Once Upon a Time
The inaugural meeting for the Honiton Community Theatre Company (Formerly Honiton
Pantomime Society) was called during 1984 when a committee was formed from a group of keen volunteers, chaired by the Mayor Patrick Allen.
Curtain Up
The very first production was Cinderella in 1985 and brand new society with no financial backing except from their own back pocket wondered at times if it would work. The first costumes were made from clothes bought at jumble sales and charity shops, the props begged and borrowed from the cast and friends. The show came to close as a complete success, charming the crowd with their enthralling tale of how Cinderella met her Prince Charming.
Since then over 30 pantomimes have been performed, including audience favourites such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Babes in the Wood, and Aladdin, as well as some more unusual
scripts including Old Mother Hubbard goes West and the tale of King Arthur. We have also won NODA awards for our pantomime productions.
Many youth members of our society started performing in some of our original pantomime shows, and have now gone on to professional careers on and off the stage.
25th Anniversary Performance
In 2010 we performed our 25th Pantomime and decided to choose Cinderella in
homage to the first show ever produced. Writing our first ever pantomime script as well as producing and performing the show, was going to be a huge task, but with the fabulous team that we have everyone put in 110% effort and an incredible tribute to our premier performance was enjoyed.
30th Anniversary Year
In the 30th Anniversary year of the group in 2014, we performed ‘Jack and the Beanstalk‘ which was the first production directed by Alex Jackson who had just turned 18. This was then followed by our 30th pantomime ‘Sleeping Beauty‘ the first production at Honiton’s brand new community venue, The Beehive.
Changing our name
In 2015 we changed our name to reflect the ambition of our thriving group to put on more varied styles of production. The Honiton Pantomime Society became ‘Honiton Community Theatre Company’ under which we performed our critically acclaimed summer 2015 production of ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’. The first pantomime under our new name was ‘Peter Pan’ in February 2016.
Charitable Status
In Summer 2019 led by our then Chair, Charlie Craig, the decision was made to change the constitution to a legal governing document and apply to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The charity became legally recognised in October 2019 and the existing committee at that time became the Charity Trustees.
Honiton Community Theatre Company continues to go from strength to strength and we are looking forward to our 40th birthday in 2024, and celebrating our continued success and love of bringing live theatre and performance opportunities to the local community.