Before the present Keyworth Dramatic Society

We have a fair amount of evidence of Keyworth’s cultural life going back over a hundred years or more, much of it centred on church or chapel. Certainly there was a good deal of music, with the village’s bands and choirs apparently very active. Evidence of dramatic activity is rather more sketchy. We believe that a drama group operated in Keyworth in the 1930s, but apart from the fact that they probably performed in the old WI hut (now sadly gone) we have little to go on.

We do have more positive evidence of dramatic activities in the forties and fifties, and a few photographs. One of the prime movers during this period was Gladys Orringe, who seems to have been a teacher of elocution at night classes in Keyworth. Apparently she was deaf, but she overcame this obstacle by standing close to her protégés! We know that shortly after the war in 1948 she directed a performance with a cast that included Jeff Disney, George Burton, Eileen Neville (George’s sister), Jean Plowright, Olga Wright, Brenda Richards, Peggie White, and two others from outside the village. And in a book of reminiscences published by Keyworth Methodist Church [These People called Methodists] Olga Wright recalled another post-war production:

I was in the Dramatic Society then - this was the village Dramatic Society, not a church society. We did The Barretts of Wimpole Street. Mr Eames [the Methodist minister] took the part of the father, and I was Elizabeth. We put it on for three nights. That was before I was married, and I’d be about twenty-two. The Dram­atic Society was run by Gladys Orringe, aided by Priscilla Lacey. Gladys and Priscilla were great friends.... Miss Orringe taught the children ‘elocution’. I had about ten years’ lessons with her, and she gave me a good grounding: she was a really good teacher.

Other names involved in the dramatic productions at different times seem to be Bill Vasey, Marie Sissons, Jean Bingham, Denis Toeser, Vera Wakely, Doreen Broughton, Helen Mainwaring, Keith Hodgett, Joyce Disney, Pat Moore, Margaret Cooper, Arthur Nagle, Audrey Boyle, Albert Steele, Don and John Maskell, Betty Islett, Arthur Ridgeway. We wonder if any of these thespians or their relatives recall any of the productions in which they were involved? Some of the Keyworth productions in this pre-KDS period were:

1948 Quiet Weekend (performed in the Congregational Hall)

1949 The Barretts of Wimpole Street

1950 The Heiress

1950 Women Have Their Way (performed in the Congregational Hall)

195I The Miser

1952 The Blue Goose

1960 Autumn Crocus

1968 Pride and Prejudice (performed in South Wolds School Hall)

KDS is formed

On the death of Gladys Orringe - soon after she had embarked on a production of Bonaventure, which nevertheless went ahead in the new South Wolds School - her class members and others got together to set up a new Keyworth Dramatic Society under the chairmanship of Peter Dinsdale in 1969.

The very first KDS production in 1970 was the Neil Simon comedy Barefoot in the Park. It was directed by Peter Dinsdale and performed at South Wolds School, with Alan Clarke in the lead role of Paul Bratter alongside Christine Haley. This was a memorable production in that it involved a snowfall through a broken skylight in a tall apartment block in New York: a special effect achieved with some aplomb by Frances Goodman's husband Chris. It was also memorable for all the things that nearly went amiss: like the precarious moment when Alan Clarke's coat caught on one of the stays and shook the entire scenery (fortunately it didn't descend on the cast); and a surreal moment during the second performance when a complete stranger appeared in the wings dressed in white shorts carrying a racket, just as one of the characters on stage uttered those immortal words ‘Anyone for tennis?’!

Stanford Hall and after

Other early productions used the hall at the BGS in Keyworth. But a very significant development in the Society's history was its move to Stanford Hall in June 1973 for Noel Coward's ever-popular Blithe Spirit, directed by Frances Goodman. In the ensuing years, the opportunity to use this splendid  atmospheric period theatre at Stanford Hall (not forgetting its popular organ!) made no small contribution to the artistic success of our productions and to the enjoyment of our audiences. The Society continued to prosper there with many outstanding successes, including ‘spectacular’ and widely remembered productions of The Wizard of Oz, A Christmas Carol and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

However, in 2004, following the Co-op’s sale of Stanford Hall, the Society had to find an alternative venue for its major productions. Keyworth’s own Village Hall was far from ideal in terms of size and facilities; but coincidentally at that time Radcliffe-on-Trent’s new community venue, Grange Hall, was opened, and thanks to the willing cooperation of that hall’s management KDS has been happy to use their facilities for its major productions since. The cast enjoys having its (in village hall terms) excellent changing rooms; the stage, though constricted in the wings, offers directors reasonable scope; and technical facilities are certainly much better than in Keyworth Village Hall. Although the flat floor of the sizeable auditorium doesn’t give ideal sight lines for the whole audience, it does provide us with an opportunity to perform ‘in the round’ - an opportunity we have taken advantage of in putting on Tom’s Midnight Garden and in our fortieth anniversary production of Alice.