Drama Circle Theatre Trust

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Trustees

Former Trustees

Background

Drama Circle Belfast was formed, as a play-reading group, in the 1930's by the late Mrs Helen McCombe and early meetings were held at her home.  By the 1940's, membership had increased to an extent that made it necessary to find alternative, larger, premises and the group settled in upstairs rooms in an office building in High Street Belfast.  It was there, in primitive conditions that would not be tolerated under present health and safety regulations, that activities extended to stage performances of plays seldom, if ever, seen in the commercial theatre in wartime Belfast, or for many years after. 

Drama Circle launched several of its members on professional theatrical and television careers, as well as providing others with an opportunity of appearing in many successful Amateur Festival productions.

In 1963, Drama Circle members leased a former Mission Hall at New Lodge Road and formed Circle Theatre as an amateur repertory venue.  Many new plays by local authors were staged there, some with the assistance of the Arts Council, and, until 1969, productions continued on a monthly basis during the season.  Civil disturbances in that year brought about the end of the use of the Circle Theatre, situated as it was in the midst of what shortly became an area of extreme conflict. 

These conditions made stage-work extremely difficult though the group continued presenting plays in various locations, notably the Grove Cinema and ultimately, through the auspices of the City Council, in the Group Theatre, along with other amateur companies. However, without the possibility of a permanent home and declining numbers, it was eventually decided to disband the company in the late 1990's but that the names should be perpetuated in the title of the charitable trust - Drama Circle Theatre Trust.

Mission Statement

The Trust is established to be an educational trust to promote and advance in the area of benefit, by charitable means only, the education, knowledge and appreciation of drama and the theatre of students of dramatic art and of the theatre. "The area of benefit" means Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.