ‘character development’,” he said.
“But rehearsals won’t officially start until May and then there will be a ‘quickfire’ six or seven week period of rehearsals and then we’re into it. It will be a very heavy rehearsal schedule, but everyone should have their character developed before the rehearsals start, which will be great.”
The performances will be held over two days Thursday 16 - Saturday 18 July 2026 at the Goulburn Performing Arts Centre (GPAC), 163 Auburn St, Goulburn.
For an audition pack, visit https://bit.ly/4hKrhD3. This will then provide a link to a Google Docs file which will provide you with the whole synopsis and an idea of who each character is, etc.
And for more information about MADS, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mulwaree.amateur.dramatics.tc.
Read More: Goulburn, Southern Tablelands