OUR HISTORY

Heckmondwike Players put on their very first public performance in January and March 1944. Not a musical, they came later, but a play; a comedy, "When we are Married".

It all began as a way of bringing wartime cheer to local folk and raising funds for the Heckmondwike Comforts Fund and the Spenborough Forget-me-not Fund to help local soldiers fighting in the second World War.

They comprised mainly old Heckmondwike Grammar School pupils who came together to bring a little entertainment to Heckmondwike under the guise of the "Heckmondwike Air Raid Wardens".

Many faces have come and gone since then but a few names remain in the programmes of today, by courtesy of successive generations treading the boards which their ancestors so proudly trod. One of the names which has become synonymous with the Heckmondwike Players is the Lister family.

Local baker Dempster Lister was the inaugural president, succeeded by his wife, Jean, and then their son, Rhodes.

Jean Lister is still closely associated with the Players even though she officially 'retired' after 50 years service!

They performed plays and songs from the shows at venues all over Spen Valley and rehearsed in premises in Albion Street owned by Dempster Lister. The rehearsal evenings were events in themselves. With pie and pea suppers, beetle drives and other social evenings in between, it's no wonder that at one time the Players had as many as 231 members!

It wasn't until 1972 that the Players decided to branch out into musicals.