C.T.C. - a potted history

The Club was formed at a public meeting held in the British Legion Hall, Carnoustie in June 1969.

About a dozen enthusiastic thespians became members, elected a committee who wrote an 'arts' constitution and chose the first play. Enthusiasm was all we had. No established rehearsal space, no money to finance the first project and no experience of working together as a team.

The first fund raising ventures, a coffee morning and a jumble sale raised £16 (British pounds) and £35 respectively. Rehearsals were arranged in a classroom of Kinloch School. A great effort went into costumes, set design, lighting, publicity, programmes and tickets. With a new director, a new cast, a new everything, Carnoustie Theatre Club launched it's first production A Man With a Load of Mischief.

 

We have leaned a lot since these days Looking back, the programme stands the test of time. The lessons learned about marketing and shared responsibility for difficult tasks have not been forgotten.

One of our early mentors, John Clotworthy, encouraged us to join the Scottish Community Drama Association. The Association ran advisory classes and operated an annual One-Act Play Festival. We met many, much more experienced clubs and players and in entering these competitive festivals we were subject to careful adjudication and constructive criticism. Being of sound mind, we didn't like the criticism but learned the lessons never-the-less.

We rehearsed in living rooms, garages, school rooms and gardens and performed in every conceivable flat space in the town. Some of our venues have been The Philip (church) Hall, Carnoustie Public Library, the Beach Hall, a lawn or two and even the occasional proper theatre during festivals. Through twenty turbulent years the Club presented 3 full length plays, 2 or 3 one-act plays and a pantomime or musical show every year. We slowly established a reputation for professional hard work and quality.

Following our acquisition of Dibble Tree Theatre, all shows are rehearsed there and only the panto with a cast of 100 and an audience of 2200 is performed in the High School Theatre. The Club has strong links with Carnoustie Musical Society. There are some cross-over members and we have a considerable community of interest in shared use and ownership of technical items such as lighting, audio and stage equipment. These shared resources require careful monitoring but save each club in the region of £1500 every year.

Pantomime has been the making of the business side of the club. We typically budget to spend £4-5000 on the panto but can expect ticket and Front of House sales to make a surplus of £5000. This enables the Club to pay a mortgage of £250 per month to our bank and pay for water and electricity without fear of going bankrupt. The other fund saving move was to register as a charity. Although a troublesome proceedure it has cut the cost of local taxes by more than 85%. as part of our community effort we have also put on several shows whose suplus (profit) has gone towards other charities such as the Antony Nolan Trust Fund for the treatment of clildren's leukaemia.

This page first uploaded on 15th April 1996