Our History

We formed in 1902 after a lady by the name of Miss Pepper went on holiday to the south coast and attended a theatrical performance. On her return, she was discussing how impressed she was by it with her friend Mrs Walter Carling and how Hitchin really ought to have an operatic society of its very own. 

From these humble beginnings, inaugural rehearsals of ladies only were followed by a performance of ‘The Gitanos’ by Coleridge Taylor in February 1903 at the Hitchin Town Hall. The ‘Hitchin Amateur Light Opera’ company was formed shortly after this in a meeting at the house of Rev G B Gainsford, curate of St Saviour’s (now Holy Saviour) Church. Membership was strictly by invitation only and subscriptions were fixed at 2/6d (12.5p) per season. 

Following a successful production of ‘The Sorcerer’, the society joined the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) just five years after it had begun in 1899. Thespians then undertook the more ambitious ‘The Yeoman of the Guard’, for which Mrs D’Oyly Carte gave the committee special terms. 

The stage of HT’s production of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ was, for the first time, lit by electric light. This was partially paid for by the society as the gas lights that had been used in the Town Hall up to that time gave out so much heat that they burst the bulb of a thermometer when the temperature was taken! 

Press reviews for the Thespians’ productions were glowing and give some sense of how important they were to the locals at this time: ‘[E]ach season the announcement of their three days’ occupancy of the Town Hall stage awakens the liveliest of anticipation of pleasures to come amongst playgoers in Hitchin and the neighbourhood.’ 

First performance to take place outside Hitchin – ‘The Yeoman of the Guard’ was performed (for the second time) in November at the Hill End Asylum, St Albans. 

The minutes record that a postal vote was held to suspend all performances and activities on the outbreak of World War One. The committee invested their funds in Treasury Bonds and did not meet again until April 1919. 

The first post-war musical performance at the Town Hall in Hitchin was ‘The Gondoliers’ which was praised as being ‘one of the most notable of its kind ever given in the town’  

HT decided to put on two performances per year rather than one. HT also engaged its first ever professional conductor, a Mr Edgar Wilby of the London Symphony Orchestra, for another performance of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’. At this point in time, most performances included putting on transport to and from the local towns and villages by bus and appeals to ladies to please remove their hats so that everyone could see the stage. 

In order to claim exemptions from the Entertainments Tax, the society made a successful appeal to good friends to become its first Patrons. 

The Hitchin Thespians moved their productions from the Hitchin Playhouse and Hitchin Town Hall to the Hermitage Cinema, which was located in Hermitage Road. This enabled larger audiences – the performance of ‘The Desert Song’ in 1933 attracted nearly 10,000 people in total across the week. 1933 was also the year that sadly marked the death of the society’s first President, the Rev G B Gainsford. 

Again, all activities ceased for the duration of World War 2 and only resumed in June 1945, when the society struggled with props and costumes having been lost through bombing or had otherwise become unusable. In February 1946, the curtain raised on a performance of ‘The Rebel Maid’ which was hailed as ‘[bringing] back to our peacetime life one of the social and musical events which we have been denied – and have longed for’. 

In February 1952, the society marked its 50th year with a production of ‘Viktoria and her Hussar’. This show was almost scuppered by the Musical Director being taken suddenly and seriously ill after the final dress rehearsal. Replacement conductors were drafted in at short notice and the show went on. ‘God Save the Queen’ was sung at the end of the final show as the King had died just 12 days before curtain up. 

Hitchin Thespians gave their last ever performance – ‘Magyar Melody’ – at the Hermitage Cinema, which was due to be refurbished to add the new ‘cinemascope’ screens which would do away with the stage. 

Thespians took part in their first Hitchin Music Festival which was an annual event until the sixties (and has its successor in the modern-day Hitchin Festival each summer which often features HT performers) 

HT’s first ever choral concert with tickets open to the general public took place in Hitchin Town Hall. 

The Junior Thespians (a group of singers aged 10-15) put on a performance of ‘Hansel & Gretal’ by Humperdinck. 

HT appointed our first female Musical Director, Vera Mallett, who introduced professional musicians to the accompanying orchestra for the first time. She was to conduct more than thirty shows & concerts over the course of the next twenty years. 

The position of Chairman was created, separate from the President role, to do the daily business of chairing committee meetings. 

In the 70th year of Hitchin Thespians, the anniversary production of ‘The Sound of Music’ almost came undone because of the political crisis of the day which meant regular power-cuts and restrictions. Stand-by generators linked up to car headlights were bought as a backup and the show went on. 

The production of ‘Robert & Elizabeth’, a modern West-End show of the day, was Hitchin Thespians’ first performance in the brand-new Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage. The theatre was a considerable step up for the company in terms of both its backstage facilities and for the comfort of audiences and became a regular venue for many years. 

A concert in Hitchin’s twin town of Bingen-am-Rhein in Germany kicked off a long association between the Hitchin Thespians and the various choirs of the town with many visits back and forth to perform over the next 20-30 years. 

Hitchin Thespians performances at this time were so popular that there was considerable competition to obtain tickets amongst theatre-goers, with tickets selling out weeks before the show opened. In 1979 the situation for the production of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ was so bad that Hitchin Thespians put a notice in the local newspaper apologising to those unable to buy tickets at the Box Office. One local complained that ‘I went down… as soon as the box office opened last Monday, but I could not get near [it]’. 

Hitchin Thespians became the first amateur group to perform the iconic ‘West Side Story’ in a production at the Gordon Craig Theatre in October 1987 and it was so popular that some sixty youngsters auditioned for just thirty-one cast places. 

By this time, HT’s rehearsal venue, The Old Guild Rooms, was falling into significant disrepair. Despite successive patches and multiple new roofs over the years, the overall wooden structure of the building was failing to mould and rot. Discussions about new rehearsal venues and fundraising efforts were starting to become more urgent. 

’My Fair Lady’, performed at the Gordon Craig Theatre, was Hitchin Thespians’ 100th stage show. The Saturday night Grand Gala Performance included a wine reception, interval chocolates and souvenir programme while the audience were invited to attend in evening dress to add to the glamour. 

The building of HT’s dedicated building Woodside Hall was completed in the old grounds of Rev G B Gainsford’s house, Woodside Lodge. The first performance to take place in our new venue was a concert titled ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ which celebrated the music of Rogers & Hammerstein. 

Hitchin Thespians performed the worldwide premiere of ‘The Middleham Requiem’ by Geoffrey Davidson, with 101 singers and orchestral players descending on Fotheringay in Northants. The concert was repeated in St Marys Church in Hitchin and then twice more in Middleham, Yorkshire the following year. 

’La Cage Aux Folles’, performed at the Gordon Craig Theatre, won the NODA award for the best amateur musical production in the region. This was the first year such an award had been made, but certainly not the last time that Thespians would receive the honour. 

The Gainsford Room extension to Woodside Hall was completed with aid from the National Lottery fund. This ‘green room’ extension enabled a full kitchen, back store and changing areas to be added to the side and rear of the building. 

The Young Thespians were officially founded with an initial concert and summer BBQ. While Thespians had various youth sections, concerts and affiliations over the years, this new group went from strength to strength under the guidance of long-term Thespian member Ann Crook. 

Hitchin Thespians marked 100 years of making music with a celebratory concert in Hitchin Town Hall and the publication of ‘Thank You, Miss Pepper! Hitchin Thespians, The First Hundred Years’ by then President Arthur C Warne. There was also a thanksgiving service held in Holy Saviour Church for our founding President, Rev G B Gainsford. 

110 voices from Hitchin Thespians and other local choirs performed excerpts from Handel’s Messiah at St. Marys Church in memory of Thespians President Arthur Warne. Singers came from all parts of the country from the Isle of Wight to Scotland to be part of the event. 

After a successful HT show week of The Full Monty in 2006, a small group of Thespians took on the daunting task of performing it at the Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2007. There were also performances at Hitchin Town Hall and at the Robin Howard Dance Theatre in London to complete the tour. 

The Thespians Social and Fundraising committee premiered a variety show just for the dancers called Gotta Dance. This proved so popular with both dancers and audiences that it was followed by two more Gotta Dance events in 2014 and 2017. 

‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ was the first full musical theatre show to be performed by Thespians in our own Woodside Hall. This marked a change of venue for Thespians from the Gordon Craig Theatre, which was increasingly financially difficult to justify. 

Iain Rutherford was a long-standing member, committee member and MD, who sadly passed away in 2015. In his honour, his family donated a prize cup to Hitchin Thespians to award to the Most Promising Young Performer each year. The first winner was Amy Lisles, who was presented with the cup following a performance of Young Thespians’ Peter Pan. 

The coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of a concert titled ‘Inspired Voices’ just a week before curtain-up and also the show ‘Return to the Forbidden Planet’. It resulted in a complete shutdown of activities for a year and a half while the committee met by video conference. 

The Thespians returned to the stage in 2021 as part of Hitchin Festival with a concert version of ‘The (Reduced) Pirates of Penzance’ for the Hitchin Thespians in The Dell, having taken all of the rehearsals outdoors in the garden of Woodside Hall.