History of the society
There's lots! Pick a time frame.
1924-1935; 1963-1974; 1974-1989; 1989-2001; 2001+
Let me take you back to 1924, to a little mining town in the north east of England, to a church, and a group of people with a burning desire to thesp. The little mining town was Blyth, the church was Beaconsfield Street Primitive Methodist Church (shown in image on right), and the would be thesps became Beaconsfield Street Primitive Methodist Amateur Operatic Society. Led by the Reverend J Pinchen, other original members included Alan Harder, May Gregg and John Johnson - parents of some of our current members.
Plays were initially performed in the church school room, between 1924 and 1927, and moved to St Mary's hall in 1928, since it had a larger stage. A local paper reviewed the 1928 performance of Montague Phillips' "The Rebel Maid" thus - "The Beaconsfield Street P.M. Amateur Operatic Society is performing with a great amount of success the light opera "The Rebel Maid" in St. Mary's Church Hall. The performances were attended by large and appreciative audiences."
The first performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta was 1929's Mikado, beginning a long tradition of G & S performances. Click here to see a picture of the flyer for this performance. In this year, membership was extended to non church goers. By the next year, when Iolanthe was performed, tickets had gone up to two shillings! It must be said that the Blyth News was effusive in its praise (wish it was the same today!) - "The company has delighted audiences by its clever singing and acting...the concerted singing merits all the complimentary things the audience are disposed to say regarding it." Things were going so well by 1931 that the society again had to move to a larger venue, the Miner's Welfare hall, on Renwick Road in Blyth. This building now serves as Blyth's Civic Centre, and is shown on the left.
There was something of a conflict of interest during the 1931 performance of Ruddigore - George Turnbull, who took the role of Sir Despard Murgatroyd, was the goalkeeper for Blyth Spartans football club, and the team had an FA cup match to play at the end of the week's run. Luckily, a volunteer was found (to sing the role, not mind the goal), Mr A Norman, of Felling Operatic Society. The Blyth News reported it thus: "It is hoped that both the football team and Operatic Society will have an equally successful week."
*(Spartans were beaten 1-0 by Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic - boo!)
Performances of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas continued until 1935. Demand had not decreased, but it was becoming more and more difficult to find a musical director. Jos Q Atkinson was a professional musician, who played with a number of dance bands as well as his own Fenwick's Quartet. Ted Ducker, who had been the first musical director of the society, had moved to Sunderland, and the commute wasn't exactly convenient.
No further musicals took place until 1964. In the interim, many plays were performed in the Methodist Church, including: "A Village Wedding", in 1946; "Greater than Caesar" in 1952; and "From the Country of Moab" in 1955.