Emergency Exit was the Players’ first production, in March 1936, written by Gordon Brice-White. Gordon was a member of the Sussex Playwrights Club, with which the Players had strong links at the time. Emergency Exit was performed over two nights at Southwick & Shoreham Senior Girls’ School. Among the cast was Gordon’s sister Venetia, who later married another cast member, George Baker, with the couple continuing lifelong membership of the Players. Also in the cast incidentally was George’s brother Stanley, who after the War was the main driving force behind the setting up of Southwick Community Association.

In 1945, Southwick was one of the very first Community Centres to be set up in the country, and Stanley Baker MBE remained at the helm as Hon. Sec until his retirement in the 1990s.

On Friday, 25th July 1935 a meeting, under the chairmanship of Charles Walker, was held at Southwick Town Hall. As a result of this meeting Southwick Amateur Players came into being. At the meeting it was asked if the Players would have their own theatre, and Mr Walker replied, “I hope that Southwick will be able to provide a ‘barn’ as a permanent home.”

The following Thursday another meeting was held, to discuss preliminaries at the Barn, Southwick Green. This is the flint building, now converted to houses, immediately north of King Charles cottage on the west side of the Green. That is where the Barn Theatre was earmarked to be, until the intervention of the War. The Players’ first officers were elected at another meeting a week later.

In the autumn of 1936, four One Act Plays were presented. These were The Colour Question, Tennis Party, Rizzio’s Boots, and The Gardener. The latter was entered into the British Drama League Festival and received the award for best play written and performed.

In October 1937 the company staged Young Soldiers, again written by Gordon Brice-White. However, owing to the nature and tone of the piece, Mr Kenneth Loader, the President, resigned in objection to the production. Young Soldiers was well received by audiences though, and gained second place in the Sussex Rural Drama Festival.

There followed another series of One Act Plays in 1938, but then came the War, and the Players, like most theatrical companies, closed down. This remained so until the company was reformed on 1st Feb 1946. The rest, as they say, is history. You can peruse our past productions [HERE]