Cats by Ocracy in Wollongong

I was involved in Cats by the Ocracy in Wollongong. Through the quite short season we played to over 3600 people. Almost all of the feedback that I have heard has been extremely positive. I cannot fathom the negativity, and outright jealousy by some members of the theatre community in Wollongong! They are a bunch of fossils and theatre snobs that seemingly cannot resist criticizing something refreshing and different!! I held off becoming a part of the theatre community because of a perception I had that it was full of theatre snobs and conservatives. Someone I know got involved in an Ocracy show and it shattered my perceptions - Ocracy were open, warm, friendly and down to earth. It was because of this that I became involved in an Ocracy show. Recently I went and saw the Rockdale Mucical Society perform Cats. It was the first live performance I had seen of the show. It was amazing to see! The costumes, sets, dancing, singing were all brilliantly staged and performed, but at numerous times the blocking and coreography lapsed back to a default position of mimicing the movie. That said though I was thouroughly entertained and would not hesitate to see another of their shows. A similar thing happened with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat staged by Merlin Live earlier this year in Wollongong. Almost the entire show was almost a direct mimic of the movie - it would have been far cheaper and easier to buy the DVD than to go to the theatre to watch the exact same thing - I am not kidding - ALMOST IDENTICAL! (sets, costumes, choreography, blocking, everything!) Again I was thoroughly entertained and some of the performances were fantastic, but it would have been nice to see some originality from the "creative" team. The Ocracy on the opposite side of the coin seem to approach each new project with fresh ideas and deliver a product that is exciting and new and different in every case. Ocracy's Cats was set on rooftops and the choreography and blocking were exciting and very different to the movie. It is all too easy to mimic a well known movie, but it takes a lot more creativity and skill to craft something original and different and have it work as well as it did. I think The Ocracy pulled it off with flying colours!! Aaron and his team are a bunch of very talented, creative and skillful people. The Ocracys show was exciting to perform; original; acted, sung and danced by some very talented people; and I believe thoroughly enjoyed by almost everyone that saw it. The choreography was amazing, the costumes were dazzling, the set was incredible. I am pleased to have been a part of this show and would not hesitate to be involved any future projects that the Ocracy put on, despite what one or 2 noisy, unprogressive, fogys and critic-wannabes say. Keep up the good work guys!!!!!!