Rose Theatre

The story of the Playhouse is the story of the Nonentities Society, beginning in 1937. Kenneth Rose had moved to Bewdley from Halesowen - where he founded the local operatic society - and invited a few friends to present his one-act plays at drama festivals.

A name was needed for the group and "Nonentities" was coined in spontaneous reaction to the grandiloquent titles of their rivals. The first players, with Kenneth Rose, were Ruth Dalley, David Green and Harry Beresford. To them were soon added the names of Ella Johnson, Gladys Aston, Eugenie Suckling, the Lloyd sisters and the Stonehouse family.

The first public appearance at Kidderminster, at New Meeting Hall in December 1938, followed two years of playing in festivals, camps and hostels. In February 1939 the first full-length play, at the Convent Hall, was a Kenneth Horne comedy Yes and No. There followed Spring Meeting, an amateur premiere which introduced George Slater, Robert Lurring, Charles Hackett, Jeanne Fletcher and Dorothy Findon.

In Victoriana Kenneth Rose's ballad opera shared the bill with Housman's playlets and the company was joined by Marion Price, Joan Spooner, Linda Hackett and Melville Child, a schoolmaster, who was to become one of the society's most talented players.

Obey's Noah had a very young man named C. Disley Jones in the cast; he is now one of the country's leading designers.
Quiet Wedding brought in Olive Billam, Elizabeth Chalk, Margaret Greenway and Mary Southall.

Georgiana, with words, music, scenery and production by Kenneth Rose, followed in 1943. Then came A Hundred Years Old, Robert's Wife, Gloriana, another chronicle play with music, which is to be revived to mark the end of an era in May, 1968, Distant Point and You Can't Take It With You. New names included Daphne Dale-Roberts, Fred Kettle, John Spilsbury, Eric Crawford and Jack Harris.

The last play at the Convent was As You Like It, with Harry N. Oakes conducting music specially written by Julius Harrison. On the final night Kenneth Rose raised a gasp from his audience by announcing "We have bought the old Opera House. Now we have to pay for it".