Hutton Drama Club was conceived in the back room of the village shop in the summer of 1976, coinciding with the inauguration of the new village hall, where, from then until the current day we have held our weekly Monday meetings. One of our founder members is still holding office and treading the boards.

Our first production was the popular 'Barefoot in the Park' by Neil Simons - a witty American author. The New York accents changed to Irish as we next posed as nuns in 'A Letter to the General'. After this we created a trap door in the stage to house Willy the cobbler in 'Hobson's Choice' and devised the means for a real water rain storm for 'Johnny Belinda'. With our creative back-stage crew we would tackle any challenge with enthusiasm and usually, after re-modification after re-modification, with success.

We began with two shows a year, one comedy, the other drama and were delighted with the popularity and financial success playing to three packed houses each show. We then introduced our children's show around Christmas, donating a large percentage of the profits to children's charities. Sadly with the changing culture we now play to a smaller audience on two evenings and rely heavily on the profits from the pantomime, always popular, to fund our other plays and running costs. We perform mainly comedies because they are more popular and encourage audience members, or as we say, 'bums on seats'!

In our hey day we also introduced our summer music hall supper evenings - again for charity. We supported St. Loyes College in Exeter who provide occupational training for people with disabilities. We also took this 'road show' to the college on several occasions and once to the Exmouth Pavilion. On one occasion as ticket sales for the show were slow, we borrowed a lorry from one of our sponsors and placed the can-can girls and the piano on the back and they danced around the town!. It was a sell out.

Being versatile these shows have been on tour to raise funds for other causes; Banwell Village Hall, Bourneville Community Centre, Victoria Methodist Church Restoration Fund and Uphill Village Hall to name a few. We were also the last people to perform in the Victorian Knightstone Theatre - one of Weston's Heritage buildings on the old Harbour. We were planning to raise money to save the theatre but sadly we can-canned our our way through the stage on dress rehearsal night and had to hire staging and hire scaffolding experts to erect it. This devoured all our proceeds and now 20 plus years on the theatre is derelict and the whole island and causeway is closed to the public for safety reasons and is soon to be turned into housing. A sad end to a once great theatre.

We are now a very reduced group in numbers, but not in skill, talent and enthusiasm. Whatever your forte we need you and you will always find a warm welcome. We need skills on acting, music, carpentry, painting, needlework, catering, computers, sales, promotion and important of all, support and coffee. Please join us - you will enjoy the social interaction, friendship and the satisfaction of being part, however small, of a professional production - both on stage, off stage and front of house, a reputation for which we are justifiably proud.