News

Auditions will be held on Friday, 15th November from 7.30pm at Walmsley Parish Hall.

Audition pieces are on the Sister Act show page.

Amateur theatre in Bolton was celebrated in great style at the Annual BATS Dinner & Awards on Friday 30th August at the Last Drop Village. WCAODS had 15 nominations in various award categories and we were extremely proud that Catherine Hall won the award for Best Actress in a Musical for her outstanding portrayal of Carole King in Beautiful: the Carole King Musical.

Massive congratulations to Catherine and to all the nominees! 

We are delighted to have been nominated for no less than 15 awards at the forthcoming BATS Awards Night on 30th August. Every one of our shows - Musicals, Play and Youth Group - have had at least one nominations: an outstanding achievement. Good luck to all our nominees.

The nominations are: 

Auditions for "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" will be held on Tuesday 21st May from 7.30pm at Walmsley Parish Hall. 

Audition details are on our "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" shows page. 

We are very excited to announce our next two shows!

In November 2024, we are staging "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" the hilarious, multi-award winning musical based on the hit 1988 film starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin. As two con artists compete to swindle a wealthy heiress, who will triumph?

Our April 2025 show will be "Sister Act", another brilliant musical comedy based on a much-loved film. This incredible show is full of life, great songs and a great tribute to the power of friendship and sisterhood! 

Keep checking back to our website and Facebook page for details of dates. 

We had a fabulous night celebrating the best of amateur dramatics in our area last night and, following multiple nominations for Thoroughly Modern Millie, Madagascar Jr and 9 to 5 The Musical, we came away with a clutch of top awards. Congratulations to all our winners and nominees.

Auditions for "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" will be held on Tuesday 28th November from 7.30pm at Walmsley Parish Hall. 

Audition details are on our "Beautiful" show page.

We're thrilled to announce that we had a winner and four nominations at the BATS Awards Night last Friday. 

Scarlett Sandiford won the Best Supporting Actress in a Musical award for her performance in Elf. This was Scarlett's second award for the role, having won the Best Female Youth Performance in an Adult Production award at NODA earlier this year. Well done, Scarlett!

We also had nominations for Lauren Carroll (in her first role for us) as Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Thoroughly Modern Mille, Best Choreographer for Lara Syddall for Millie, Best Musical for Millie and Best Junior Youth Musical for Madagascar. Well done to everyone! 

Due to technical difficulties, we will not now be presenting "Made in Dagenham" as our next production after "9 to 5". However, we are very excited to announce that instead we will be performing "Beautiful - The Carole King Musical". 

This fabulous show tells the inspiring true story of Carole King's remarkable journey from teenage songwriter to one of the most influential and loved singers in the world. Featuring unforgettable classics such as "You've Got A Friend", "So Far Away" and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".

We are also thrilled to announce that our next AKT show will be "Disney's Camp Rock - The Musical" to be shown on 27th - 29th June 2024. This exciting musical is based on the Disney Channel's Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. 

Exciting news! Alice Higginbottom, previous WCAODS member and daughter of long-time (and very proud) members Roger and Julie, is dancing with the English National Ballet in their production of Cinderella at the Royal Albert Hall, London. What a fantastic achievement!

We are very excited to announce our next production in October-November 2023 will be 9 to 5, the Musical. This hilarious, feel-good musical is based on the hit 1980 movie starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin and features new songs written by Dolly Parton. 

The show is on 30th October - 4th November 2023. Make a note in your diaries! 

Click here for further details.

WCAODS scored a massive 24 nominations at the NODA District 5 & 7 Awards Night on 10th February 2023 - and walked away with no less than FIVE awards! 

Guys and Dolls had NINE nominations and won 2 awards, Elf the Musical had SIX nominations and won 2 awards, and our wonderful Youth Group, AKT, had NINE nominations and won 1 award for their production of Annie Jr.

The evening was a packed and jubilant celebration of the return of amateur theatre after the problems of the last few years. And WCAODS proved once again that we are at the forefront of quality musicals in the area. 

Here is our fabulous haul in full:

Auditions for our next production "Thoroughly Modern Millie" will be held on Tuesday 22nd November from 7.30pm. For details of the audition pieces, together with some notes on the main characters, click here. 

We are thrilled and relieved beyond words to announce that we have re-started rehearsals for "Guys and Dolls" which will be playing in April 2022. 

Not only that, but we can announce our shows for the next two years, with "Elf" in October/November 2022, "Thoroughly Modern Millie" in April 2023 and "Made In Dagenham" in April 2024. We can't yet reveal what our show will be for Oct/Nov 2023, but rest assured it will be BRILLIANT!

Check out all the details on our Shows page.

We are so much looking forward to welcoming you all back to Walmsley Parish Hall next April!

We are aiming to stage our next production - "Guys and Dolls" - in November 2021. But until we know when we can re-commence rehearsals, we cannot specify dates for this or any future productions. 

Rest assured, we have planned an exciting programme of shows to bring you over the next few years and we look forward to welcoming everyone back as soon as possible. 

Due to the ongoing situation, we have put back our current production of "Guys and Dolls" to 26th April - 1st May 2021. We sincerely hope that we can recommence rehearsals in early 2021, picking up where we left off, and present you with a wonderful show. 

We have a packed programme of great shows to follow "Guys and Dolls" stretching to the end of 2022! See our Home page or our Shows page for full details. 

We are beyond excited to announce that we have finalised our 2021 and 2022 seasons with a selection of brilliant shows to suit all tastes! 

First, as previously announces, we have re-scheduled "Annie" to April 2021. This incredibly popular show will be followed in November by our first new announcement... "Elf the Musical"! Based on the hit comedy movie, "Elf" tells the story of Buddy the oversized elf, who leaves Santa's workshop to travel to New York and find his real family. This will be a North West premiere and is sure to be massively popular. 

Then in April 2022, we unveil our second new announcement - the hit British musical "Made in Dagenham". Again based on the movie, this uplifting true story tells of the ladies at Ford's Dagenham plant in 1968 whose refusal to take a pay cut eventually led to equal pay for women in the UK. This is an inspirational story of love and friendship with a funny, touching script and music by Bond composer David Arnold. Don't miss it! 

Finally, our November 2022 show will be the re-scheduled "Thoroughly Modern Millie" - a madcap 1920s comedy based on the film of the same name. 

As reported earlier, we are postponing "Guys & Dolls" until 2nd - 7th November 2020. Due to licencing restrictions, we have also now re-scheduled some of our future shows.

We shall now be presenting "Annie" in April-May 2021 and our AKT production of "Madagascar Jr" is also postponed until June 2021. 

Our scheduled production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" will now take place in November 2022 and we have exciting news in the pipeline of two new shows in November 2021 and April 2022!  

Watch this space! 

In the light of the recent Government advice, and for the safety of all our members and audiences, WCAODS have regretfully had to take the decision to postpone our current production of "Guys and Dolls".

We are moving the show to our November dates instead and deferring our planned production of "Annie" for a while. 

If you have already bought your tickets, we will of course refund you. If you booked by phone or in person, our Ticket Secretary, Christine will contact you over the next few days to arrange a refund. 

If you booked online through TicketSource, you will receive an email from them advising that your card will be refunded (the ticket price and booking fee will be refunded but not, unfortunately, any delivery charge); a second email will be sent once your refund has been processed. 

Sadly, we will also be postponing our Youth Group's (AKT) production of "Madagascar Jr" for one year, until June 2021. 

Thank you for your continued support. We will keep you posted.

We understand that the current concern about coronavirus may be affecting your plans over the coming weeks and we want to reassure you that you will not lose out if you book a ticket for our next production of "Guys & Dolls". 

So we are amending our refund policy for this show and will refund you if the show is subsequently cancelled or if you cannot attend due to fears over coronavirus. 

If we cancel the show, we will refund you in full if you paid via our Ticket Secretary. If you paid online through our agent TicketSource, they will refund your card with the cost of the tickets and the booking fee (but not any delivery charge).

If you decide not to attend, we ask that you please let us know before 6.30pm on the day of the show. We will arrange a refund as above. 

At the moment, though, the show is still going ahead and our talented cast are, as usual, working flat out to bring you another brilliant production of this hilarious, timeless and feel-good classic. 

We hope to see you there!

WCAODS had a great night out at the NODA District 5 Awards NIght, held at the Last Drop Village on 7th February. 

Not only did we have 18 nominations, but we WON three of the awards, including BEST SHOW for “Sugar”! David Wilson won Best Leading Male in a Musical for his role as Jerry/Daphne in “Sugar” and Harry Cain won Best Youth Male in an Adult Musical for Tiny Tim in “Scrooge”.

Congratulations to our winners, who now go to the NODA North West Awards as nominees in their category, and to all our nominees. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening for everyone who attended. 

Update! We now have a total of 18 nominations! The latest is "Best Show" for "Sugar". Fantastic!!

Wow!! The NODA District 5 nominations for 2019 have just been announced and we are thrilled and proud that Walmsley have landed a massive 17 nominations! 

In the Adult section, we have the following nominations:

And in the Youth section, we have the following nominations:

Congratulations to all our nominees and good luck at the Awards Night on 7th February at the Last Drop Hotel (see notice board for tickets).

The audition pieces for our next show "Guys and Dolls" (27th April - 2nd May 2020) are now available on the Guys and Dolls show page. If you're interested in auditioning, please don't forget that you must pay your subs beforehand. 

Anyone who came to watch the Friday night performance of our last show "Scrooge" will testify that WCAODS live by the old adage "the show must go on"!

With just a few minutes to go, a power cut plunged the theatre into blackness. Not only did we lose the lights. but also the microphones and the band! With great resourcefulness, Director Nora Howcroft and a few others immediately grabbed torches and the curtain calls were performed a capella and in very tight spotlights, much to the delight of the sell-out audience. Many in the audience joined in the community spirit with their phone lights! 

The audience were then ushered out calmly and safely by the front of house and backstage staff. Everyone at WCAODS showed great professionalism; we certainly had a night to remember! 

Read the Bolton News article. 

We are delighted to announce that our Youth Group, AKT, will be performing "Madagascar - A Musical Adventure Jr" on 25th, 26th and 27th June 2020. 

This brilliant musical is based on the hit Dreamworks film Madagascar and features all the great characters from the film. It's sure to be a wonderful production so make a date in your diary!

AKT - our Youth Theatre Group - is re-forming under the leadership of Helen McGrath and is looking for members aged between 8 and 16 years. 

A welcome meeting will be held on 24th September at 6:45pm in the Founders Room at the Parish Hall for any children (accompanied by their parents) interested in joining. They will learn all aspects of acting, dancing and singing whilst working towards a yearly show. 

Come down to say hello and find out about all the great things we have planned!

WCAODS were once again winners at the BATS Dinner and Awards Night at the Holiday Inn on 31st August!

Vicki Wilson won Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role in "42nd Street". While nominations were received for Steve Benson (Best Actor in a Musical), Adrienne Wormald (Best Actress in a Musical) and Mary Pycroft (Best Costumes), all for "Sugar". 

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! A great time was had by all! 

Scrooge tickets go on general sale on Saturday 3rd August. From that date you will be able to purchase tickets online via TicketSource (booking fee applies) or through our Ticket Secretary Christine Taylor on 01204 305812. 

Book early, as this is likely to be a very popular show! 

After successful auditions on Friday, we are delighted to announce that most of the parts in "Scrooge" have been cast. 

Got to the "Scrooge" page for full cast details. 

Auditions for our next show "Scrooge" will be held on Friday 24th May from 7:30pm at the Parish Hall Theatre. Details of the audition songs and libretto are posted on the "Scrooge" show page. 

Please remember that you must have paid your annual membership subs before you audition. In the meantime, come down to rehearsals from 17th May to sing through the audition and chorus songs and collect scores.

WCAODS had a great night at the NODA North West Awards on Sunday 5th May. We had two nominations: Lara Syddall for Best Choreographer (42nd Street) and Adrienne Wormald for Best Supporting Female in a Musical (Follies) and we were absolutely delighted that Lara won the award!

Well done to both ladies! Another success for the award-winning WCAODS!!

Following our success at the NODA District 5 Awards, we are proud to confirm that we have two nominations for the annual NODA North West Awards Night, which will be held on Sunday 5th May at the Mercure Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester. 

Adrienne Wormald is nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role as Carlotta Campion in Follies, and Lara Syddall is nominated as Best Choreographer for 42nd Street. (Vicki Wilson's award for Adjudicator's Sparkling Star is a special category for District 5.)

Any members wishing to attend the AGM and/or the Awards Dinner, please contact Secretary Don Mason for a booking form. 

Congratulations to our nominees and good luck on the night!

WCAODS members had a great time at the first NODA District 5 Awards Dinner at the Last Drop Village on 8th February. 

We had 16 nominations in various categories and were absolutely thrilled to win THREE awards on the night! 

Adrienne Wormald won Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role as Carlotta Campion in Follies.

Lara Syddall won Best Choreographer for 42nd Street.

And for "sheer talent", Vicki Wilson won the Adjudicator's Sparkling Star Award for her roles as Phyllis Rogers Stone in Follies and Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street. 

The winners will now become nominees at the NODA North West Awards Dinner which is usually held at the start of May. 

Over 20 WCAODS members attended the Awards Dinner and judged it a resounding success.

Following the high demand for tickets for our last show, 42nd Street, our ticket booking will open earlier from now on. 

Priority ticket booking for members will be open shortly and general ticket sales will open to the public via TicketSource and our usual Box Office phone number (01204 305812) from Saturday 16th February. 

Our next production, "Sugar" (the musical adaptation of the much-loved movie classic "Some Like It Hot") is sure to be popular. Book early to avoid disappointment!

We are delighted to announce that we have received an amazing 16 nominations for the NODA District 5 Awards for our productions of "Follies" and "42nd Street". The full list of nominations is shown below.

This is the first time that Region 5 are hosting their own awards ceremony, which will be held on February 8th at the Last Drop Village, and we are very proud that our society has received so many nominations among the 20 societies in our District. 

We wish the very best of luck to all nominees. 

The nominations are:

Youth - Best Male in an Adult Musical
Jonathan Allen - Young Buddy - Follies
Tom Gillard - Young Ben - Follies

Youth - Best Female in an Adult Musical
Katie Ryding - Young Sally - Follies

Best Supporting Male in a Musical
Joe Davies - Bert Barry - 42nd Street

Best Supporting Female in a Musical
Adrienne Wormald - Carlotta Campion - Follies

Best Male Lead in a Musical
John Preston - Benjamin Stone - Follies
John Preston - Julian Marsh - 42nd Street

Best Female Lead in a Musical
Vicki Wilson - Phyllis Rogers-Stone - Follies
Vicki Wilson - Dorothy Brock - 42nd Street
Lindsay Farnworth - Peggy Sawyer - 42nd Street

Best Choreographer
Lara Syddall - 42nd Street

Best Musical Director
Tim Power - 42nd Street

Best Director
Nora Howcroft - 42nd Street

Best Ensemble
42nd Street

Best Staging
42nd Street

Best Show
42nd Street

Members enjoyed a lovely Christmas get-together in the Founder's Room on Tuesday 18th December and everyone looked resplendent and festive in their Christmas jumpers. By wearing them and donating £2 per jumper, members raised £90 for Save The Children! A fantastic effort!

We also raised £63 towards our own funds through the raffle. 

Well done, all you generous members. Have a lovely Christmas, everyone! 

Our next production, "Sugar - the Some Like It Hot musical" is now fully cast. Click to go to the Sugar page for full details. 

We are thrilled to announce that our shows for the 2020 season will be "Guys & Dolls" and "Annie".

These are two perennial favourites, which will be great fun for our members to perform and for our audiences to watch.

For anyone who doesn't know, Guys & Dolls is the lively story of New York gamblers and their unlikely relationship with a Missionary Band in the heart of New York in the 1950s. Packed with great tunes, including "Luck Be A Lady Tonight", "A Bushel And A Peck" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat", Guys and Dolls is a toe-tapping treat.

Annie is a 20th Century Oliver Twist - a little orphan girl, who escapes the hard-knock life of the orphanage and finds happiness and love when she is adopted by billionaire Oliver Warbucks. The up-tempo, family-friendly score includes the modern classics "Tomorrow" and "It's a Hard Knock Life".

Auditions for our next show "Sugar - the Some Like It Hot musical" will be held on Tuesday 27th November from 7:30pm at the Parish Hall Theatre. Details of the audition pieces are posted on the "Sugar" show page. 

Please remember that you must have paid your annual membership subs before you audition. In the meantime, come down to rehearsals from 6th November to sing through the audition and chorus songs and collect scores/libs (for which you must leave a returnable cheque as deposit - £40 per book) or copies of the audition pieces. 

We will be holding an Open Night on Tuesday 6th November for all members and prospective members. We have a strong, talented membership and we know there are lots of people out there who are interested in joining the society. This is an ideal opportunity to come down and find out what we are all about.

Our Director, Nora, will be talking about the next production "Sugar - the Some Like It Hot musical" and there will be the opportunity to listen to some of the music, discuss the audition pieces and sing along in a friendly, informal atmosphere.

If you've ever considered being in a musical or helping backstage - or you know someone who is interested - come down on 6th November and have a great night out.

The annual BATS Awards Night Dinner was held on Friday 31st August at the Holiday Inn, Bolton and WCAODS had another great night, scooping a win and three other nominations!

Adrienne Wormald won Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Lilli/Katherine in Kiss Me Kate.

Other nominations were Best Actor in a Musical for Steve Benson as Fred/Petruchio in Kiss Me Kate, Best Director of a Musical for Nora Howcroft for Follies, and Best Junior Production for AKT for Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies.

Huge congratulations to Adrienne for her award and well done to all the nominees.

Members attending the event had a great evening, mixing with friends from other societies. It was great to see once again how theatre is flourishing in Bolton.

The website is currently being improved to increase security. You may now notice that in your web browser address bar it is showing as "Secure". The downside of this is that a small manual change in code is needed on every page where there are photos. As most of our productions since 1928 have photos, a lot of pages need manually changing! Please bear with us while this work is completed during August.

(Update 23rd August: work is now complete and all photos should now be restored.)

Later this year the website will be completely re-designed to have an exciting new look and add some new features. Watch this space!

From 17th September, when ticket booking for 42nd Street opens, audiences will be able to buy tickets online through TicketSource, using our website.

This automated ticket booking system is used by several of our amateur theatre colleagues, as well as many professional venues, and will enable anyone to purchase tickets 24/7 on their PC, tablet or mobile. Once purchased, tickets can be emailed to you for free or printed and posted out to you for £1.75.

Of course, you will still be able to make telephone bookings via our Box Office Manager, Christine Taylor, at the usual number: 01204 305812. Christine will also be able to email tickets to you or print them if you are personally collecting.

We very much hope this exciting new development will benefit our customers.

To complete our 2019 season, we are proud to announce that the October/November show will be "Scrooge".

This perennial favourite by Leslie Bricusse tells the famous Dickens story of the miserable miser Ebeneezer Scrooge, whose life is changed for the good when he is visited on Christmas Eve by three spirits who show him the error of his ways.

We are thrilled to have secured the licence for "Sugar - the Some Like It Hot musical" as our first show of 2019.

This hilarious comedy musical is based on the much-loved 1959 Billy Wilder film - which starred Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis - with a wonderful jazzy score by legendary Broadway composer Jule Styne ("Gypsy", "Funny Girl").

Walmsley CAODS will be the first society in Bolton to produce this brilliant show!

The Annual NODA North West Dinner and Awards took place on Sunday May 6th at the Mercure Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester and once again Walmsley were well represented by members and by nominations (see below).

We didn't win any awards this time, but of course every nominee is the winner of their district. So congratulations to Nora, David, Vicki and Steve for being the best in their categories in Region 5.

We are thrilled that both of our 2017 shows have received nominations from NODA North West for this year's awards. For High Society, Nora Howcroft is nominated for Best Direction of a Musical and David Wilson for Best Male Comedy Performance; and for Kiss Me Kate, Steve Benson is nominated for Best Leading Male in a Musical and Vicki Wilson for Best Choreography. Well done to our nominees and to everyone involved in the productions. And good luck on Sunday 6th May at the Awards Dinner!

Our Chairman and Director, Nora Howcroft, stars in her own life story in a Bolton News article. Highlighting her many achievements over the years in amateur operatics and dramatics, the article also has several mentions for our society, including a plug for our next show, Follies.

Read the Bolton News article.

The annual Walmsley Bowls Competition was held on Saturday 2nd September at the Wagon & Horses pub in Hawkshaw and as usual all members had a great time. This year's winner was Mike Taylor, with Dave McGreavy in second place. The semi finalists were Simon McGreavy and Christine Taylor.

The BATS Annual Dinner and Awards Night was held on Friday 1st September at the Holiday Inn in Bolton and a number of members went along to enjoy the event. We were rewarded with two nominations for Oliver! and a special personal award!

Steve Benson won Best Actor in a Musical for Fagin and we also had a nomination for Best Set & Costume Design. And to top off the evening, Mike Taylor won the Michael Rogers Award for Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Theatre in Bolton. What a great night for the society!

Our brilliant and talented Youth Group will be performing their next show, "The Rocky Monster Show" on 22nd-24th June.

Bizarre, anarchic and very funny, this Rock 'n' Roll musical is a riotous mix of the Addams Family, Young Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera, with Rebecca and The Rocky Horror Show thrown in for good measure!

Come and support our Youth Group! Phone 01204 305812 to book tickets.

42nd Street will be our second show of 2018! See opposite for full details. The Committee have now secured the licence and we can look forward to an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza for our Autumn show of 2018.

There are still two more shows in the pipeline, so keep checking here to see what 2019 will hold for us and our audiences!

The annual NODA North West Awards Night was held at the Mercure Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester on 30th April and what a glittering occasion it was. We had a nomination for Steve Benson as Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance as Fagin in Oliver. Unfortunately, Steve did not win the award but, as it says on the certificate, all nominees are winners of their category in their region. So congratulations to Steve for being the best in District 5! Keep an eye on the NODA North West website for full details of all the winners.

You may know that our Chairman and Director, Nora Howcroft, recently visited Number 10 Downing Street to chat to MP David Davies about Brexit (as part of her job as a roving reporter for BBC's The One Show). Well, it seems Prime Minister Theresa May must have been upset that she missed Nora's visit, as she flew up to Walmsley Parish Hall on Wednesday 19th April just to give her a big hug. She also took the time to have a look at our props for High Society and chat to Nora about the show and the society. While she was here, she took the opportunity to speak to local voters and rally some pre-Election support.

Read the Bolton News article.

We are very excited to announce that our first show of 2018 will be "Follies" by Stephen Sondheim (book by James Goldman). This is one of Sondheim's most popular shows which has seen many revivals since its opening in 1971 and was last performed at Walmsley in 1996.

The Committee have also selected the next three shows, which will take us to the end of 2019. As soon as we have confirmation of the licences, we shall announce them here. Keep checking!

We are delighted to learn that NODA has nominated Steve Benson for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance as Fagin in Oliver. Congratulations to Steve and fingers crossed for the Awards Night which takes place on Sunday 30th April at the Mercure Hotel, Piccadilly, Manchester.

For a full list of nominations click here.

This year's traditional annual dinner for members and friends has a new venue and format. Re-titled as "A Meal Out With Friends", we will be enjoying a superb 3-course meal at the award-winning Astley Bank Hotel in Darwen. There will be no disco or dancing this year, just the chance to relax with your Walmsley friends over great food in beautiful surroundings. To secure your place, put your name on the noticeboard in the Parish Hall, or contact the Social Secretary. The cost is just £25 per person.

Following successful auditions, we are proud to announce our cast for the next production "High Society". Click here to go to the High Society page with full cast details. 

Our most recent production, Oliver! played to full houses and great acclaim. Click here to see the photos, etc.

We were thrilled to win BEST MUSICAL for "White Christmas" at the BATS Annual Dinner Awards Night on Friday 2nd September.

Members enjoyed a great night at the Holiday Inn in Bolton, not least because we won a further two nominations for the show: Best Choreography for Lara Crombie-Syddall and Best Actor in a Musical for Steve Benson.

This brings our haul of nominations for "White Christmas" to 13, including 2 wins! What a spectacular achievement for the society!

We were saddened by the death of our long-time member Don Howcroft on 15th August. Donny was a wonderful actor, singer, dancer, designer, artist, friend and mentor and he will be sorely missed, not just by our society, but by the whole Amateur Dramatics scene in Bolton, so many of whom came to pay tribute to him at the memorial service at Walmsley Parish Church.

Donny played many leading roles in his 55 years on the amateur stage, including the Artful Dodger in 1968 at Walmsley - the first amateur actor in the world to take the role. He was also a regular on TV with his wife Nora, as an extra and, famously, as a participant in the TV series Food Glorious Food with his signature dish, salmon cheesecake. Indeed, he was well known to his friends as a very talented and creative chef.

Donny was involved in almost every Walmsley production in recent years, acting and designing, as well as supporting Nora, to ensure we maintain such a high standard of professionalism.

Goodbye Donny, we shall always remember you.