Back With a Vengeance

After the fire the church decided to sell off the land for flats and build an annex onto the church; this left the Dramatics Society without a home. Bernard and Rita Walker stepped in and provided a home for us and we wondered around playing at Pokesdown Youth Theatre, the convent school and even open-air theatre in Joy’s garden. In 1973 we found Denmead Hall - it had a stage and seated approx. 100. Great - we had a home - and for the next 9 years we put on plays at Denmead, but it was too small for pantomimes. We missed the music - and in 1975 hit an idea of putting on a show in the church, it had seating for more than 100 and had a large acting area, so GODSPELL was performed to rave reviews. We hired Wentworth and Summerbee School halls and put on pantomimes; our audiences at Denmead had grown from 25 on some nights to fully booked on all nights. What to do? After lots of looking and chatting around we came to an agreement with the Chiropractic College to use their hall. It was ideal; we had a super large stage, seats for 350, our own green room and storage space. We put on three shows a year - a format we still keep - and grew our membership and patron scheme. Some of our best sets were created in the hall for shows including the wonderful turning set for "Noises Off" and a multi-functional set for our 1992 rendering of "Follow the Star". We were also regularly nominated for The Curtain Call awards (Bournemouth's local Oscars) winning several sections including Tony Edwards as “Scrooge” for “Best Actor in a Musical" - "Humbug" itself was nominated for the best musical. We took on a variety of challenging plays and musicals during this time, such as Run For Your Wife, The Wizard of Oz, The Boyfriend, Annie and The Man Who Came To Dinner to name just a few! The All Saints pantomime also became something of a local institution to the point where in 1988, a decision was made to scrap plans to stage the usual bi-annual musical and instead Dick Whittington was performed, playing to near sell out crowds every night.

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