The Tudor Players started in 1947 as the Theatre Section of The Royal British Legion Cheam & Sutton Branch and productions were performed at The Parochial Rooms in Cheam Village. There were a great many difficulties with the venue as there were no changing rooms backstage and the cast had to use the ladies and gents toilets for this purpose which provided quite a few problems once the audience started to arrive!! However this venue was used for 30 years until 1977 when the final production at The Parochial Rooms was “How the Other Half Loves” by Alan Aykbourn.

At the end of this production membership was very low as some members had moved away and it was decided to “start again” with a new name and venue. Thus the New Tudor Players was born. It was at this time that our longest serving member Maureen Banks joined with husband Tony who produced quite a number of the future productions. Susan Walters is also still a member and she joined a year later in 1978.

The venue was Aitken Hall, Northey Avenue, Cheam which had a larger stage and excellent facilities backstage. The first production was “Wanted One Body” by Raymond Dyer.

Rehearsals continued to be held at The Legion Hall in Mickleham Gardens and two productions per year were staged.

By 1986 it was again necessary to find another venue for productions due to the reduced availability of Aitken Hall and the first play at St Elpheges Centre in Wallington was “Ladies in Retirement” by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham.

By 1993 St Elpheges Centre was no longer available for public performances and the move was made to The Adrian Mann Theatre at NESCOT in Ewell where it was decided to branch out into a musical with “The Murder of Maria Marten or The Red Barn” by Brian J Burton. Several Music Halls had been performed in-house at the Legion in Cheam and this production of “Maria Marten” was a great success. Two further productions were held at The Adrian Mann but in 1995 it was decided to return to the home Borough and the first production at The Charles Cryer Studio Theatre in Carshalton was a Frances Durbridge thriller “Deadly Nightcap”.

By 2004 with membership dropping and difficulties arising at the Legion it was agreed to break away and branch out alone and revert back to being The Tudor Players. This has proved to be a great success and membership is now looking very healthy.

The first production at the Charles Cryer in October 2004 was “It Could be Any One of Us” and was well received with a sell out on the Saturday performance.

There was a recruiting drive at the beginning of 2006 with the production of “The Darling Buds of May” in June.

Rehearsals are now held in the Function Room at “The Harvest Home” public house in Beddington Lane, Beddington and Players can be found there every Monday busy rehearsing.

New members interested in acting, backstage or any aspect of theatre are always welcome and anybody interested should contact Maureen Banks on 020 8669 1523.