A brief history...
A Brief History
Over fifty years ago, sometime in 1971, four people sat in a pub in Great Barr, and made a momentous decision. They decided to start up a new Musical Comedy group. Now in the great scheme of things that is not momentous. But to some people, including me, it’s up there with Thomas Telford and his canals, Richard Trevithick and his railway tracks and getting the 2012 Olympic Games to these shores.
Yes, when Ivan and Olwen Foster, along with Kate and Arthur Doody, decided to form Bloxwich Musical Comedy Company, they probably never thought we would be looking forward to our fiftieth year. When I joined in 1972, I never imagined I would be writing this, forty-nine years on. Kate and Olwen are still going strong, Olwen in Australia, and Kate as an acting member recently seen on stage as a nun.
We have had a few titles. We had to include Brownhills in our title when we moved our base to Brownhills Community School, and then gradually morphed to what we are today. We are the same company, the one that started off in the pub that night, with Kate as a founder member and many stalwarts with over 40 years’ service. How have we made it, from an idea in a pub, no money, no venue and no membership, to a solvent vibrant company? Here goes. There are so many stories, so many dramas, love affairs, successes, laughter, tears and sheer hard work that they would fill a book, but for now, a brief summary of our fifty years.
1971: The four founders needed to gather members, stage a concert, attract a good audience and make a profit. Along came Bill and Doreen Brown. Bill played drums, Doreen could sell and organise ticket sales like a one-woman box office, and they were recruited. The concert made almost enough profit to allow them to stage the first full-scale production. The shortfall in funds meant a show with no scenery. Ivan had listed what he wanted and Bill Brown took the list to consider what might be done. Not long after, Bill took Ivan to his builders’ yard, opened a container and said ‘Is this what you wanted?’. Ivan looked, thought and said ‘Yes, but we’ve got no money to pay for it’. Bill looked offended. ‘Who said anything about paying for it?’ And so, the first of many generous acts saw the Company on its way.
Bloxwich library theatre was the venue for the first two productions, The Gypsy Princess and Countess Maritza, scenery courtesy of President Bill. The Merry Widow and The Desert Song were staged at Darlaston Town Hall, a surprisingly good performing space but not so good for the audience, so the decision was taken to move to Brownhills School. What a smart move that was. We rehearsed there, performed there and built scenery there for thirty-eight years. It was a sad day when we had to leave. So many of our memories and so much of our history resides there, because that is where BMTC grew up, and became the vibrant creative entity we all know today.
Shortly after settling in at the school, two of the founder members, Ivan and Olwen, emigrated to Australia and Bruce Graham, a theatre fanatic, graduate and teacher of the ‘classics’, took over as Chairman, Producer and Director. This was marked by the formation of the first committee, which met once a month to agree to everything Bruce had decided. With his twin passions it was little wonder we opened our account at Brownhills School with Orpheus in The Underworld.
He also introduced many very talented members, some of whom moved on, to professional theatre, new jobs or new interests, but many are still about, playing roles, running the company and inhabiting the ‘backstage gang’; the army of people needed for the unseen work of committee, of scene shifting and hardest of all, cleaning out the theatres at the end of a run, whilst the cast are having a knees-up! Or a booze up. Or both!
In 1985, having performed numerous small-scale concerts at Brownhills School and churches and clubs throughout the region we became a little more adventurous and creative with our concerts and so began our trademark ‘production concerts’. Themed shows with sets and costume plots to match our main productions. It is generally agreed by us all that these are harder work than a show, but undoubtedly, they have been the reasons for our financial stability, and maybe in some cases, mental instability!
The nineties and the noughties were incredible, with a level of creativity that varied from inventive to audacious. We had so much fun with great costumes, great dancing and wonderful music. In 2004 we transferred to The Garrick Theatre, Lichfield for our main October production, and whilst not deserting our roots, were able to take our shows to another technical level, selling out twice in the first 3 years with 42nd Street and Barnum. On in to the last decade with four more sell-outs and 6 awards for a diverse range of shows, some of them testing our technical ability as well as our artistic.
So here we are in our 51st year, having had our 50th year wiped out by Covid, ready to celebrate, and we have so many reasons to get out the bunting. For many of us, BMTC has been our life’s work, or it feels that way. Three generations of Brian Hirst’s family on stage together in ‘Evita’, third generation youngsters coming through the youth section, and whole families involved in the unseen work that keeps the whole thing going. All woven into the fabric of the company.
We have so many memories, some painful, but overwhelmingly, happy glorious ones. All we can hope is that the young ones of the company can feel the same love and devotion to BMTC that so many of us have, and take this great company on into the next half century. Half century!! That sounds more momentous than 50 years. There has only been ten of those since Henry V111 was carousing, courting and goodness knows what else.
We’ve certainly caroused, courted and made merry but stopped short of chopping folks heads off, although we have twice enacted scenes of execution!
It has not always been plain sailing and difficult decisions have had to be made over the years, financial worries, personal problems and sometimes great sadness, but that’s life and whilst we would have preferred to sail calm waters at all times, the successes, when they come, are all the sweeter.
Whoever drives this Company on through the next 50 years will face occasional difficulties, mostly the same-old, but with a few new ones. Musical Theatre will still be around but maybe not as we know it. It will flourish, and Brownhills Musical Theatre Company will flourish with it.
Long live BMTC!