Welcome to the Portchester Players' Hampshire Theatre Group website.
Born in the lounge bar of a smoky pub in the early 1960s, Hampshire theatre group the Portchester Players are celebrating more than 40 years in the business. Three of its founder members are still involved in the group today and they have witnessed several company marriages, quite a few births and - truth to tell - one or two divorces too! The group is quite family orientated and there are one or two Players families who have produced third Generation Players! We have also had several members move into the professional world - both front and back stage - and we always keep an avuncular eye on their exploits.
We have been at the same venue, Portchester Community Centre, for most of our forty years and consider ourselves very lucky to have such a good home. We are currently fund-raising to upgrade the facilities (sound, lighting etc etc) both for us and the Community as a whole.
Over the years, the group has tackled pretty much all forms of theatre, but we initially became well known for our Pantos and Music Halls. We still put on a Panto in January every year and the occasional Music Hall, because they are so popular. The annual programme is generally along the lines of Panto (January), Play (April), Musical (July) Play (October).
Very active in Hampshire amateur theatre, the Players usually enter the annual Totton Drama festival, which is the first round of the All England Drama festival - http://www.aetf.org.uk/frames.html.
Whilst we have won at Totton several times, we had a particularly successful year in 2004, where we not only won there, but also won awards for Best Actress (Sue Bisley), Best Supporting Actress (jointly between Jacquie Arnott and Julie Curry) and Best Director (Kay Sumpner). We then won the next round in Weymouth and this led to a place in the semi-finals in Evesham, where sadly we came to the end of our run. We were very proud to represent the best of amateur theatre in Hampshire and of course - there is always another year!
The years roll by, people (and audiences!) come and go but we like to think that the Players will soldier on for at least another 40 years. If you have never seen a PP production - why not come along and see us soon? See our Productions page for more detail or join our mailing list, so that we can always keep you informed.
Thank you for visiting us - we hope you find something to interest you. If you think of anything else we could add, please e-mail us. See our contact page for details.
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