Over the Christmas period we received the very sad news that Carla died very peacefully in her care home near March, Cambridgeshire. She moved to March in order to be close to her son, Martin, and his family.
Carla was one of our longest standing and most loyal members from the early 1950s. She was an early member of the Student Group, an acting member, appearing in 49 plays in as many years. She was a Front of House steward as well as Questors Archivist for a while, a job for which her experience as a librarian came to good use. She was regularly involved with the PlayBack reminiscence group and contributed to many of Mike Green's famous melodramas, achieving the ultimate accolade of appearing in Mike's book The Art of Coarse Acting as an example of a "coarse" medieval wench.
Phillip Sheahan
I came to know Carla Field through PlayBack, The Questors Reminiscence Theatre project. Carla was a key member of that multi-talented coterie who created the first and most well-known of the many Playback productions, Soapsud Island, a poignant history of the Acton laundries.
Carla made it easy for me to write her part in Soapsud Island as the brash and opinionated Mabel. She was a great improvisor and the early stages of development of the play really showed her ability to connect with an audience and bring a character to life.
In performance Carla relished the moments in Soapsud Island when she'd address the audience - pulling up her overall with a shout of, "Take a look at these legs. They've got more wiggly lines on 'em than an AA road map! Have you ever seen anything like 'em?." Then, finding a suitable audience member to surprise, she'd say, with a sly wink,"You have, I know. But what about the rest of you?"
Fond memories live on of an actress with a special talent to entertain. Farewell Carla, you were a star on and off the stage.
Helen Walker
Such sad news. I have great memories of directing Carla (who was a bit fierce but an amazing actor and a joy to direct) in the premiere of the Little Theatre Guild's commission of John Godber's Happy Families. The show was also brilliantly lit by Pete Walters, who was an absolute professional and lovely guy. I send my deep condolences to Carla and Pete's families.
Ffrangcon Whelan
Carla and I were members together for decades but only acted together once - in "Happy Families". I remember that we had an entrance together cued by David Bowie singing "Changes" - we just about managed to count through the bars together and get on stage in time and it was great to act with her. She contributed so much to Questors, she had enormous energy, a lot of confidence and wonderful comic timing. In our later years we became good friends and I now miss our outings very much indeed. Lots of love Carla.