HISS

Highworth Amateur Dramatic Society (HADS) was formed in 1961 from the humble foundation of a play reading group. After a period of assembling in someone's house and simply reading various plays, Mr Arthur Robinson suggested they stage a play, instead of just reading them. Arthur, a wonderful thespian, thus became one of the founder members of HADS. This suggestion was met with great approval, but where would they find a venue for such a production? Another founder member of HADS, Mr Charles Martin, was a Governor of Warneford School and approached the headmaster and caretaker to see if they could accommodate such an activity. His approach was successful and led to our first production - Noel Coward's "Blythe Spirit". We have been fortunate that this good relationship with the school has been maintained through the years and with very few exceptions Warneford School has been the venue for all of our productions.

In the late sixties we joined forces with the Afternoon W.I. to produce our first pantomime "Dick Whittington". HADS quickly developed a very good reputation as one of the best amateur dramatic societies in the area, which was substantiated by winning the Best Newcomers Cup at the Malmesbury One Act Play Festival in 1968 with "Mrs Methusala". This was followed in 1969 by HADS winning the Wilts Drama Award with our production of "Gaslight". The standards of quality continued even into our one and only musical Jerome Kern's "Sally" in 1983, a challenging production for a non-musical drama group which received rave reviews in the press and local radio. A full list of our previous productions can be found here.

A History of HADS
Highworth Amateur Dramatic Society (HADS) was formed in 1961 from the humble foundation of a play reading group. After a period of assembling in someone's house and simply reading various plays, Mr Arthur Robinson suggested they stage a play, instead of just reading them. Arthur, a wonderful thespian, thus became one of the founder members of HADS. This suggestion was met with great approval, but where would they find a venue for such a production? Another founder member of HADS, Mr Charles Martin, was a Governor of Warneford School and approached the headmaster and caretaker to see if they could accommodate such an activity. His approach was successful and led to our first production - Noel Coward's "Blythe Spirit". We have been fortunate that this good relationship with the school has been maintained through the years and with very few exceptions Warneford School has been the venue for all of our productions. In the late sixties we joined forces with the Afternoon W.I. to produce our first pantomime "Dick Whittington". HADS quickly developed a very good reputation as one of the best amateur dramatic societies in the area, which was substantiated by winning the Best Newcomers Cup at the Malmesbury One Act Play Festival in 1968 with "Mrs Methusala". This was followed in 1969 by HADS winning the Wilts Drama Award with our production of "Gaslight". The standards of quality continued even into our one and only musical Jerome Kern's "Sally" in 1983, a challenging production for a non-musical drama group which received rave reviews in the press and local radio. A full list of our previous productions can be found here.

A History of HADS