Ormond on the stage

Ormondians have always loved bringing stories to life on stage, and the College has a long history of staging musicals, plays and other theatrical performances.

Ormond played a pioneering role in Australian theatre, presenting some of the first performances of classical plays in the history of Victoria. From 1896 Ormond presented three comedies by Aristophanes, performed in the original Ancient Greek. 

Ormond’s Masters and Vice-Masters have even gotten involved, deploying their formidable theatrical talents in the service of the College – and beyond! Fourth Master Brinley Newton-John, former WWII codebreaker and spy, was one such thespian. Whilst Master in the 1950s he found time to star in a professional play and later worked as a television and radio presenter. Brinley was not the only resident of Allen House to tread the boards. His rather more famous daughter Olivia Newton-John, who lived at Ormond for the five years her father was Master, gave one of her earliest performances in a 1959 Ormond College production called Green Pastures. She played a cherub. 

Over the years Ormond productions have been staged in the Hall, and the JCR has been used as a theatre for 20th Century Ormond productions. In 2011, the College’s maintenance shed was even used for a performance as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival! 

Today, the Students’ Club puts on one major production a year, as well as a number of other smaller scale performances, including Ormond Shorts.