Guernsey Amateur Dramatic & Operatic Club (GADOC)

History

GADOC is the Guernsey Amateur Dramatic & Operatic Club, which began in 1927. Lady Anne Sackville-West, the wife of the Lieutenant-Governor, was the Club's first President. The Vice-President was Compton Mackenzie, who then lived on Jethou.

For just over two years, Lady Sackville-West was the mainspring of the Club, as producer and leading lady in all its full-length plays. The Club's first production was "School for Scandal" in April 1927.

Side by side with plays, GADOC had from the beginning presented an ambitious selection of musicals. In April 1930 there was a cast of over 90 in "Merrie England", which was the first Club production to run for a whole week.

Up to the end of 1930, all GADOC productions had been in St. Julian's Theatre, which doubled as a cinema. With the coming of "talking pictures" the stage had to be removed for the new apparatus. So from 1931, all the Club's musicals, and the larger straight productions, were staged at St. George's Hall. Small-cast plays went to the Central Hall, largely used until then for concerts and lectures. Its stage was enlarged, light battens added and the lighting circuits improved. Its floor was then flat, and its seating only hard, wooden chairs.

Kathryn Prince and George Foote in My Fair Lady, directed by Joyce Cook, Easter 1987

The first musical in St. George's in 1931 was the Club's first venture into Gilbert & Sullivan - "The Mikado". December 1931 brought the Club's very first pantomime - a home-written "Cinderella". Reserved seats were 2/6, 1/9 and 1/3, and all were 3d cheaper if bought at the door!

The press reported that for the first performance of "The Yeomen of the Guard" in 1933, there were more people on the stage than in the audience - a situation which has occurred only once since, on the occasion of the Royal Wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales when the enormous television coverage held the nation in thrall.

With the coming of the War, the Club was dissolved, but those members remaining soon found themselves involved in small companies that played a large part in maintaining the morale of the islanders during the difficult days of the Occupation.

The Club's first post-war production was "No Medals", at the Central Hall, in 1948. A comprehensive range of plays followed. "The Shop at Sly Corner", in 1951, was significant if only for the fact that the hired suit of antique armour took three months to return, being held up by UK Customs, who classed it officially as 'weapons'! In the 1953 production of "Night Must Fall", night fell with a vengeance, with a total electricity failure in the Town area, and the play finished in the eerie light of torches borrowed from the obliging audience. (An incident which occurred again in 1996, during "Chase Me Up Farndale Avenue s.v.p.", a play which was all about the disasters which befell an amateur drama group, so the audience could be forgiven for believing that the power failure was part of the play!)

Clive Gillingham, John Gaisford, Mark Ogier, Jill Stephenson and Susan Crossley

in Death Trap, directed by Margaret Moffatt, Summer 1987

During this period after the War, all major productions were staged at the Central Hall (renamed the Little Theatre). Many improvements were undertaken at this venue, both front-of-house and backstage, and GADOC came to look on it very much as home.

The Beau Sejour Theatre was opened in December 1976 with a gala performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" to an invited audience.

A large cast and a large multi-level set in Joyce Cook's 1987 production of Noises Off

For much of the post-war era, the Club was fortunate to have access to a small room and storage cupboard at the Guille-Allès Library for use as a Club Room. In August 1977 the Club purchased a former roller-skating rink at Delancey in St. Sampson and this has been one of the most important developments in the Club's history. It provides space for rehearsal, storage, scenery construction and painting, and its acquisition led to a significant growth in the Club's membership and activities.

Between 1977 and 1980 the Club staged its musicals and pantomimes at Beau Sejour, and Summer Season and October plays at the Little Theatre. All subsequent productions have been staged at Beau Sejour Theatre except for a period in 1985 when the theatre was being refurbished; in that year, GADOC staged two musical productions in Beau Sejour's Sarnian Hall (now the David Ferguson Hall). The 1985 October production, "The Hollow Crown", was presented at St. James' Concert Hall.

On 12th March 1984 the Little Theatre was gutted by fire and so ended an era in the history of the Club.

Crystal James in the dock for GADOC's 1990 Easter production

Trial by Jury, directed by Tony Bran

For many years GADOC's annual programme has consisted of a musical at Easter, a One-Act Play Festival in May, a three-play Summer Season (usually including a comedy, a farce and a thriller), an October production (often of an experimental or offbeat nature), and a Christmas Pantomime (the latter is usually in traditional style, but occasionally locally-written with plenty of Guernsey content).

Recent Easter productions were “Guys & Dolls”, “Annie”, “High Society”, “The Pajama Game”, “Oliver!”, “42nd Street” , “The King & I”, “Singin’ in the Rain”, "Return to the Forbidden Planet", "'Allo 'Allo" and "Ebenezer Le Page".

The most recent October productions include “Hay Fever”, “Quartet”, “Juno and the Paycock”, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, “The Herbal Bed”, “Taking Steps”, “The Railway Children” (world premiere), “A Christmas Carol”, “The Cemetery Club”, “Closure” (world premiere), “About Alice”, "Ladies in Retirement" and "Bonaventure".

In 2009 the Club presented its thirty-seventh Summer Season, which included "Little Women the Musical" and "No Dinner for Sinners". The season began on July 20th with the World Premiere of "Five Children and a Psammead", Ron Blicq's adaptation of E Nesbit's "Five Children and It". The play was well-received by all ages, but appealed particularly to the 8- to 14-year-olds. It was directed by Jane Blower at Guernsey's Beau Sejour Theatre. Here is a scene from the play.

October 2009 saw Joyce Cook's production of "The Shell Seekers". This wonderful play was warmly received and well attended.

Joyce's declining health forced her to take a step back from day-to-day direction, and the direction of her play was undertaken by

Assistant to the Director Judy Moore, principal character Ann Atkinson, and other experienced performers in the cast.

Some scenes from the production:

For Christmas 2009, the Club presented "Jack and the Beanstalk",
which ran until January 2nd.
This locally-written traditional pantomime by Margaret Moffatt played to capacity houses.

Our Easter production was Railway Children - the Musical, presented over Easter.
Sell-out audiences enjoyed this delightful entertainment, directed by Jo Martel and Jenny Falla.

Our 2010 Summer Season included three productions: The Collector was first,
directed by Caron Parker, the first production the Club has presented at Guernsey's new
Princess Royal Centre for the Performing Arts.

This was followed by Lisa Johnston's production of Disney's Beauty & the Beast,
for which we returned to our regular theatre, Beau Sejour.

The final play of the season was The Graduate, directed by Bridget Carey.

The October 2010 production was Twelfth Night. Astoundingly, this is the first time that our Club
has presented a Shakespearean work, and it was very well received.
Here, Sir Toby, Feste and Sir Andrew misbehave, as it their wont.

For their 52nd annual pantomime, the Club staged Jim Sperinck's Aladdin, directed by Jane Blower.
Performances ran from December 18th to January 1st.

Over Easter 2011 GADOC staged Lisa Johnston's production of Hello Dolly!

All colour photographs are by Fitzgeralds of Guernsey