A musical theatre work which has been years in the making is hitting the Merrigong stage for a “rough reading” next week, where the public can have input on how the finished product should be.

Port Kembla Sirens is the working title for a musical re-imagining of real women’s stories from Wentworth Street and surrounds – from sex workers to Indigenous women, artists to shop keepers.

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“I was Intrigued by when I first came to Port Kembla [14 years ago] I saw a lot of mainly women in the street – women working in the shops, women making things happen like the Red Point Artists, running the billy cart derby,” Rentell said.

“You look at the steelworks which is very much a male space. The stories, historically, are often quite male.”

Rentell has been collecting stories from all spaces of time and working with writer Aunty Barbara Nicholson and poet Ali Jane Smith to develop them into a script.

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On Saturday actors will dramatise the trio’s work and marry parts of the text to melodies for the first time with the help of composer Daryl Wallis.

“It’s an interesting process for both sides,” Rentell said.

“For the audience they have an insight into how something is made ... for us as artists I think no feedback is bad feedback.

“Once you’re in it for so long, you’re so in love with it yourself you think ‘oh it’s amazing’ or the opposite, you’re so worried.”

Rentell explained she finds the slightly dark and sad suburb fascinating with a rich history but is concerned it is slowly being forgotten.

Port Kembla Sirens involves six characters, each with a mix of four or five women’s memories stitched into the dialogue.

“I think it’s an interesting time for this story because the whole focus on women’s stories and women’s voices at the moment in the world,” Rentell said. “This taps into that quite potently, even though it never intended to be.”