A brief history of St Paul’s Players

St Paul’s Players as we know it today officially came into being in 1954, but there was actually a drama club attached to the church as far back as 1946. It grew from its youth club origins into a group welcoming members of all ages and was originally called St Paul’s Church Dramatic Society.

The early productions were staged in a hall under a church building in Beauley Road that became the temporary St Paul’s Church following bomb damage during the Second World War (the Beauley Road building later became St David’s Hall, the St Paul’s parish hall, when the main church was rebuilt in 1956/7 and officially reopened in 1958).

These early performances took place on a basic platform erected by tradespeople from within the church community, which unavoidably featured a rather large supporting stone pillar right in the middle – this unusual feature (for a stage, not a church) was disguised for productions variously as a tree, a lamppost and many other things!

Circumstances forced the disbandment of the group in 1951, and following the subsequent three-year hiatus, its revival was proposed and a meeting was held on November 16th 1954. The group, renamed St Paul’s Players, had among its founder members Max and Mary Pemberton. Our first production was a one-act play, “Penny Plain” and it was closely followed by our first three-act play in October 1955 – “Sister Craven” by Stuart Ready.

Above: Two productions from 1957 –“The Secret Tent” and “Young Wives’ Tale” (Photos courtesy of Patrick Edgeworth)

In 1961, the new parish hall in Beauley Road was converted and a proper stage was built complete with proscenium arch, installed stage lighting and dressing-room facilities. The first play to be performed there was “The Iron Duchess” by William Douglas-Home. In 1966, the group decided to start competing in festivals and this policy has continued to the present day with recent entries into the “Rose Bowl” (for full length plays) and the Bristol One-Act Drama Festival.

Some highlights in our long history include Old Time Music Halls, plays specifically for children, taking our productions “on tour”, participating in productions at Minack in Cornwall and Murder/Mystery dinners. We have also actively supported many charities over the years and donations from a production’s profits are often given to the producer’s chosen charity.

November 1999 saw a major change for our group. The hall had been sold for conversion to housing. Our last production at St David’s Hall was “Small Hotel” by Rex Frost. We then began the mammoth task of packing our belongings and memories up into boxes and transferred our base to St Paul’s Church in Coronation Road. Our first production there was “The Witnesses” by Clive Sansom in November 2000.

Since that production, we have successfully transformed the church into a theatre by the clever use of portable staging and lighting, pew moving, the hard work of the group’s members and the co-operation and support of the vicar and church members. Because of the difficulty we have blacking-out the church for evening performances, we have used Long Ashton Village Hall and, more recently, Backwell Playhouse as our spring venue.

Since our move, the group has continued to go from strength to strength, highlighting our special talents. Although members both new and old felt a sadness at leaving Beauley Road after so many successful and varied years, we have shown that the group spirit and friendship is stronger than anything, even bricks and mortar!