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Highbury Theatre Centre
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Contact Information
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Basic Information
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Sheffield Road |
Membership Theatre |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2012 |
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Report on Year After 170 years our local paper The Sutton News ceased publication. A great loss as it well covered the local Arts and we were often mentioned. In writing this article I am missing the memory jog of their many features. The Birmingham Evening Mail, however, did us proud with the bold headlines HIGHBURY SWEEPS AMATEUR OSCARS, referring to celebrating seven awards for our actors, directors and technical staff at the BFAME peripatetic Festival. An exhibition tribute to the late Peta English was held at the theatre showing her costume and stage designs. She was a founder member, acted in 90 plays between 1924 and 1968 and her knowledge of period costumes was respected in the Theatre World. With Amateurs this season presenting popular running professional productions like The39 Steps, Calendar Girls, and One Man,Two Guvnors we were surprised our two (The 39Steps,Two Masters) didn't rock the box office. The of question of our performances clashing with our neighbours Sutton Arts has been picked up by our Board of Trustees and we hope, by co-operation to rectify the situation Plans for 2012/2013: Productions of: No Sex Please We're Britsh, Contractions/The American Dream, Deathtrap, The Gingerbread Man, The Diaries of Adrian Mole, Bouncers/Shakers, Skylight, Flare Path, Entertaining Angels, Dusk Rings A Bell, Much Ado About Nothing and Peter Pan |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2011 |
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Report on Year The highlight of the season was celebrating the anniversary of what would have been the 100th birthday of our founder, John English. John was not only the instigator of Highbury but also the Midlands Arts Centre, the Professional Arena Theatre and a key player in the forming of the LTG. People from the Drama world including many from the LTG gathered for the occasion. All in all a mixed season but with percentages varying and six plays around 80% and more. The Christmas offering hit a snag with the regulations regarding some of our youngsters but LTG are on the case of young people in the theatre. At the moment many theatres cannot operate youth groups because of strict Legislation. We continue to have a particularly thriving youth theatre with two main house productions per year. Our group have been awarded £500 by Sutton Carnival Trust in recognition of their support of children with special needs.We have already held two successful Hubs meetings in our region covering such diverse topics as guild awards, joint publicity, NODA, training for chaperones, fire regulations and an arts fest. Plans for 2011/2012: Productions of: The 39 Steps, Playhouse Creatures, Hedda Gabler, The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe, First Things First, Oleanna, Humble Boy, The Sunshine Boys and The Servant of Two Masters |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2010 |
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Report on Year LIVES REMEMBERED Mabel Jones was heavily involved in the arts in the district. She was a trustee of the Centre and directed many plays from The Odd Couple (1982) to In Praise of Love (1997) She was 92 years old. Ted Dodd was a member for more than 45 years. He acted in 89 productions-one fewer than his age, from Twilight Bar (1946) to The Little Foxes (1993) On stage a rather serious season and the comment frequently heard was 'wasn't the acting good'. Two of the lighter offerings Hypnosis unusually, though much welcomed by the director, had the author, David Tristram, involved in the production including auditions and several rehearsals. The other Cash on Delivery by Michael Cooney, his father, Ray, being no stranger to the LTG was a world premier. As an afterthought Earth and Sky was added and received good notices. The season finished with lol, the Youth Theatre presenting Summer Holiday featuring two buses, one to sit in and the other traversing the stage symbolising the journey. Finally the brilliant Ukelele Lady, Gabriela, helping the funds of the theatre and Cancer Support with a charity night. Plans for 2009/10: Productions of: The Things We Do For Love, Bronte, Spring and Port Wine, Goody Two Shoes, For One Night Only, Move Over Mrs Markham,The Glass Menagerie, Prescription For Murder, The Female Of The Species, Six Acts Of Love, Shadowlands and St.Trinians the Musical |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2009 |
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Report on Year In Jean Draycott and Maureen Goddard we lost two dedicated members with more than a hundred years service between them. Later in the season their 39 work was brought into focus with a very popular reminiscence evening. The Lady In The Van was the season's first drama with transporting the van, borrowed from Rugby Theatre, which took three days and cost ?200 with a specially hired trailer. The drama continued when 20 members took 4 hours to get it on the stage. Professional stunt man Dean Williams helped the cast put together action packed scenes in A Touch Of Danger. Offbeat theatre events included an evening with comedienne Natalie Haynes, and a massage evening. Not for the first time Highbury was featured on TV as BBC filmed an episode of Doctors Top comedy playwrights David Tristram and Raymond Hopkins conducted an open forum to discuss their work which has been presented in the comparatively recent past. Mavis Motram announced her retirement at the age of 93. She has organized the art exhibitions for 53 years. To show their versatility, Martin Walker and Louise Mills played father and daughter followed by being lovers. Plans for 2009/2010: Productions of: Whose Life Is It Anyway? Mine, Hypnosis, Treasure Island, Cash On Delive |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2008 |
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Report on Year Prior to season proper was a nine-hour dramathon. Thirty-six players kept up a riot of continuous improvisation and in the studio, drama, dance and songs. From the shows, a Rat Pack Tribute and in the bar 11 poets performed for over four hours. There was an excellent art exhibition by multiple Artists. About ?3000 was made for the development fund. A sad theatrical irony was the death of stalwart, Les Griffiths, during the run of When The Reaper Calls. Les led the group?s day crew consisting largely of pensioners who help build the sets. He is greatly missed. Driven To Distraction, a 40 minute playlet that some of the company have been taking to day-centres, sheltered accommodation and residential homes finished with a show back at base. The production backed by Age Concern, National Grid and West Midlands Police tackles a serious problem about being distracted?hence the title. A surprise bonus was?1250 for the development fund. A newspaper story told of a Solihull actress rifling through a second hand bookstore for a script. What she wanted was An Ideal Husband because she wanted to play Lady Chiltern. She found Diana Daggett?s 1957 copy (Highbury?s Lady Chiltern) plus the programme. Plans for 2008/09: Productions of: The Lady In The Van, Ladies Day, ,A touch of Danger, Hickory Dickory Dock, Nobody?s Perfect, The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Present Laughter, Frozen and My Cousin Rachel. |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2007 |
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Report on Year The play's the thing. Nevertheless here's some insider information on the season's offering! Fawlty Towers was a PR dream as opening night coincided with the re-opening of the Gleneagles Hotel, Torquay, inspiration for the TV series, by Prunella Scales, who played Sybil in the TV version.. This followed a campaign by local residents against a scheme to demolish and turn it into a block of flats. Dead Ringer was HLT's 600th production and a l00th role for member Reg Tolley with the company. The significant setting was l0 Downing Street. The Snow Queen featured a costume that made the audience gasp. Made by Sarah Burton for a degree in Costume Design, Sarah is currently with the Royal Ballet and has worked on films including the Harry Potter series. Flying Ducks contained three playlets Last Tango in Little Grimley, The Fat Lady Sings and the Last Panto in Little Grimley. Author David Tristram came and gave his approval. A Man For All Seasons was well travelled. Former member Tony Mackey, now living in Shrewsbury ?, thought playing Sir Thomas More worth the rehearsal/run mileage of 3500 miles. In The Little Hut, actor Rich Greene playing a Scandinavian dyed his black hair blonde, waxed his chest And made his debut wearing a grass skirt. Cat On A Hot Tin Roof opened with Blues Collective, musicians with songs reflecting themes of the play. Little Shop Of Horrors, a rare musical for Highbury, surprised our regular audience by opening on a Monday. Director Richard Ham turned his living room into a mini workshop making the exotic plant. Television's Antique Road Show visited our wardrobe department and some of our authentic original costumes May be screened at a later date. Some have subsequently sold for a goodly sum! Tickets next season will be sold through our new computerised Box Office. Plans for 2007/2008: The Canterbury Tales, The True Life Fiction of Mata Hari, When the Reaper Calls, The Scatterbrained Scarecrow ofOz, Love begins at Fift,y Popcorn, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Neville's Island, The Secret Life of Henry and Alice, Comic Potential and Their Scarves Were Red |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2006 |
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Report on Year A trivial opening to the season with Trivial Pursuits which later in the season turned out to be quite prestigious. For the first time since 1982 when festival adjudicator Peter Carr gave a public workshop reworking some scenes from our production of A Doll?s House we invited experts to give judgement in the peripatetic section of the Birmingham FAME Festival. Frank Vickery?s comedy swept the board winning best direction, best technical achievement, best supporting cast, outstanding male performance and overall winner. Offstage drama followed during the well-loved horrifying murder play Ladies in Retirement. One of the sisters at the heart of the action could not get to the theatre due to a traffic accident. Forces had to be shuffled, so for one night, two of the other actresses who do not coincide on stage shared her role. The show goes on! There were two revivals, Tartuffe and, with a difference, The Odd Couple played by the ladies. A Chairman in his time plays many parts. In Time of My Life there are five waiters. Our Chairman played them all. Media coverage during the season showed renewed interest in our saucy calendar with press photos and comment. We were in the spotlight over last night party drinking plans. The new Licensing Act worried our neighbours because we planned to extend our 11.00pm bar closing time to midnight under the new rules. A compromise was reached. Our local MP, Andrew Mitchell, visited us to review our ongoing building improvement activities. The new Harlequin Rehearsal Room was opened and was first used for a Directors? Workshop. ?Memories of a Highbury Ham? is selling well and could be of interest to all members. Plans for the 2006/2007 Season Productions of Fawlty Towers, Dead Ringer, The Snow Queen, Flying Ducks Over Boldmere, A Man for all Seasons, The Little Hut, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Little Shop of Horrors, Playing Sinatra, We Happy Few and My Mother Said I Never Should and Youth Theatre productions of Here we Go ? Another Year and Around the World in 80 Days |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2005 |
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Report on Year As part of a local Safety Day actors from the Youth Theatre set up a life sized mock up of a shop and a prison cell on the local High Street and played the parts of offenders stealing from the shop and consequently being sent to prison. We expect to start another phase of our building development plan with the replacement of an old rehearsal hut, enlargement of our car park and of the Front of House and bar facilities. Our fund raising activities have been given a major boost with a grant of ?100,000 from Sutton Coldfield Municipal Charities. Highbury Players baring all for a calendar proved very revealing, showing moments from twelve past productions. Pages from the calendar were reproduced in a number of magazines and proved to be a good fundraiser. Fund raising for our Development Programme and for other charities has included the annual visit of the Aldridge School swing and wind bands, the Players joining with members of Banners Gate Music Society for an ?Around the World? review and a Country Music evening. The publication of ?Memories of a Highbury Ham?, a book for anyone interested in theatre and available from Highbury Theatre Centre will also assist with fund raising for our major project. Remembered from our productions:- One night?s takings from Aladdin donated to the tsunami relief fund. One actor playing very different characters with the name ?John Smith? in two consecutive plays. Death of a Salesman turning into a tribute production upon the death of Arthur Miller. A technical tour de force in Kiss of Death which included live and recorded video projected onto a big screen, automatic doors, bugging devices, amplified phone calls and more. Plans for 2005/2006 Main Theatre productions of Trivial Pursuits, Ladies in Retirement, King Arthur ? The Panto, The Odd Couple (female version), Recipe for Murder, Tartuffe, The Cemetery Club and The Time of my Life. Studio productions of The Gin Game, Recipe for Murder and Two. Youth Theatre productions of What the Dickens! and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2004 |
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Report on Year It was the end of an era when Theatre President, Mollie English, died in November aged 93. Mollie was a driving force in the arts in the West Midlands for almost 60 years. She joined Highbury in 1941, just prior to the first production in the new theatre. Then came the Arena Theatre, the LTG and the Midland Arts Centre set up by her husband John. She received the MBE in 2000, completing a rare double as John, who died in 1998, earned an OBE. We also lost other stalwarts in Denis Reid, who was for many years BBC West Midlands amateur stage correspondent, and Robert Tebbett, well known in the Guild as a past Chairman and treasurer for 25 years. For the first play of our season, one of our members, a teacher, joined some of her class and became a pupil again, and for the second play, there were objections from some audience and critics about bad language - in the play of course. Twelfth Night had sword fights and Elizabethan dances with the help of experts and the revival of Anne Frank commemorated the anniversary of the holocaust. Off stage, credit cards are now accepted and fund-raising events include music nights, regular whist drives (at no cost), quizzes, and a surprise full house for an evening of clairvoyance. With bare-faced cheek, we are producing a Calendar Girls type of calendar featuring members in associated plays. The Youth Theatre ended our eightieth season with 'a little play what they wrote themselves', which turned out to be a full-scale musical with not only shades of Eric and Ernie but also 'Allo 'Allo and Fawlty Towers. We welcome a new arts director, a member who has also been associated for many years with our LTG neighbours, the Grange at Walsall. The outgoing director has recommended that the Arts Committee reverts to a smaller number. |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2003 |
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Report on Year The usual pre-season working break included laying a new floor side stage. Now the only 'trips' are the intentional ones on stage! The popular familiarisation evening gave the directors the chance to give a brief resume of their plays and tribute was paid to the retiring Arts Committee after a very successful season. We said 'hello' to the new season proper with 'Allo! 'Allo! Among the stars were the backstage crew with their revolve and the 'Madonna with the big boobies', a work of art painted by Herr Flick. The next production had two full sets - no revolve this time- designed by a member who now works at Nottingham Playhouse. Two of the cast organised rehearsals around TV filming 'Doctors' and 'The Forsyte Saga'. The Pantomime rarely begins without some disruption. This year the director came a cropper. She fell from the loft. Proper pantomime for some time but she was soon back at the helm. For The Accused, Jeffrey Archer gave permission for the staging of the amateur premier, the royalties being donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. As this was the only Archer play being produced at the time, it featured in a BBC television documentary about the disgraced peer. The studio season comprised a second play by a theatre member, a tribute to Dame Thora Hird and, taking over from BT, the play sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. Joining our president, Mollie Randall, our secretary, Sandra Haynes, was awarded the MBE, this time for work in education. Chairman, Steve Bowyer, announced a ?400,000 50-year development plan in front of Birmingham's Lord Mayor at the annual civic night. The Lord Mayor was able to discuss how Sutton's art scene could help in the bid for 'City of Culture'. For the record, the bid failed. |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2002 |
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Report on Year Although the Players are nearly 80 years old (the group that is, not the actors) the Theatre itself celebrated its sixtieth season this year. This was spotlighted with much press coverage of the historic milestone, featuring the history, the building and the 'stars' who have passed through. The newly constituted Social Committee organised a special dinner with a new recording of the first play in the theatre - Arms and the Man. The evening finished with a disco. On the stage front there was a 'platform appeal' for three pairs of 1970s platform shoes to get the season under way with Soft September Air. Two new plays were in the programme, both written by members. It was, perhaps, inevitable that The Best Wife by Michael Crompton should be referred to as 'fringe theatre'. He is a hairdresser. Peter Cooley became so fascinated by Charles Darwin that he wrote a play about him! The Christmas production of Alice was accompanied by original paintings of the costume designs from an RSC version more than 50 years ago - some ideas were taken from them for our production. Art exhibitions are a tradition at the theatre but the one for Misery was distinctly different. On view were the portraits of Highbury stalwarts, both those who appear on stage and those who have a background role. Misery Indeed! The portraits were the work of members of a local portrait class. |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2001 |
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Year Ending 31st Aug - 2000 |
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Report on Year Noel Coward?s comedy of a group of retired actresses living in ?The Wings? marked his centenary, noted our own 75th anniversary and allowed our mature ladies to let their hair down. The set was something special with design sent by Duncan Barton whose credits include Les Miserables. A couple of premieres followed with our pantomime fantasy Old Father Time having a hard time when the company, along with the rest of the country it seems, were smitten with the millennium bug. Six principals were hit during the run but, with the exception of one performance, the show went on. The audiences seemed to love the struggles of the replacements. Ham actor (Richard Ham) got good coverage when he joined Doreen Walters and the Birmingham Royal Ballet for some tips as the Ballet Dancer in Chase Me Comrade. He has now gone on to Salford University to study media performance. There was a dramatic coincidence when neighbours Sutton Arts and ourselves chose Broken Glass for the season but up to now there has been no evidence of seven year?s bad luck! There have been one act plays in the studio and, on the main stage, our Sunday Night at the Highbury series, the Youth Theatre and a fashion show. A former member took over the lead in The Mousetrap but the undoubted highlight of the season was the award to our President Mollie Randle of an MBE for services to Community Arts |
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