Back in the early 1980’s, Alan Hawkins, a member of Cygnet Players in Studley, had recently moved to Stratford. His initial inspiration for a new kind of theatre came from attending a classical music concert in Banbury, and his thoughts turned to how classical music and drama could be combined. He discussed his idea with Phil Trory, who had been inspired by the Al Stewart song, ‘Nostradamus’. Phil Trory, a fellow member of Cygnet Players, had been inspired to write a drama based on this song, and the prophecies of Nostradamus to which it referred, and by this time had already developed a working script. Another strand of inspiration was John Barton’s RSC production of The Hollow Crown, certainly in terms of seeing the potential of a historical drama.

So, Alan and Phil took the idea to Cygnet Players, but they couldn’t see its potential. Slightly frustrated, Alan and Phil thought about creating a group in Stratford to develop the idea further and bring it to the stage. Several meetings then took place, some of which also involved Roger Gowland. At one point, Roger and Alan approached The Phoenix Players, but were turned off by what was – then – Phoenix’s taste for pantos, farces and whodunnits. Meanwhile, the idea of setting out to link classical music to drama had somewhat fallen away.

What the initial protagonists were sure of is that they didn’t want to create a “normal” drama group. In Phil’s words, they wanted ‘to move away from a hierarchy of elder statesmen’ and ‘didn’t want a committee to squash ideas’. To this day, Second Thoughts has never had a committee!

Meanwhile, Alan, Phil and Roger had come up with a name for a group to take this forward –The Centuries Drama Workshop. Anxious to attract recruits, they created a recruitment campaign and invited prospective interested parties to attend a meeting at the Thatch Tavern in Stratford. It was at this meeting that Kevin and Estelle Hand, and a certain young man called Steve Farr, were recruited.

Concurrent with these events was the 1983 RSC production of The Dillen, a promenade performance which included ‘the people of Stratford’. Although not directly connected with the development of the Nostradamus project, the energy and climate created by the Dillen revealed a considerable number of performers who were open to the idea of a new drama group in Stratford.

From this point on, there was a series of workshops, many led by Estelle, at the Teachers’ Centre (now the Library Car Park) with a view to developing the script further. Estelle was also instrumental in attracting a number of younger members through her connections with the High School. Besides Phil, Steve Farr and a number of others got involved with developing the script. However, in the end, the project collapsed, probably due to it being overambitious and the perceived difficulties of finding an audience, not to mention a case of too many cooks.

At this point, a desire to work on published scripts emerged, and with the change in philosophy came a desire for a change of name. Various ideas were put forward, from the traditional ‘Stratford upon Avon Players’, to the ‘Royal Martian Theatre Company’ (guess who put that idea forward) and, from Roger Gowland, based on the Thatch Tavern, the pub in which the group met, the ‘Stratford Thatchers’. Given who was Prime Minister at the time, this last suggestion bombed.

In conversation, Alan Hawkins pointed out that the group was having second thoughts, and, at the suggestion of Thelma Sanders, this name was adopted by the nascent group – and so Second Thoughts was born!

The First Production

Worry not, dear reader. I’m not going to write an article about each production! However, our very first outing merits an individual essay. Having decided to abandon the Nostradamus project, there was a clear shift within the group towards seeking out and performing published works. After some discussions, Alan Ayckbourn’s Confusions was selected, partly because it is simple to stage and also because it offers a lot of opportunities for the growing number of local actors that were gravitating towards Second Thoughts.

The play was performed on 29 June 1984 in Binton Village Hall due to a connection between our first Chair, Alan Hawkins, and a friend, who lived in Binton and was associated with the management of the hall. Binton Village Hall is most assuredly not a large space. In fact, Phil Trory was operating the lighting and sound boards from the ladies’ loo!

The first line delivered in the play, and therefore the first line ever delivered in a Second Thoughts production, was spoken by Sarah Ann Kennedy, who has subsequently found minor fame as the voice of Miss Rabbit in the Peppa Pig children’s cartoons. The cast of Confusions included Steve Farr – hard to believe that he’s still around 40 years later!

Second Thoughts in the 80s

I don’t want to simply produce a list of productions here because you can find that on the group’s web page, but rather give you a flavour of what life in Second Thoughts was like during these early years.

Alan Hawkins remained our Chair until 1987, when Kevin Hand took over. Estelle and Kevin were pivotal to the group’s success in the early years, and Estelle directed many of our productions around this time, including Dark of the Moon, The House of Bernarda Albaand The Hollow Crown, whilst Kevin directed Celebration and Sweeney Todd.

As Treasurer 1986-1993, the author knew all too well that money was very hard to find in the early years. We had to resort to cheese and wine and Bring and Buy events to raise a small amount of funds before the penny dropped that putting on productions that people actually wanted to see in numbers would help our finances more than anything else.

However, this experimental and developmental stage of Second Thoughts’ history was very exciting, and our early commitment to remaining a democratically run group was cemented during this period. Although meetings were sometimes contentious, we still managed to offer a programme of successful productions without falling out!

For performance venues, we used the Stratford College Drama Studio during 1985-1987. However, we found it difficult to book the space at the times we wanted and so looked to the recently built Civic Hall (now the Playhouse) for our productions in 1988 and 1989. This effectively became our home for most of the next 25 years, although the double bill of one act plays, The Dumb Waiter and The Dock Brief, was performed in the old Scout Hut in Broad Street.

So the 1980’s wasn’t an unqualified success for Second Thoughts – but at least we lasted longer than Mrs Thatcher!

1990-1994

The early 90’s was an exciting time for Second Thoughts, with the group really established as a regular part of the Stratford amateur theatre scene. We continued to mount a wide variety of productions at the Civic Hall (now the Playhouse) with one or two exceptions: Indians, directed by Annette Stocken, which was the last show we produced at Stratford College Drama Studio, and a couple of productions at the Alveston Manor Hotel: This War Without an Enemy, directed by Jeanette Brown, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Estelle Hand.

Kevin Hand remained in the Chair until 1993, when he was succeeded by Mairi Macdonald. Their contrasting styles of leadership fitted well with the group’s development and we were lucky to have both of them in this important post during this period.

Two directors were particularly prolific during the early 90’s: Jeanette Brown, who, in addition to This War Without an Enemy, also directed Wild Oats, Arden of Faversham and The Rover. These were all well received but, unfortunately for Second Thoughts (but not for Jeanette!), romance blossomed across the Atlantic and she soon went off to marry Keith Ford and live in Alberta. Second Thoughts’ loss has proved to be the Strathmore (Alberta) Theatre’s gain.

The other prolific director during this period was some bloke called Ian McLean (Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Andorra and Black Comedy) – I wonder what happened to him?

It was also time to say goodbye to one of our Founder Members – Thelma Sanders, who, after Black Comedy, emigrated less far away –Oxford, to be precise. Thelma has however been brilliant at staying in touch – and in membership – throughout all the intervening years, and recently attended, and contributed to, the Bring and Share evening held on 1st March.

The crowning glory of this period must surely be our first ever outdoor production. Under the brilliant direction of Estelle Hand, we performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream under the cedar tree in the garden of the Alveston Manor Hotel. Unusually, we performed this across four weekends (a Friday night and a Sunday afternoon) stretching from early June to early September 1994. Val Harris was cast as Puck, but as her pregnancy became ever more obvious, and her mobility more obviously affected, she handed over the baton to Maggie Curtis for the last two performances. Incidentally, one Becky Hallworth made her debut as a child fairy – yes, the same Becky Hallworth who now runs the Playhouse!

1995-99

The late 1990’s was a golden age for Second Thoughts, with so many shows which broke new ground. It seemed at that time that anything was possible, which reflected the mood of the country, I think. During this period we:

• Performed our first two open air Shakespeare productions at Halls Croft, Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing 
• Took The Golden Pathway Annual on tour to the Forest of Arden Festival and then on to the 1997 Edinburgh Festival
• Created an original script of Mary Wollstonecraft, partly from cast improvisation
• Performed Amadeus at the Swan Theatre
• Performed Toad of Toad Hall at The Other Place
• Started work on our store in what is now Rother Street Car Park
• Besides Shakespeare, we performed work by David Hare, Henrik Ibsen, Dennis Potter and Peter Shaffer (twice), among others.

All that energy was driven under the leadership of our successive Chairs, Mairi Macdonald (1993-96) and the late Val Harris (1996-1999). Once again, Estelle Hand was a highly active director, leading the company in Twelfth Night, Amadeus and Toad of Toad Hall.

Our 1996 production of Twelfth Night was quite special. It was our first outing to Halls Croft and included some memorable performances. The house provided a magical backdrop to the performance, which was played on the patio. Thanks to the genius of our then Marketing Coordinator (step forward one Tim Raistrick), we procured t-shirts and mugs (I still have mine) as merchandise for sale at the show. They didn’t all sell – somewhere in a cupboard in Stratford there is a cache of unsold Twelfth Night mugs!

The late noughties

The late Noughties was a time when our earlier years of effort began to bear the fruits of recognition. The first production of 2004 was David Hare’s Murmuring Judges, which had a large and enthusiastic cast (with some interesting accents!) under the direction of Kate Sutcliffe. This was also the very first Second Thoughts production to be nominated for the NODA District Award for Best Drama, so it was great to see our work acknowledged. and not for the last time.

Indeed, every one of the productions from this period were individually memorable in their own way and it almost seems invidious to pick any out.

However…

During this period we performed outdoors on four occasions – three times at Halls Croft, including Graham Tyrer’s production of The Tempest (and yes, one performance did get rained off!). his production of The Merchant of Venice; and Amanda Laidler’s production of The Winter’s Tale. We also performed David Storey’s play Home in the Great Garden of New Place for which, thankfully, a particularly wet June that year gave way to a half-way reasonable July.

The Winter’s Tale was one of TWO NODA award nominations for 2008, the other being Ian McLean’s production of Under Milk Wood – we were pipped to the post by the Talisman’s The Graduate.

However, it was also during this period that we actually WON the award for the first time – for Debbie Stead’s production of An Ideal Husband, which was great cause for celebration. We cannot complete a review of this period either without praising Estelle Hand’s all-female production of Hamlet in what was then the Civic Hall. Sadly, this proved to be Estelle’s last production for the group, but her influence on the group’s first 25 years was profound.

In other news, Ian McLean remained as Chair until 2007. to be succeeded briefly by Nick Oliver and then in 2008 by Nic Walsh. We continued to attract talent into the group and all seemed set fair.

2010-2014

Measured crudely by NODA Awards, the early 2010’s marked the zenith of Second Thoughts’ artistic success. In fact, we won the NODA Best Drama Award four years out of the five: Taking Steps, directed by Kate Sutcliffe(2010); Cider With Rosie, directed by Richard Sandle Keynes (2011); All My Sons, directed by Ian McLean (2013); and Shadowlands, again directed by Kate Sutcliffe (2014).

However, this artistic success was achieved at a heavy financial cost, and if the truth be told, we took our eye off the marketing ball. Fortunately, Bernard Hall arrived on the scene at the end of this period and put enormous energy into marketing, which was reflected in subsequent ticket sales. At this time, we were also grappling with holding our storage in a couple of containers on Warwick Road.

2010 also saw the last of our outdoor productions at Halls Croft, Amanda Laidler’s production of She Stoops to Conquer. Although this was a fine production, there was nothing to be done about the weather, which was awful throughout!

2013 also saw our last production in the old Civic Hall before its transformation, first to the Arts House, and subsequently the Playhouse. This was Paul Holtom’s memorable production of Calendar Girls.

Our celebrations for our 30^th anniversary were not quite like our 40th. Organised rather late and ad-hoc, they were not helped again by the weather. In fact, we ended up in the back of Ian McLean’s campervan!

So, a rather mixed period in Second Thoughts’ history that produced some excellent (and even decorated) productions! Onto the next!

2015-2019

This was an exciting period for Second Thoughts as new boundaries were pushed and our financial situation recovered. Key to our financial success was the energy put into marketing our productions, firstly by Bernard Hall and later by Amanda Laidler. Although we didn’t always automatically choose obviously “bums on seats” productions, we succeeded in rebuilding our finances, also helped by two generous legacies from members who left us all too soon – Phil Bruce-Moore and Maggie Curtis, whose names live on in our annual awards.

The variety of productions carried out during this period is obvious from even a cursory scan of the website. 2015 opened with Alex Kapila’s ground-breaking production of Moira Buffini’s Loveplay and ended with another award-winning production of Cyrano de Bergerac from Kate Sutcliffe. Our commitment to encourage new writing was honoured during this period with new plays from Steve Farr (Sparrows in a Hat), Noel Dollimore (Into the Silence) and Bernard Hall (Time Masons). In addition, in 2019,  we produced an evening of one-act plays, two of which were by Margot McCleary, directed by Tracy Humphreys (Wherefore Art Thou, Lady Macbeth?) and Whisking Eggs by Jackie Lines, directed by Ian McLean. Whisking Eggs made its debut at the Lighthorne Festival of One Act plays, and these two one act plays, along with Supersnout by Jane Cafarella, directed by Jane Grafton, won the NODA Best Drama award for 2019.

In other news, we were relieved to vacate the containers which had been our storage since 2010, having been offered space by the Stratford Town Trust in their new facility at Foundation House. As everyone now knows, we have subsequently moved to the garage in the Rother Street Car Park, but to be able to actually see what we had was a huge bonus and a considerable upgrade from the conditions which had pertained before.

All in all, it was a great time to be a Second Thoughts member, with a lot going on.

2020-2024

It’s often said that contemporary history is the most challenging – and challenged – but I hope this final article on the history of Second Thoughts does not prove too controversial!

2020 began with our rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream in full swing, which was duly performed at the end of February 2020. At the time, we were getting media reports of a virus which was spreading from China (Covid 19), but none of us could imagine the devastation this would cause to the population, let alone the amateur theatre scene. As we now know, theatres closed down from 23 March 2020 and didn’t reopen for well over a year afterwards.

Our next production therefore had to be uplifting and fun, and Amanda chose The Shakespeare Revue, which we performed both at the Playhouse and also outdoors at Great Alne Park. The audience had to be socially distanced, which was relatively easy to achieve in the Playhouse, and, of course, restrictions on outdoor performances had by this time eased.

However, access to the Bear Pit Theatre was still restricted due to Covid 19 so our next production, The Woman in White, was performed at the Methodist Hall. We managed to achieve a reasonable degree of social distancing with the seating and, as far as the author knows, no one was sick with Covid afterwards.

2022 brought Improbable Fiction, directed by Nic Walsh, as we resumed our performances at the Bear Pit. This was followed by Ian McLean’s production of Noel Dollimore’s Heaven on Earth, which sadly proved to be dear Nick Bate’s last production with the group. His death later that year came as a great shock. We ended the 2020 season with a rehearsed reading of Under Milk Wood.

2023 opened with Arms and The Man, directed by Amanda Laidler, followed by Angela Dandy’s one-act offering Wind of Change, an original take on the Wind in the Willows story. Summer saw a beautiful production of Entertaining Angels followed by Blithe Spirit in the Autumn.

And so finally to this our 40^th anniversary year, which opened with the Stoppard double bill of The Real Inspector Hound and A Separate Peace. This was followed by Twelfth Night (including two outdoor performances, the second of which was in the Great Garden of New Place (although clashing with the final of the Euros – the football fans didn’t seem to get the memo!)). Finally, we completed our celebrations of our 40 years with a production of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party.

So there you have it – 40 years of work condensed into ten short articles. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as we look forward to further successes in the future!