Australia's longest running theatre collective with an emphasis on works relevant to the gay, lesbian, bi, straight, transgender communities. Out Cast was established in 1997 from very humble beginnings. Its first production, a panto of sorts was staged at the Carlton Courthouse Theatre. Not a particularly successful first show but it sowed the seeds for a small team of committed individuals who still saw a need to redress the imbalance of gay theatre in this country. Out Cast really kicked off with a series of staged play readings above the now defunct Ramjets Cafe in Commercial Road, Melbourne. Once we found we had a dedicated following we decided to jump into the pool once more with our first “official” production, a staging of a specially written piece, Steven Dawson’s Big Dicks On Stage which enjoyed great success. It followed up with Gertrude Stein & A Companion. More productions followed until Out Cast started to become known as Melbourne’s gay theatre company. For 5 years we performed in the David Williamson Theatre in South Yarra. Our biggest gamble came in 2002 when we decided to move north across the river to the 100 seat Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre in Brunswick. We hoped our audiences would follow. The first production in our new home, also a Steven Dawson piece Love In A Cubicle almost sold out its entire 5 week season and laid the foundation for many successes to come. Since then we have gone from strength to strength. Taking bigger risks each time for the past 7 years we have embarked on tours to queer festivals in Perth and Adelaide, undertaken very successful sell out seasons of our shows in Edinburgh and London and are about to embark on another larger tour of the UK in 2010. All this as a completely unfunded company, given little financial assistance except through some very loyal sponsors and always at great risk of financial failure. But we persevere because we love the thing we do. Out Cast is now run on a production to production basis of 4 shows a year as well as touring commitments. We hope to see you at our next show.We invite you to join our emailing list to stay up-to-date with current productions. We are always looking for volunteers for our productions so feel free to let us know. And please check out our sponsor links at the bottom of this page.