Working as a team

Welcome to Glastonbury & Street Musical Comedy Society.

In our society, we're all passionate about musical theatre. It's the buzz that gets us out to rehearsals during those dark winter months of preparation for our spring and autumn shows.

For nearly 100 years we have been entertaining audiences with our award-winning musicals and pantomimes.

As well as keeping amateur theatre alive in Somerset and providing a springboard for budding performers and stage crew , we have two main aims:

to give our audiences a great evening's entertainment
for our performers and teams to experience the thrill of live performance

And all of this comes together through the fun and satisfaction of working as a team towards one common goal - a hit show!

Enjoy reading about our exciting shows coming up, and discovering some gems from the past. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

It all began before the start of the second world war, in 1930. Mid-Somerset had already been popular with historical pageants, miracle plays and pantomime clubs, but a group of enthusiasts were about to create a whole new world for amateur dramatics in the local area.

**Glastonbury Town Hall was the home of the Glastonbury Operatic and Dramatic Society until 1974**

They joined forces to create the Glastonbury Operatic and Dramatic Society. Early shows were staged at Glastonbury Town Hall, which had a small stage and basic lighting system. Dressing room space was limited and actors often had to scurry outside the building to change in the council chambers above the front entrance.

In 1963, Strode Theatre was completed as part of the Strode College complex in Street, with funding from the Clarks Foundation of the famous shoe-making company, and through the 1960s it developed into a popular venue both for film and stage theatre.

With its new, plush facilities, part of the our society wanted to move to Street, but others fiercely resisted the move saying they would lose their Glastonbury identity and their attachment to the building they had called home, despite its faults.

The idea sparked strong disagreements and some resignations, but in 1973 Half A Sixpence was to be the last show staged at Glastonbury Town Hall, and 1974 saw the society stage Hello Dolly at its new home at Strode Theatre. At the same time, our name was changed to 'Glastonbury and Street Musical Comedy Society’, which better reflected our shows.

Despite a break between 1940 and 1946 during the second world war, musical productions have been staged every year, entertaining thousands of audiences, and scooping awards.

In 2010, in response to cut backs to arts funding, we embarked on a joint venture with Strode Theatre to stage an annual Christmas pantomime – sharing the income to help offset the loss of funding for the theatre. The first panto, Dick Whittington, was extremely well received, and the following year our Sleeping Beauty attracted sell-out audiences and won the 'Best Pantomime in the South West' at the 2012 National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) awards.

After that our pantomimes provided more than £30,000 funding for the theatre, and won several more awards. However, in 2020, after 10 great years of staging pantos, we were set to perform our last pantomime, Cinderella. But we were forced to cancel this in light of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The ending of our panto run came as Strode Theatre looked at a new future for its festive slots. But, the shows must go on and instead we decided to stage Autumn shows, alongside our Spring musicals, with our first being the Wizard of Oz in October 2021 at the Meyer Theatre at Millfield School.