History
The society was formed in 1908, and the first show it performed was Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. Until 1926, the company performed exclusively the Gilbert and Sullivan shows. After this for several decades, they performed a mix of operettas, Gilbert and Sullivan and Edwardian musical comedies. Until 1946 only one show was performed each year, but from 1946 onwards 2 shows have been played each year, with a couple of exceptions. In 1961, the company produced Me and My Girl, and thereafter generally mixed one Broadway show with one operetta or Gilbert and Sullivan opera each year. In 1986, the society produced two musicals, and since then it has focused mostly on musicals.
Productions were suspended from 1914 to 1921 and from 1939 to 1945 during to the two world wars.
The company generally produces its shows in the 600+ seat City Hall, Wiltshire's largest venue, although performances have occasionally been given at the Playhouse, Salisbury. Performance dates are usually in May and early December.
Read more about this topic: Musical Theatre Salisbury
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (19061978)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.”
—William Howard Taft (18571930)