It's Autumn Now (1939)
Amateur Players of Sherborne, known to members and friends as either APS or The Players, was founded in 1934, the year Fred B. Alcock and a group of fellow theatrical enthusiasts staged Tons of Money, produced by Maurice Welcher at the Carlton Theatre in Newland. This first production was a roaring success; it ran for a week, 1,850 people came to see it, and the princely sum of £101 (nearly £5,500 in today's money) was raised in aid of the Yeatman Hospital in Sherborne. Following that, The Players started to establish themselves with spectacular productions of No, No Nanette in 1935, Night Must Fall in 1937 and The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1938.
With the onset of war in 1939 it seemed that the group would have to disband, but then the officers of the Queens Royal Regiment, who were billeted in Sherborne, decided to stage a pantomime for their men. APS was asked to provide support, and members of the company soon found themselves rehearsing with 16 muscular fairies in hats, blonde ringlets, ballet skirts and army boots. From this cooperation developed the Wartime Variety Shows that were performed in the surrounding villages where soldiers were billeted. Many artistes from the armed services took part in these shows, including a certain Lance Bombardier Harry Secombe. And the arrival in the town of The Royal Navy Auxillary Hospital in 1942 and the Americans in 1944 provided yet more actors to entertain the troops.
Rehearsals for Tons of Money took place in a small room in Abbey Road and subsequent pre-war plays were rehearsed at The Mermaid Inn in Bristol Rd. Since WWII the Players have had several homes, a hall in George St, the former Eldridge Pope brewery at the top of Cheap St, the Crown Inn (now the Newell French Bistro) in Greenhill, Sherborne House and, again, The Mermaid. Since 2011, thanks to long-term member and benefactor Malcolm Cockburn, our home has been in what is now the Sherborne Studio Theatre.
The Carlton Theatre (which was also a cinema) closed in 1961 and was demolished in 1989, its former site now being part of the Waitrose car park. No, No Nanette and Night Must Fall were performed in The Carlton, but in 1938 the company moved to the Digby Memorial Church Hall in Digby Rd for The Scarlet Pimpernel. Subsequent plays were all performed in the Church Hall until 1972, when Angels in Love was the first play to be performed at the newly built Digby Hall in Hound St. The Digby Hall was used by APS for all indoor productions until the spring of 2018, at which point the Sherborne Studio Theatre became our main venue.
In most years since 1946 APS have presented spring and autumn productions, sometimes with an outdoor summer production as well. A full list of plays can be found on our Past Productions page. We marked the change of century in style, with a series of outdoor Shakespeare productions, starting with The Tempest in 1999 (which we also took to Preveza in Greece) and ending with Twelfth Night in 2002. In 2009 we celebrated our 75th Anniversary with a revival of Tons of Money at the Digby Hall, combined with an exhibition of 75 years of memorabilia.
Now that we have our own small theatre, we aim to present three or four productions a year. Needless to say, the Covid pandemic during 2020 and 2021 seriously curtailed this plan, but we did succeed in presenting two outdoor summer productions during that time. Since then, with four productions in 2022 and another four scheduled for 2023, we have succeeded in getting back on a more even keel.
Although we are amateurs, we aim to stage productions of the highest possible standard of excellence and professionalism and we nearly always enter our productions for adjudication by the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) and the Rose Bowl Awards. Audiences and adjudicators are highly appreciative of our hard work (in December 2021, our production of Witness for the Prosecution, directed by John Crabtree, was immediately awarded a Certificate of Excellence by Graham Liverton, the NODA Regional Councillor), and over the years our productions have won a number of other awards.
Robert Brydges
as Ken Harrison in Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Patrick Knox
as Mr Myers QC in Witness For The Prosecution
Table Manners
directed by John Crabtree at the Sherborne Studio Theatre
most outstanding production in the South West during 2018
A Midsummer Night's Dream
directed by John Crabtree at the Sherborne Studio Theatre
for Best Shakespeare, Classic or Restoration Play
A Midsummer Night's Dream
directed by John Crabtree at the Sherborne Studio Theatre
Adrian Harding
as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream
awarded for excellence to groups that are truly amateur
The Wind in the Willows
directed by Patricia Harris at the Digby Hall, Sherborne
Adrian Thorpe
as Toad in The Wind in the Willows
directed by Patricia Harris at the Digby Hall, Sherborne
for Best Shakespeare Production
Hamlet
directed by Mark Freestone at The Courts, Sherborne School
poster by Mark Freestone and Mark Lambert
Mark Freestone
as Septimus Hodge in Arcadia
directed by Tony Field at the Digby Hall, Sherborne
Poster Design by Robert Doling
directed by Jason Hepple at Compton House, Over Compton
Joy Saunders
as Miss Trafalgar Gower in Trelawny of the "Wells"
directed by Jennie Ward at the Digby Hall, Sherborne
1997 Dorset Drama League Award for Best Set
Lunch Hour
Set Design and construction by Mark Lambert
directed by Stuart McCreadie at the Weymouth Pavilion
1996 Dorset Drama League Producer's Trophy
Pity About Kitty
directed by Jakki Gregory at the Shaftesbury Arts Centre
1987 Bristol Evening Post Award for Best Actor
Vivian Vale
as The Waiter in You Never Can Tell
directed by Margaret Field at the Digby Hall, Sherborne
Gaslight
directed by Jennie Ward at the Digby Hall, Sherborne
The Woodlanders
directed by Lance Salway at the Digby Hall, Sherborne
Spring 1600
directed by Fred B. Alcock at the Theatre Royal, Bristol
