School Plays from the 1950s and 60s

We were fortunate to discover a few nice finds in the Gilberd archives about school plays that were put on over the years. 

Firstly from the 1950s we found some press clippings about a double bill production featuring scenes from ‘As You Like It’ and a one act comedy play ‘The Ring Game’. 

Two original photos had been saved in the file so we have scanned these in high quality and they are presented here. As the two photos were also included in the newspaper articles we are able to identify the students appearing in them. Roy Newbold, William Mann, Ann Daldry and Judith Radford take a bow!

Two impressive programmes were also discovered from plays directed by Sheila Allison in the 1960s - ‘Our Town’ (1967) and ‘Sweeney Todd’ (1968).

Mr Butcher designed the programme for ‘Our Town’ and Richard Stone designed the programme and posters for ‘Sweeney Todd’. I’m very glad these beautifully designed programmes were kept and can now be shared with everyone.

Stephen Willoughby fondly remembers participating in these productions:

I remember very well these plays in which I was involved. I mainly did the sound effects, which involved taping real life sounds (church bells etc) then cutting and splicing the tapes into the sequence needed for the performance. We once used a starter pistol for a gun shot effect but could never get it to synchronise with the action on the stage, much to the amusement of the audience! Wendy and Sheila were the main driving forces in these productions. It was great fun.

Jerry Goodenough also has some details of another school play which was performed in 1970:

I came across a diary entry about another school play. The play, ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’, was put on in the evening of Saturday 11 July 1970, and all I have listed in the diary is the cast:

Mr George Richards

Mr Mark Hines

Mr Graham Wickes

Mr Brian Wolfendale

Mr Eion Downes

Mrs Trixie Mitchell

Mrs Sheila Allison

Miss Wendy Rowlingson

Janice Nevard (Janice seems to have been in all of these plays!)

But sadly I have no record of who played which part. (I'd love to know if Wendy Rowlingson was Lady Bracknell!)

Please note, you can click on any of the above images to see a larger version.