KDS was formed in 1969 to promote the study and performance of dramatic works. It is registered as a legal company and as a charity.

The Society’s Activities

We usually produce two major plays a year, typically in March and November. To date, this has amounted to about seventy full-length perform­ances in all, including plays with music such as Anne of Green Gables and The Wizard of Oz and ‘spectac­ulars’ like A Christ­mas Carol and The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe.

In recent years, a regular and very popular event on our calendar has been our June ‘Summer Soirée’ in Keyworth Village Hall, when we perform - often a programme of one-act plays - before an audience sitting cabaret-style at tables, where they enjoy not only the performance but also a bowl of strawberries and glass of wine. We have also presented Old Time Music Halls in the Village Hall.

Our members meet to read plays, and we enjoy regular social get-togethers.

From time to time we give public rehearsed read­ings. These have included Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood; a Thomas Hardy sequence; programmes of Shakespeare extracts; and a programme based on historical documents and literature about 19th century workers and working conditions.

Performance venues

We have presented our productions in a variety of local venues. In our local community school, South Wolds; in Keyworth’s Village Hall; in the splendid theatre at Stanford Hall (which sadly is currently unavailable). Currently we are grateful to be able to use the Grange Community Hall in Radcliffe-on-Trent for most of our major productions.

Resources

The Society is currently fortunate to have the use of an historic barn in the village which it uses as a store for its stage equipment, scenery and props. Within the barn we also have a purpose-built store for our quite considerable wardrobe.

Membership

Membership is open to anyone on payment of an annual subscription, and the Society is always glad to welcome new members. If you are inter­ested in any aspect of theatre - be it acting, reading plays, back­stage and behind-the-scenes work, costume, technical equipment, publicity, front-of-house - please get in touch with us.