KIDDERMINSTER PLAYHOUSE
1946 - 1968 A Souvenir

History

Contents

1958 - 1959

Again the clouds were temporarily banished; the threat to close brought a dramatic upsurge of business, nourished by a new manager, Colin Ford, who was 24, just down from Oxford and with an undoubted flair for publicity.

Both the conditions for keeping the theatre open were met. The number of subscribers increased from 1,060 to 1,589 and instead of the minimum requirement of £300 there was a profit of £2,565.

The Nonentities' own season kept on the side of popularity, with The Reluctant Debutante, Running Riot and The Plaintiff in a Pretty Hat (introducing Maurice Pound and Geoffrey Turner). Then Romanof and Juliet, The Iron Duchess (with Ella Johnson in the title role) and finally the money-spinner Sailor Beware!

The Carpet Trades show was Bless the Bride and the KAOS successfully revived The Desert Song. Two amateur shows which appeared for the first time could be relied on thereafter to fill the theatre - the Scout Show and the county drama festival of the Women's Institutes.

So could the recital by the Anna Brown school of speech and dancing. This school has year after year handed over every penny of its profit, always in excess of £l00, to the theatre.

Professional weeks were few - but they did not make a loss. They included Osborne's Look Back in Anger, the Children's Theatre, a bill headed by a then unknown pianist named Russ Conway and a Whitehall farce, Dry Rot, which introduced John Citroen, the present theatre manager.

The pantomime was Jack and the Beanstalk and Colin Ford ended the season with a lavish revue, Hearts Are Trumps, with music by Stanford Jacobs.