Amateur drama group in Wigan fund-raising to provide community with affordable ticket prices

The Orrell Musical and Dramatic Society has been operating since 1967 and every year two shows are produced including a musical production and concert. Until joining the group herself, Corrina Connor wasn’t aware of the expensive nature of performing said productions.

Costs include the license to perform the particular musical, costumes, facility rental, make up and concessions to be sold in the intervals to audiences. As a result it can quickly mount up and suddenly seem impossible to produce work for an amateur group.

As a result, the group fund-raises throughout the year to not only make it affordable to put shows on but also keep ticket prices low, allowing them to be accessible to everyone in Wigan ranging between £10 to 12 per ticket.

Corrina said: “We’ve got members as young as 20 and some who are as old as 80 and have been in the group for a number of decades now. It’s a real melting pot of different people within the community.”

Society members rehearse every Wednesday at the Living Faith Church, Orrell, with shows typically taking place in March. A concert is then held in September time along with auditions for the production.

Christmas concerts were held as part of the effort to raise funds over the year as well as attending local supermarkets. They also hold events at various points, with line-dancing being organised last year to help boost the coffers of the group.

Next month they are hosting a Queenology event at St Jude’s Social Club on February 3. Tickets can be found at on the Orrell Musical and Dramatic Society facebook page and proceeds will be split between Parkinson’s UK and the society.

Corrina said: “It’s open to anyone and no previous expeirence is needed. It’s a really friendly society and people make life-long friends there as we all have a common interest which is doing musical theatre.”

Chairperson of the group, Liz Schofield said: “We are a friendly amateur dramatic society that loves all things relating to musical theatre! We have been staging annual shows in the area since 1967 starting with Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas and evolving to more upbeat shows like Sister Act, Little Shop of Horrors and Sweet Charity.

"We rely on regular fundraising to support the cost of the shows (for examples costumes, set, musicians, performing licences). In addition to a musical, we also perform a concert each year, get out into the community Carol singing and have fun, social events throughout the year which have varied from sponsored events to line dancing evenings and quiz nights among many others.”