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 |  | Feature by John Fenner, local website user, actor and theatre critic
Regular patrons of the Arts in Warwickshire and the West Midlands will be aware that there is a profusion of non-professional drama available to them in the area.
What may be less well-known is that many of the small theatres which they attend either regularly or occasionally are members of an association known as the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain, familiarly referred to as the LTG.
Indeed, the Midlands has the highest concentration of LTG member theatres in the country - 12 out of a membership approaching 100. Half of these are in Coventry or Warwickshire.
| 听 |  | Rugby Theatre, who are members of the LTG
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The 12 Midlands theatres are: Highbury Theatre in Sutton Coldfield, Sutton Arts Theatre, Oldbury Repertory Players, Nonentities Society from Kidderminster, Crescent Theatre in Birmingham, Hall Green Little Theatre, Talisman Theatre in Kenilworth, Priory Theatre in Kenilworth, Loft Theatre of Leamington, the Wheatsheaf Players and the Criterion Theatre from Coventry and Rugby Theatre.
Many of these theatres have a long tradition of presenting quality productions for their respective communities. For example, the Talisman theatre in Kenilworth recently celebrated its 60th year, and the Loft theatre in Leamington marked its 80th.
A brief history of non-professional theatre
Non-professional theatre in this country goes back much further than many of us might acknowledge - to the mediaeval mystery plays performed by the merchant and craft guilds.
Since then it has proliferated through the Court Masques, home theatricals in the 19th century, and the setting up of amateur groups, of which there are now some 25,000 and which put on productions at least once a year.
Such groups vary considerably in their aims, their standards, and the facilities at their command. At its best, non-professional theatre can match or even exceed the quality of presentation of what remains of this country's professional, provincial theatres. Among these groups are the self owned, or controlled, Little Theatres.
Their objective is to promote theatre of excellence for artistic and aesthetic reasons. Over the years, many of them have become, for many communities, the only repertory style theatres.
In the mid-1930s, a resolution was sponsored at the British Drama League (BDL) Conference to establish a special Little Theatre Section of the BDL.
World War II interrupted this initiative and it wasn't until 1946 at a meeting at the Waldorf Hotel that four theatres agreed to form the LTG.
Later that same year the membership had grown to 13 (including Leamington's Loft Theatre and Sutton Coldfield's Highbury Theatre), and these 13 are still known as the "founder members".
| 听 |  | Coventry actor Kees de Grout performing on stage
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The Little Theatre Guild
The Guild celebrated its 50th year in 1996, by which time membership had grown to 84 theatres, and is now considered to be a major force. With so many members, the LTG these days operates within three regions (North, Midlands and South), under the umbrella of a national committee.
The three regions have developed their own conference/workshop/seminar programmes on an annual basis, supplementing the national conferences (one or two a year) hosted for the Guild by the larger theatres.
The LTG has tried to maintain an influence on new writing, more recently with a regular one act playwriting competition.
In the 1980s and early 90s the concept of the BT Biennial - a sponsored scheme which invited noted playwrights to submit new work for simultaneous performance nationwide - spread far beyond the Guild, and did much to improve the standard of Amateur Theatre as a whole.
Some very dedicated people spend a great deal of their time furthering the aims of the LTG by organizing conferences and courses, coordinating the development of Little Theatres and lobbying on matters of national interest.
They also provide a forum for the exchange of ideas regionally, nationally and internationally which help to facilitate exchange visits through the International Theatre Exchange, and, not least, monitoring and advising on the maintenance of theatrical standards.
Enjoyment and new challenges
All of these activities ensure that the many member theatres in your area continue to prosper, provide a great deal of enjoyment and new challenges for their companies, and result in high quality productions for you to attend on a regular basis.
Follow the link on the left to the LTG website to find out how you can get involved at a theatre new you.
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