A Brief
History.
Almost ninety years of treading the boards of the Derbyshire Dales, from a parlour in Dale Road to the Imperial Rooms in Matlock.
★ The Founding Meeting · High Tor Guest House · 1937
1937
Jessica Hazelwood organised a meeting at the High Tor Guest House (now Hotel) on Dale Road, Matlock, with a group of people who shared an interest in theatre. At that meeting they decided to form a club, the High Tor Players, which would encourage the learning of improvisation and mime, as well as the reading and discussing of plays.
They had no theatre, no costumes and no money. They had each other, and an idea.
1939
They began entering local drama festivals in 1938. In 1939 they staged their first production: Potbound, written by member Lilian Smee, a look at "modern slum life" and the effect of overcrowding on families. It won first prize at a local British Drama League festival and third at the Buxton Festival.
Among the cast was Eileen Griffiths (later Redfern), who would remain with the Players through to the 1980s and become the driving force behind the group - staging many acclaimed productions and establishing the company's reputation for quality.
★ Eileen Redfern · driving force for four decades
1944
After the War
With the advent of the Second World War it was not until 1944 that the next production , George and Margaret by George Savory, was performed at Matlock Town Hall. The Town Hall would remain the company's home until 1979.
A roving
company.
- 1937High Tor Guest House, Dale Road (founding meeting)
- 1944–1979Matlock Town Hall
- 1979–1988Matlock Rockside Assembly Hall
- 1988–1992John Turner School / Whitworth Centre, Darley Dale
- 1992–todayAshover Parish Hall, Imperial Rooms Matlock, and touring
- TouringYoulgrave · Bakewell · Wirksworth · Tansley · Matlock Bath
1962
The Theatre That Wasn't
The company entered negotiations with the Smedley's Hydropathic Company to convert the church inside Smedley's Hydro into a theatre, a permanent home for the High Tor Players. Before the conversion could take place, the building was sold to Matlock Town Council. The dream of "Our Own Theatre" was put back on the shelf.
2017
80th Anniversary
High Tor Players celebrated their 80th anniversary with a return to Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus, performed at the Grand Pavilion in Matlock Bath. The Matlock Mercury reported on the milestone, and the company looked forward, as it still does - to the next eighty years.
Still going
strong.
New productions, new faces, and a community that turns out, year after year, to fill the seats and clap till their hands ache.