Huddersfield Thespians’ History
Back in 1920, Sidney Crowther was discussing the Stockport and Marple Garrick amateur dramatic societies with James Gregson, then-manager of the Theatre Royal Huddersfield, and asked why Huddersfield couldn’t have something similar. They soon found there was enough local interest that they were able to form a Society, and the name Huddersfield Thespians was adopted in June 1920. Our first play followed in October that year.
As part of that first season, the Society staged ‘Mrs Warren’s Profession’ by Bernard Shaw, a controversial play which was at that time banned by the censor, and so could only be performed to audiences of private members, not the general public.
Naturally, this caused quite a stir in the town, and many more people got to hear about the performance as a result. This turned out to be a canny bit of marketing, and the Society’s membership swelled with people coming to see what all the fuss was about.
From this auspicious start, the Thespians have continued to perform plays in the area every year since 1920. Not even the Second World War stopped us! We estimate that since that first conversation back in 1920, the Society has staged over 600 productions.
Since the beginning, we’ve been keen to make our own sets and costumes, and our stage crew and wardrobe department are still an integral part of the society. It takes many different people to get a play onstage, all doing different jobs, and we’re always looking for people to get involved in all areas of production.
Since 2022, our plays have been performed at Longwood Mechanics Hall and the Lawrence Batley Theatre, where we use the more intimate Cellar Theatre. Both spaces have their challenges, but they give us the opportunity to stage a wide range of plays throughout the season.
We’ve always strived to offer a variety of work, from serious plays to comedy, from well-established classics to work by newer authors, and sometimes even plays written by our own members. These include, for example, classics like Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’, modern hits like Tim Firth’s ‘Calendar Girls’, but also new writing like Philip Meeks’s ‘Murder, Margaret & Me’ and our own adaptations of Grimm fairy tales, as well as extracts from Shakespeare in our outdoor ‘Shakespeare in the Park’.
To find out more, have a read of Different Stages: Celebrating 100 Years of Huddersfield Thespians, which was written by Christine Verguson of Huddersfield Local History Society to mark our 100th birthday. There’s also a huge collection of documents, pictures, and memorabilia held in West Yorkshire Archives. With such a strong foundation, we can look forward to many more years of quality theatre-making in Huddersfield.
