50 Years of the Mitre Players!

2023 is a special year for The Mitre Players, as it is our 50th Anniversary.

The very first performance by The (reformed) Mitre Players was on 26 April 1973, when Charley’s Aunt took to the stage – two stages, actually, as we performed in different venues on each of the two evenings. Our cast for this momentous occasion were recent Trinity leavers: Andrew Thompson, Martin Tyrrell, Stuart Duff, Colin Warnock, Peter Witton and Dick Tricker, along with Coloma girls: Diana Dobson, Celine Murphy, Ruth Fletcher and Margaret Zemla. The set was designed by Richard Winkworth and “built” by the cast plus Phil Sowton, Nick Green, Richard Hyder, Dickie Mallett and Tony Britten. Others credited in the programme included Anna Zemla (now Warnock), Ian Croll and Graham Price. Memories, eh?

So how did it all begin?

Prior to leaving Trinity School, Croydon in July 1972, Martin Tyrrell, Colin Warnock and Tony Britten became involved in the Croydon Students Music Group’s touring production of Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale. Tony asked Anna Zemla to do the costumes and here she met Warnock and Tyrrell for the first time.

As their swansong at Trinity, Tyrrell and Warnock masterminded the Trinity School Variety Performance, enlisting a cast of hundreds that included the school rugby team, the Trinity Swing Band and girls from nearby Coloma Convent Grammar School. This involved a variety of sketches and musical items choreographed by Andrew Thompson.

On leaving school, the friends felt the need to foster their thespian inclinations. Thus, they enlisted the support of Tony’s father, Gerald Britten, and Alan Swaffield. In March 1973, Trinity’s Sandison Room hosted a revue by these recent old-boys who wished to reform the Old Mid-Whitgiftian Drama Society (which had lain dormant since the 1950s) - The Mitre Players.

Included in the cast were Stuart Duff, Janet Stimson, Martin Tyrrell and Tony Britten - who spent the majority of one sketch asleep in a teapot. Audience members at this revue included John and Gillian Bartle, Alan and Heather Sexton, Gerald and Pat Britten, Alan and Joyce Swaffield and other senior members of the Old Mid-Whitgiftian Association (OMWA).

We can only assume that we were up to the required standard, as those in control of the OMWA did indeed allow us to reform The Mitre Players, using the Clubhouse to rehearse in. Our very first production, Charley’s Aunt, was performed on 26 and 27 April 1973 – at two different venues: Sanderstead Hall in Purley Oaks Road and Sanderstead Parish Church Hall in Onslow Gardens.

We continued to use the latter to perform in for our early years, along with the Stanley Halls in South Norwood and Trinity’s Big School (now known as the Concert Hall). Smaller productions were performed at the Clubhouse, and we still often perform there. The opening of the Turner Building at Trinity in 1987, which included what is now known as the Mitre Theatre, has proved a successful performing venue for us ever since then, though we did continue to use the Concert Hall for our annual pantomimes up until the final one in January 2010.

1987 also saw the first touring production by The Mitre Players and this has remained an annual feature of our calendar. The first five touring shows were staged at the Falmouth Arts Centre in Cornwall. However, in 1992 we were invited to perform for a week at the Minack, Cornwall’s prestigious open-air theatre. From then until 2018 we alternated between the Minack and the Shaftesbury Theatre in Dawlish, Devon. And now we have added a new venue, the Apollo Theatre in Newport, Isle of Wight, which also alternates with the Minack.

I am pleased to report that The Mitre Players is still going strong as it enters its 51st year, under the chairmanship of Ziggi Szafranski, and we currently have a predominantly younger committee steering us into the future. Some of us oldies are still lingering on though and are filled with pride and satisfaction to see that what we started fifty years ago is still being enjoyed by today’s members, young and old.

Further details of our forthcoming plays and musicals can be found on our website: www.mitreplayers.org.uk

It’s never too late – or too early – to join us!