A Brief History of the Society

The Society has been staging productions of musicals and light opera in Salisbury since 1908.

Thursday
23rd July 1908

A meeting was held at the Old Orderly Rooms, Market House Chambers at 8:30 p.m. with the object of forming an Amateur Operatic Society for Salisbury

Above is the first sentence written in our earliest Minute Books - the Birth Certificate of our Society. Tradition has it that the very first idea of such a Society was mooted in the small room at " The Haunch and Venison" one of those pleasant chats that took place nightly after the shops and offices of the City had closed their doors and the residents of Salisbury revived their flagging energies. It was unanimously agreed that the first production should be The Pirates Of Penzance and it was to be performed for two nights.

The dates fixed for the first performances were "in the week following the Synod week" (according to the minutes) and they were to be performed in The County Hall. This hall in Endless Street (which is now a garage) was an excellent building sitting nearly one thousand people. In later years we moved to the Old Playhouse. The enthusiasm of the members and the interest shown in the new Society by the general public was so great that the performances were increased to three and GWR had to run a special train to Wylye and intermediate stations. The hire of costumes for Pirates (with a cast of 46) was £17 17s 0d and the scenery costs were £12 10s 0d !

The performances of that first production was so successful with crowded houses at all of them that a fourth night was added. In fact, the sum of one hundred guineas was handed to the Salisbury Infirmary and £64 retained to form a reserve fund.

In light of this big success yearly shows were performed including The Gondoliers and The Yeomen of the Guard. During the war years The Society went into suspended animation for more than five years. The Old Members however met in August 1920 an decided to give a performance the following year. Of those who had appeared in the 1914 production there were 17 still available. Up until the second world war the Society performed many profitable shows but performances were again suspended during the war years. In 1957/58 the Society celebrated its Jubilee year. After many years at the Old Playhouse the present City Hall was built and our first show there was Oklahoma! in 1963 and we have performed there twice a year ever since.