The Theatre in the Hut

We are lucky to have our own theatre in Milton Lane, off Milton Avenue, Weston-super-Mare.

We have comfortable tip-up theatre seating for 60 people, full wheelchair access and toilets.  On performance nights our licensed bar opens 30 minutes before curtain up and serves hot and cold drinks and snacks before the show and during the interval.  We usually run a raffle at performances too, so your visit might just net you a nice prize as a bonus.

If you have never visited the Hut you will be very pleasantly surprised - it really is a proper little theatre with all the facilities you would expect but on a small scale.

How to find the hut

The theatre in the hut is in Milton Lane, off Milton Avenue (by the Fire Station).  To find us, head out of town on Milton Road and take the first right turning after Ashcombe Road lights.  Turn right when you reach the Fire Station and we are about 50 metres along on the right.  Click here for a map (By Google Maps)

Renovations

We have recently extended the hut, adding new changing rooms and toilets to the rear of the building, the roof has been renovated and the building painted.  We have installed a new lighting systems and have been re building a lot of the old stage flats.  All this costs a great deal of money, although we rely on the skills of our members wherever possible.

Hiring

The Theatre in the Hut is available for hire to other local societies and groups, offering many local groups the opportunity to perform on our stage.  For information, please contact us.

History

During the years immediately after the Second World War a Weston pharmacist and chiropodist living and running his business, aptly enough in what is now a part of the Playhouse, sought solace from the distress caused by the break-up of his marriage, in the world of amateur dramatics.

Ernest Gibson, known as ‘Gibby’, soon found that it was a fascinating pastime which made him many new friends  and was to become his principal hobby for the rest of his life.

Gibby however was a disciplined and well organised man, a trait inherited from his father and the somewhat haphazard way that drama societies were run both irked him somewhat and, he felt, led to the unfair allocation of acting parts amongst members.

Accordingly in 1951 he decide to start a new drama group with a few like-minded friends and The Wayfarers Drama Group was born.

Rehearsing mostly ‘over the shop’, now the Playhouse Box Office, the Group presented their first play ‘Candied Peel’, in 1952 and for the next couple of years presented half a dozen plays in various halls in and around Weston and Uphill. The high standard of the shows soon caught the eye of the local amateur world and in 1954 the Group was invited to present a play at the Playhouse during a festival of amateur drama. The opportunity to put on a show at the theatre used by Weston’s premier drama societies was welcomed with open arms and a hilarious farce called ‘How Now Hecate’ was presented. Three performances were given and the first night audience doubled each subsequent night. People had enjoyed the show and spread the word! The Wayfarers had arrived!

Thus began a forty year association with the Playhouse, broken only by the years at Knightstone when the  Playhouse was being rebuilt after the fire in 1964. For the first seventeen of those years Gibby produced all the plays, determined that everyone should have a fair opportunity to act rather than allow the ‘best’ actors to be chosen every time by a variety of producers to the detriment of newcomers, beginners and those of lesser talent.

 This made for a happy Group and shows were regularly taken to Yatton, after the run at The Playhouse, where there was always a warm welcome, and fish and chips after setting up the stage on the Friday night! Numerous other plays were presented around the district at venues as varied as the old Museum in the Boulevard to outdoors at Banwell Abbey, as well as more conventional church and village halls. The Group is called The Wayfarers after all!

 Highlights on stage have include the Group’s one venture into Shakespeare when Twelfth Night was presented at Knightstone, Pride and Prejudice, The Ghost Train, the 25^th Anniversary production of ‘Tom Jones’ and for the 40^th Anniversary, ‘The Accrington Pals’. (Who, that saw it, can possibly forget the scene when the Pals went ‘over the top’?) ‘Widows are Dangerous’ was a highlight, if only because it opened to a FULL HOUSE! Quite an achievement for an amateur non-musical show.

 Gibby’s dream was always for the Group to have a home of it’s own, where shows could be rehearsed and presented on the same stage. Where scenery and props could be made and stored on site. Several times suitable property was nearly acquired but the plans all came to naught.

 It was therefore most fortuitous that as the practicality of amateur drama groups continuing to use the Playhouse became more and more difficult, the Wayfarers were able to take over the lease for The Hut, off Milton Avenue, which had long been used for the performing arts.

 This sixty seat theatre has now become the Wayfarers home and the ‘dream’ has come true. The dreamer has unfortunately long since passed on but the Group flourishes. The membership is the largest it has ever been and it is a major problem keeping everyone involved! The Hut has been completely refurbished inside and now has traditional tip-up theatre seats, carpet throughout and on show nights, a bar. The outside has also been renovated, the garden surrounds replanted and a new scenery store built.