School Productions


Left click the image to enlarge it. This was an illustration to The Drama Club report in The Apple Cart July 1946

Appeal for details of past productions

Ken Norton (s/y 1944) has the programme for Twelfth Night which was performed by the school in The Little Theatre.

David Walker recalls these
'Our Town' at The Little Theatre (1952) See Below
 'Androcles and the Lion' (1955)
He also remembers a double bill including a piece called 'Box and Cox' and he thinks, 'The Rivals' 
Any more details, anyone ?

Gateshead Secondary School (Higher Grade School), later Gateshead Grammar, has put on Gilbert and Sullivan performances going back to the 1900s. We know that because it is mentioned in the book about Arthur Holmes.

"...Arthur as well as being academically outstanding was an exceptionally talented pianist and frequently accompanied the school's Operatic Society in their famed performances of Gilbert and Sullivan"

In the Pocket History of the school in the July 1946 Apple Cart it was Headmaster Mr W. Walton BA (joined the school as Head on 1st Feb 1906) who "developed the musical side of school education..." "...on the annual Speech Days in the Town Hall, the school performed, in costume, portions of famous Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, including Pinafore, Gondoliers and Iolante"

Jon Bratton writes

"I recall in 1965 there was a performance of The Mikado. Many of my contemporaries were in it. Does anyone have the programme? Since told by a very reliable source that  Andrew Forster was the man in charge and Dilwyn Scott a leading player  

Per Ian Wells, 1947 who was in the following three productions. See here for programmes

1952 Our Town 


Programme for "Our Town" and others 



1953 Pride and Predjudice featuring among others Joyce Redfern and Ian Wells

Joyce as Elizabeth Bennett and Ian as Mr Darcy in a scene from "Pride and Prejudice" which Gateshead Grammar School presented at the Little Theatre, Gateshead in 1953

1954 Dido and Aeneas

Programmes