Stone Little Theatre

Stone Little Theatre was born out of an idea by Chris C Bell and Alan Thorley and was officially formed as the drama section of the then Corning Sports & Social Club in September 1979. At that time, it was planned to produce an annual pantomime to which employees of Corning Science Products could bring their families. It soon became clear that there was a much wider need for live theatrical entertainment in the Stone area and consequently, the company’s role quickly grew to include plays and musicals.

Our list of past productions is testimony to Stone Little Theatre’s success over the past 30 glorious years.

Today, Stone Little Theatre still has at its heart all the traditional values of high quality amateur theatre whilst remaining at the absolute forefront of theatrical technology and engineering. We have consistently moved with the times and nowadays use professional staging, lighting and sound equipment in all our productions and, in the case of pantomime, professional scenery too. This, combined with the talents of an extremely versatile company of actors and actresses, singers and dancers and an equally talented production team led by Director Chris C Bell, Musical Director, Angela Bromley and Director of Dance, Janice Bruce, enables us to produce plays, pantomimes and musicals to the very highest standards.

Our 30th and last pantomime at the Bibby Sports & Social Club, Cinderella, was the absolute best ever! It was also a world premiere of a new version of the traditional story by local author, Alan P Fryan (cousin of ‘Noise Off’ author Michael). Alan, who is Managing Director or Stage Right Creative Limited, has been a close associate of Stone Little Theatre since the early 90’s.

Stone Little Theatre is a member of both NODA (National Operatic & Dramatic Association) and the NSDA (North Staffordshire Drama Association) and, over the years, we have won many awards for various aspects of our productions.

In 2002, Stone Little Theatre embarked on a completely new and exciting project to compile and stage a musical celebration of the 1960’s. From an initial idea by Neil Norman, the project developed into a highly successful production written by Chris C Bell which we called 'Walkin’ Back To Happiness' after Helen Shapiro’s 1961 number one hit.

In addition to over 30 classic hits from artistes including The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Sandie Shaw, The Allisons (John Allison actually came to see the show and performed his 1961 hit ‘Are You Sure’ live on stage), Billy J Kramer and Cilla Black, the show also included live, on-stage excerpts from the best of British radio, TV and film comedy including ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ (The Blood Donor), ‘Carry On Camping’ and ‘Dad’s Army’.

Also featured were BBC and ITV News Bulletins, the broadcasts and speeches of many famous people including John F Kennedy, Harold Wilson and Martin Luther King and lots, lots more.

‘Walkin’ Back To Happiness’ won the NSDA’s prestigious ‘Most Original Approach To Theatre’ Award in the 2002/2003 Festival. Our musicians led by Angela Bromley, our Musical Director for 30 years, also won the Special Adjudicators Award.

In 2003, we applied the same award-winning formula to 1970’s with another highly successful production of 'Yesterday Once More'. Named after The Carpenters 1973 hit, the show included over 25 classic hand-clapping, foot-stomping hits from artistes including Abba, The Barron Knights, The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Edison Lighthouse, Elton John, Gloria Gaynor, Mud, The Rubettes, Showaddywaddy and Rod Stewart. The show also contained a bounty of classic side-splitting film and television comedy with live on-stage excerpts from ‘Are You Being Served’, ‘Fawlty Towers’, ‘Monty Python’, ‘Rising Damp’, ‘Till Death Us Do Part’ and ‘The Two Ronnies’. There was also a generous helping of year-by-year news, views, nostalgia & reminiscences.

In 2004, we added a third part to our home grown set of musical celebrations with a spectacular review of the 1980’s. ‘Simply The Best’ also provided an opportunity to celebrate 25 years of Stone Little Theatre as a grand finale to our Silver Anniversary Season.

Named after Tina Turner’s 1980’s hit single, ‘Simply The Best’, was a year-by-year extravaganza of everything that was new, novel, fascinating and fun in a decade that also witnessed its fair share of conflict, peace and discovery - and a great deal more besides...

The show included over 20 classic hand-clapping, foot-stomping hits from artistes including Buggles, Hall & Oates, Madonna, Queen, Spandau Ballet, Status Quo and Tears For Fears.

Also featured were a bounty of classic side-splitting film and television comedy with live on-stage excerpts from ‘ALLO ALLO’, 'HI-DE-HI’ and 'BLACKADDER II'.

There was a section dedicated to eighties musicals including ‘Phantom of the Opera’, ‘Starlight Express’, ‘Chess’, ‘Miss Saigon’ and ‘Les Misérables’ and also a generous helping of year-by-year news, views, nostalgia and reminiscences with live video footage of key events including the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer, the US Presidential Election with speeches by Ronald Reagan and the toppling of the Berlin Wall.

All three 'decade' musicals are now available for other amateur theatre companies to produce.

Following the closure of the Bibby Sports & Social Club in March 2009 - our home for 30 years - the future of Stone Little Theatre looked uncertain but as 2010 began, we were able to confirm that not only had we secured a new home but also a new venue to stage our productions as well.

Stone Little Theatre now lives on at Stone Cricket Club in Lichfield Road, Stone, where, out of rehearsals, we meet every Tuesday evening.

Our new venue for productions is Walton Priory Middle School where we successfully staged our first independent production - 'Aladdin' - from 17th to 20th February 2010.

This website has been awarded a runner-up place in the prestigious International FrontLook Hall of Fame VI






























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