Knutsford Little Theatre
Encyclopedia
Knutsford Little Theatre is an amateur theatre
group based in Knutsford
, UK. They were formed in 1925 as Knutsford Amateur Drama Society and changed their name after acquiring their own premises on Queen Street. They perform up to seven productions a year including a very popular family pantomime
and a youth production. The society is run by its members who are entitled to vote at the annual award ceremony held as part of the AGM .. The Society is part of the Cheshire Theatre Guild . and the National Operatic and Dramatic Association
.
One of the first tasks of the newly formed committee seems to have been the creation of a concert party. One member, Miss Grice, was a pianist and her father Joseph first violin. A small orchestra was formed and rehearsals took place in Mr Grice's garage and cycle shop on Princess Street. Rehearsals for the plays, however, were held in Kings Coffee House and performances were first at the Y.M.C.A., then at the Town Hall before moving to the Marcliff Cinema, on the site where the civic hall now stands. It was here that the society held some of its most spectacular early productions. The Knutsford Guardian reports fine performances in When We Are Married and The Shop at Sly Corner, whilst special praise is given to the scenery for The Importance of Being Ernest and We Must Kill Toni had genuine stained glass windows.
The Queen Street building now known to all as the Little Theatre was originally St Vincent's Roman Catholic School. The school, which opened in August 188, was built under the supervision of Father Robert Maurice and had accommodated eighty children between the ages of three and fifteen years. When KADS mounted their first production there the stage was thirteen feet square with a narrow extension at the front that had been built by United States forces out of ammunition boxes. It was lit by a single bulb in each front corner. The stage crew rebuilt the stage to the full width of the auditorium but were still limited to twelve feet due to a Chancel Arch bang in the middle. The audience sat on school benches that they shuffled along until the person at the far end fell off.
Over the next few years KADS set about transforming their new theatre. A trap door was built to take advantage of the first floor and in 1950 a surplus pavilion from Mobberly Cricket Club was transported to Queen Street to form dressing rooms and a workshop. During the 1960s indoor toilets, proper seating and central heating was installed. The society continue to invest in the property and the auditorium and bar are now fitted to a very high standard. Photographs of productions and poster designs can be viewed on the theatre website and The National Archives hold a programme from the 1971 - 72 season .
Amateur theatre
Amateur theatre is theatre performed by amateur actors. These actors are not typically members of Actors' Equity groups or Actors' Unions as these organizations exist to protect the professional industry and therefore discourage their members from appearing with companies which are not a signatory...
group based in Knutsford
Knutsford
Knutsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in North West England...
, UK. They were formed in 1925 as Knutsford Amateur Drama Society and changed their name after acquiring their own premises on Queen Street. They perform up to seven productions a year including a very popular family pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
and a youth production. The society is run by its members who are entitled to vote at the annual award ceremony held as part of the AGM .. The Society is part of the Cheshire Theatre Guild . and the National Operatic and Dramatic Association
National Operatic and Dramatic Association
NODA has a membership of 2500 amateur theatre groups and 3000 individual enthusiasts throughout the UK, staging musicals, operas, plays, concerts and pantomimes in a wide variety of performing venues, ranging from the country’s leading professional theatres to tiny village halls.Founded in 1899,...
.
History
The society was formed after a meeting in the Cranford Cafe on a date in March 1925 when a group of local residents met to discuss the formation of Knutsford Amateur Dramatic Society. There had been theatrical productions in Knutsford for a number of years prior to the meeting. The Y.M.C.A. had performed Thread of Scarlett, a play about a murder in Ashley that resulted in execution at Knutsford Prison and the Young Liberals had also got in on the act with a performance of Between the Soup and the Savoury by Gertrude Jennings. There was clearly an appetite for theatre in the town and it seems that Mr H. T. Whitney, who was a dentist on Tatton Street and a member of Wilmslow Green Room Society was a prime mover in getting KADS off the ground.One of the first tasks of the newly formed committee seems to have been the creation of a concert party. One member, Miss Grice, was a pianist and her father Joseph first violin. A small orchestra was formed and rehearsals took place in Mr Grice's garage and cycle shop on Princess Street. Rehearsals for the plays, however, were held in Kings Coffee House and performances were first at the Y.M.C.A., then at the Town Hall before moving to the Marcliff Cinema, on the site where the civic hall now stands. It was here that the society held some of its most spectacular early productions. The Knutsford Guardian reports fine performances in When We Are Married and The Shop at Sly Corner, whilst special praise is given to the scenery for The Importance of Being Ernest and We Must Kill Toni had genuine stained glass windows.
The Queen Street building now known to all as the Little Theatre was originally St Vincent's Roman Catholic School. The school, which opened in August 188, was built under the supervision of Father Robert Maurice and had accommodated eighty children between the ages of three and fifteen years. When KADS mounted their first production there the stage was thirteen feet square with a narrow extension at the front that had been built by United States forces out of ammunition boxes. It was lit by a single bulb in each front corner. The stage crew rebuilt the stage to the full width of the auditorium but were still limited to twelve feet due to a Chancel Arch bang in the middle. The audience sat on school benches that they shuffled along until the person at the far end fell off.
Over the next few years KADS set about transforming their new theatre. A trap door was built to take advantage of the first floor and in 1950 a surplus pavilion from Mobberly Cricket Club was transported to Queen Street to form dressing rooms and a workshop. During the 1960s indoor toilets, proper seating and central heating was installed. The society continue to invest in the property and the auditorium and bar are now fitted to a very high standard. Photographs of productions and poster designs can be viewed on the theatre website and The National Archives hold a programme from the 1971 - 72 season .
Recent Productions
Productions since January 2000 in reverse chronological order.- Lucky Sods - August 2011
- There Goes The Bride - June 2011
- The Knutsford Little Theatre International One Act Play Festival - April 2011
- The 39 Steps (play)The 39 Steps (play)The 39 Steps is a farce adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Patrick Barlow wrote the adaptation, based on the original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon of a two-actor version of the play...
- March 2011 - Cinderella - January 2011
- The Murder Room - November 2010
- Men of the World - September 2010
- Tin Pan Ali - July 2010
- Good Grief - June 2010
- Life Begins at Seventy - April 2010
- Killing Time - March 2010
- Dick Whittington - January 2010
- Mr Wonderful - November 2009
- London SuiteLondon SuiteLondon Suite is a play by Neil Simon, later made into a 1996 Made-for-TV movie. It is in a similar style to Simon's earlier works: Plaza Suite and California Suite....
- September 2009 - The Rocky Monster Show - July 2009
- Absurd Person SingularAbsurd Person SingularAbsurd Person Singular is a 1972 play by Alan Ayckbourn. Divided into three acts, it documents the changing fortunes of three married couples...
- June 2009 - Proscenophobia - March 2009
- The Snow Queen - January 2009
- Sufficient Carbohydrate - November 2008
- The Knutsford Little Theatre International Short Play Festival - October 2008
- The End of the Food Chain - September 2008
- Olivia - July 2008
- Wanted - One Body - June 2008
- The Odd CoupleThe Odd CoupleThe Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates, one neat and uptight, the other more easygoing and...
(female version) - April 2008 - Jack And The BeanstalkJack and the BeanstalkJack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...
- January 2008 - Abigail's PartyAbigail's PartyAbigail's Party is a play for stage and television written and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s...
- November 2007 - They Came From Mars...Farndale - September 2007
- Shake, Ripple & Roll - July 2007
- Neville's Island - June 2007
- Blithe SpiritBlithe Spirit (play)Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
- April 2007 - ConfusionsConfusionsConfusions is a play by Alan Ayckbourn consisting of a series of five interconnected one-act plays. It was first staged in 1974 and played by just five actors...
- March 2007 - Snow WhiteSnow White"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
- January/ 007 - Sleuth - November 2006
- Return to the Forbidden PlanetReturn to the Forbidden PlanetReturn to the Forbidden Planet is a Jukebox musical by playwright Bob Carlton based on Shakespeare's The Tempest and the 1950s science fiction film Forbidden Planet ....
- September 2006 - Skool & Crossbones - July 2006
- Salt of the Earth - June 2006
- Murder By the Book - April 2006
- Bazaar and Rummage - March 2006
- AladdinAladdinAladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
- January 2006 - One For The Road - November 2005
- Who's On First - September 2005
- Helen Come Home - July 2005
- Unleashed - June 2005
- An Inspector CallsAn Inspector CallsAn Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, first performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union and 1946 in the UK. It is considered to be one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre...
- April 2005 - The Kingfisher - March 2005
- Hickory Dickory Dock - January 2005
- Stop The World I Want To Get Off - November 2004
- On Monday Next September 2004
- Bouncers & Shakers = August 2004
- Worzel Gummidge - July 2004
- My Mother Said I Never Should - May 2004
- Bouncers - April 2004
- Rattle Of A Simple Man - February 2004
- Sing a Song of Sixpence - January 2004
- Murder in the Alps - November 2003
- The Old Country - September 2003
- Drucula Spectacular - July 2003
- The Killing of Sister George - June 2003
- Cinderella - January 2003
- Shakers Re-stirred - August 2002
- Bugsy MaloneBugsy MaloneBugsy Malone is a 1976 musical film, very loosely based on events in New York City in the Prohibition era, specifically the exploits of gangsters like Al Capone and Bugs Moran, as dramatized in cinema...
- July 2002 - Charley's AuntCharley's AuntCharley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
- June 2002 - Our Day OutOur Day OutOur Day Out is a television play about deprived children from Liverpool in the United Kingdom. It was written by Willy Russell and first aired on 28 December 1977, at 9pm on BBC2...
- April 2002 - Educating RitaEducating RitaEducating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University lecturer....
- March 2002 - Sleeping BeautySleeping BeautySleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
- January 2002 - LootLoot (play)Loot is a two-act play by the English playwright Joe Orton. The play is a dark farce that satirises the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force....
- October 2001 - Three 1 act plays:Krapp's Last TapeKrapp's Last TapeKrapp's Last Tape is a one-act play, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. Consisting of a cast of one man, it was originally written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue"...
. The Proposal. Black And White - September 2001 - Shake Ripple and Roll - July 2001
- Chase Me Up Farndale Avenue, S'il Vous Plait - April 2001
- Rough Justice - March 2001
- The Snow Queen - January/2001
- The Chiltern Hundreds - October/2000
- Dazzle - July 2000
- Big Bad Mouse - May 2000
- The Diary of Anne Frank - March 2000
- Dick Whittington and his Cat - January 2000