KIDDERMINSTER PLAYHOUSE
1946 - 1968 A Souvenir
| History | Contents | Next Page |
Introduction
| "Silent, bare, ships, towers, domes,
theatres and temples lie." Wordsworth |
| Text by L. H. Williams |
| Research by Kenneth Rose |
| Cover by Lionel Lench |
THIS is a record of a struggle lasting 22 years in which the Nonentities Society sought to maintain a living theatre in Kidderminster. It was a struggle which succeeded in that Kidderminster kept its theatre open in the years when more populous centres gave up. It failed because although it could cope with indifference or even hostility it had no answer to the demolition squad acting in the name of progress.
The society leaves behind a record of nearly 1,000 plays and other entertainments and of the effort that went into staging them and ensuring that there was a stage on which they could appear. Financial considerations take up so large a part of this account that future generations may well wonder why a wealthy town should yield so few who were prepared to make a contribution.
This record contains the names of 248 people who made a contribution to the work of the Playhouse over the years. They and many more, amateurs and professionals, worked side by side for the principle on which this theatre experiment was based - that the professional actor took precedence and the amateur, by the cheapness of his labour and the time, money and enthusiasm he was prepared to contribute, was a valuable auxiliary. And that there was no reason why the two should not share one roof.
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