DAOS 1909-1959:
The Grand Theatre

On 15th February 1909, less than two weeks after that initial meeting, the group met with Mr. John William Chapman, Manager of the Grand Theatre, to discuss the possibility of hiring the Grand for a musical production in the January of 1910. The group were offered a six night run, for a commission of 35% of the takings, and so from Monday 10th to Saturday 15th January 1910 the society staged it’s first performance; Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado”, directed Mr. Wilfrid Sanderson, a well known musician and composer of the day.

The next two productions were “The Gondoliers” in 1911 and “The Yeomen of the Guard” in 1912, both of which proved highly popular and successful. “Merrie England” was chosen for the spring of 1913 and both “HMS Pinafore” and “Trial by Jury” were produced in December of that year.

1914’s show was set to be Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones”, which at that time had been banned from the shelves of the public library, however the Great War put a halt to productions for some time. The next production wasn’t until1920 when “The Gondoliers” proved another popular show. From 1921, DAOS began to introduce some more modern musicals alongside the tradition Gilbert & Sullivan Operas they had become known for…

2020: The year theatre went dark

The beautiful, modern theatre, Cast, has been our home now since 2014 and we could not be prouder to work with the amazing team there. We’ve forged great partnerships with the incredible stage management department and we owe so much of our recent success to the professionalism and unwavering support of our favourite techie team!

This relationship was brought, so poignantly, to the fore in 2020; our production of “Our House” ground to a halt during the technical rehearsal as CAST suddenly had to close its doors following the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. After days of hard work building sets and scenery, designing lighting and plotting sound, not to mention almost 8 months of rehearsing, the curtain fell before it had even been raised.

Our wonderful friends at the theatre allowed us to come back for one more day, offering their own time and talent to help us stage “Our House” for one night only, behind closed doors. We will never be able to thank them enough for their kindness and generosity. The theatre lit up for one final night of music, joy and camaraderie before months of darkness.

The Coronavirus pandemic has thrown uncertainty across the entire entertainment industry, our friends at CAST spent most of 2020 not knowing when, or even if, they would be able to return to the jobs they love and have trained so hard to do so well.

For now, we can only hope that it won’t be too long before we can return to our home at CAST and work with the incredible team once again.

We will return. After all, the show must go on.