KIDDERMINSTER PLAYHOUSE
1946 - 1968 A Souvenir
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1960 - 1961
A new colour scheme for the auditorium, with pale blue and off-white replacing the traditional maroon and red plush, was the work of Margaret Griffin, who designed it and supervised its execution as a labour of love. New curtains and carpets and improved stage lighting gave the theatre a festive air. The work cost £l,400 and the Town Council contributed £200.The Nonentities' opening play, Not in the Book, was followed by Murder On Arrival and What Every Woman Knows, both produced by the new manager, Jennifer Williams. The musical was a version of School for Scandal, adapted without the addition of a word and with lyrics and music by Kenneth Rose. The last plays were The Ring of Truth and The Grass is Greener.
Carpet Trades stayed in the modern idiom with The Pajama Game and the KAOS joined in with Call Me Madam, with Pauline Evans splendidly filling the Ethel Merman part.
The repertory plays were Blithe Spirit, Granite, Rollo, Five Finger Exercise, the first work of Peter Schaffer, who was to go on to fame and the National Theatre, and Gigi.
Opera for All toured The Marriage of Figaro and The Beggars' Opera, there was another old time music hall, visits from the Harlequin Ballet and the Hogarth Puppets, and Scout show and the pantomime, Red Riding Hood.
A season which started well ended with a small loss on the Nonentities'
own shows and a loss of £3,135 on the theatre's working. The debt
bounded up by more than £l,000 to £5,227.
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