Ronnie White ran the Westland Pantomime Society

I don’t know who actually started it but I know we had a meeting and I know Eric Dyer was interested in forming a group and word gets about and we had a meeting down at Westlands sports club. Several people turned up, it probably went on the notice board in those days. Anyone interested contact etc. We started from there probably. We had to vote for someone who was going to be Chairman, someone who was going to be President, who was who, but nobody knew what their talents were so it was quite interesting really. The only thing we could do was to pick a play or a pantomime and ask for volunteers who wanted to take part, which parts they wanted to have and they all went for those parts. We tried to get together the best we could at the time and then learn your lines and do rehearsals and see how we got on. You had the wood mill making bits for us, for staging and things like that, scenery. It was just a hectic time really trying to get things going but it worked out all right.

What was the first pantomime?

Beauty and the Beast was the first one we did.

Down at the Westland’s Sports and Social Club?

Down at the Sports and Social Club, yes. We had to change in the snooker room and sneak out through the back, try and put the make-up on in the skittle alley and slide through and walk round the back so that nobody saw how you got on stage.

Did you get a good audience for this then?

Yes, we had a very good audience. We usually had three nights, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Probably about a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty at each performance. It grew and it grew and they started doing plays and things like that, well they did a couple of plays shall we say.

Did you have a part in the pantomime yourself or were you a stage manager or something like that?

No, I was always the pantomime dame, I was. That was my favourite bit. Yes, I enjoyed being the dame I must admit. You’re centre stage all the time, in the limelight. I loved it, all the kids enjoying it.

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