Standing ovation for St Annes Parish Operatic Society's 50 years on stage

The society was formed in 1970 by the then vicar of St Annes Parish Church, Canon Clarke and parishioner Barbara Haylett. Several church members formed a committee and an inaugural meeting was held for prospective members.

The first show ‘Oliver’ was performed in 1971 at St Annes Pier Pavilion and was an enormous success. Myself and my mother Dorothy Cartmell performed in this show and we are still members today but I am the only original member still active as a performer and director.

Over the last 50 years we have performed a musical show each year as well as a several pantomimes, plays and musical revues. After the horrendous fire which destroyed the beautiful Pier Pavilion theatre in 1973, just two weeks before we were due to perform our show, we were fortunate to be able to move to Lowther Pavilion so that the show could go ahead.

We later moved to the wonderful Ashton theatre in St Annes which unfortunately was also destroyed by fire just after the penultimate performance of the musical ‘Charlie Girl’ which was our show in that year 1977.

Everything was destroyed but amazingly, with the wonderful help from other local groups providing scenery etc, we were able to perform the last night`s show at Lowther Pavilion at which the audience gave a standing ovation.

We have had ups and downs over the years but also lots of fun and have many amusing anecdotes. I recall a cast member who had to ride a motor cycle onto the stage and at the dress rehearsal this unfortunate person accelerated instead of braking and shot off the stage into the orchestra pit! Luckily, no-one was seriously hurt. Many of our members have grown up with the society and we have many families amongst our membership with some fourth generation now performing with us.