QUESTORIES
STUDENT GROUP PRODUCTIONS 
Part One: Groups 1-5 (1946-1950)

The Student Group was founded in 1946 with Alfred Emmet at the helm. When he retired as Director of Studies and First Year Group Tutor in 1984 the mantle was handed to David Emmet. It has been their personal commitment and enthusiasm, above all else, which has ensured the continuation of the Group.

   Student Group 1 (1946/1947)
   Student Group 2 (1947/1948)
   Student Group 3 (1948/1949)
   Student Group 4 (1949/1950)
   Student Group 5 (1950/1951)

STUDENT GROUP 1 (1946/1947)

The first Student Group began modestly, and as something of an experiment, on 26 January 1946 with an all-female group of ten students. Alfred Emmet described it as "one of the most exciting of our developments in recent years and I hope it will be a permanent feature of our work. Classes are held on most Saturday afternoons from 2.30 to 5 pm and acting members will at any time be welcome to attend as spectators." 

The course culminated in the performance of a Triple Bill in the old theatre in January 1947.
   CRANFORD by Mrs Gaskell, adapted by Michael Kelly
   THE CRADLE SONG (Extract) by Gregorio and Maria Marinez Sierra, J G Underhill (trans)
   "EXERCISE LETTER" improvised by members of the Student Group
The production was directed by Norman Branson and Eric Voce 
The cast: 
Rosemarie Ballard, Peter Bryant, Florence Chedzey, Ellen Dean, Irene Foster, Barbara James, Joyce Jones, Edna Laflin, Vera Lovelock, Katherine Mckinney, Carmen Nisbet, June Sibley

[Photo: Cranford]

Programme
Photos (Cranford)
Photos (Cradle Song)

The production was "designed to give the Club the chance to appreciate the benefits derived by the Student Members from a course of training which has lasted a year." And the "Exercise Letter" was included to demonstrate "the type of exercise frequently used by the students in their course of training. A situation or circumstance is given to each pair of students, and they are asked to develop a short story or scene, creating for themselves the characters and embroidering the basic situation which has been given to them." An exercise that will be familiar to most students down to the present day.

STUDENT GROUP 2 (1947/1948)

Building on the success that first course, negotiations with Middlesex County Council led to a subsidy enabling professional voice and movement tutors to brought on board. The second course, which was still only for one year of three terms, began in September 1947. There were 15 students and the fee was one guinea per term. Alfred Emmet was Director of Studies and Acting Tutor, Sascha Rares was Speech Tutor and Anny Boalth was Movement Tutor.

Student Group 2 at work (movement class)
Brochure for the Student Group 02
An example of a letter offering an applicant (Mrs Joan Lamb) a place in the 1947/48 course.

The Group gave their end of course production in July 1948
   THE PLEASURE GARDEN by Beatrice Mayor
Directed by Mary Dean, designed by Nan Rowley
The Cast:
Roy Ambrose, Clifford Anthony, Peter Bowen-evans, Doreen Coates, Pamela Cobden, Joyce Grant, Rosemary Grossman, Rita Heir, Edna Laflin, Joan Lamb, Vera Lovelock, Donald Manning, Walter Newton, Irene Pierions, Peter Raffe, Mary Whitton

Programme for THE PLEASURE GARDEN

This is the only surviving photo we have relating to this production. I assume the lady leading the discussion is the director Mary Dean. Most of the Group 2 students have faded from our memory except for Doreen Coates who remained a regular performer at The Questors for the next twenty years.  

STUDENT GROUP 3 (1948/1949)

The third Group began on 11 September 1948 and was, in Alfred Emmet's words, a "keen and enthusiastic group" and certainly hard working as, in addition to their regular class work and rehearsals for The City Wives' Confederacy, which they presented in July 1949, "they were responsible for the designing and making of their set, for the wardrobe and for the stage management.".

THE CITY WIVE'S CONFEDERACY by Sir John Vanbrugh
Directed by Mariel Dexter, designed by Roy Matthews
The Cast:
William Beesley, Ann Cheetham, David Grain, Theresa Hefferman, Joyce Hornett, Basil Hull, Murray Lowry, Roy Matthews, Pat Nicholls, Katherine Onley, Jennifer Oscard, Joyce Oscard, Grace Rorke, Pamela Speller, Kathleen Stafford, Peggy Thurlow, Elizabeth Wellman

Programme for The City Wive's Confederacy'
Production Photos

STUDENT GROUP 4 (1949/1950)

The fourth Group commenced as usual in September 1949, but during rehearsals for their graduation production (Miss Elizabeth Bennett, July 1950), the County Council Education Committee agreed to subsidise an extension of the course to a second year. So, in September 1950, for the first time there were two Groups running simultaneously, a new first year Group (see Group 05 below) and a second year Group consisting largely of the Group 04 first year students with the addition of selected applicants from the existing Acting Membership.

The result of this was that Group 04 is the only Group to have had three separate productions to its credit:

July 1950
MISS ELIZABETH BENNETT by Jane Austen adapted by AA Milne
Directed by Mariel Dexter, designed by Joyce Hornet
Cast:
Margaret Barnett, Joan Bate, Bill Beesley, Joyce Colwill, Judith Davies, David Eldridge, David Grain, Leon Hanick, John Holloway, Joyce Hornet, Patricia Jones, Murray Lowry, Roy Matthews, June Neave, Jennifer Oscard, Gay Rorke

Programme for Miss Elizabeth Bennet

February 1951
FOUR ONE ACT PLAYS
   IN SEARCH OF VALOUR by Teresa Deevey
   LADIES IN WAITING by Wendy St John Maule
   THE MASK by Anne Riddler
   QUEENS OF FRANCE by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Dorothy Dickinson
Cast:
Roy Ambrose, Joan Bate, Joyce Colwill, Lynee Corbett, Anthony Holloway, Patricia Jones, Donald Manning, Katherine Onley, Jennifer Oscard, Gay Rorke, Lyn Stafford

Programme for Four One Act Plays

July 1951 
DOUBLE BILL 
   RIDERS TO THE SEA by J M Synge
   THE WOMEN HAVE THEIR WAY by Serafin & Joachin Alvarez Quintero
Directed by Pamela Richards
Cast:
Josephine Arundel, Joan Bate, Bill Beesley, Carla Craik, David Eldridge, Dennis Estop, Peter Bowen-evans, Rosemary Grossman, Reginald Hamlyn, Brenda Harvey, Anthony Holloway, Patricia Jones, Valerie Lowson, Donald Manning, Audrey Nicholson, Katherine Onley, Jennifer Oscard, Margaret Popham, Gay Rorke, Catherine Scrivener, Lynn Stafford, Elizabeth Wellman, Betty White

Programme for Double Bill

[Photo: The Women Have Their Way]

A week before the July Double Bill, there was the first Student's Look-in, a"peep behind the scenes" which would have involved this Group and Group 05 (below) who were just completing their first year.

Press Cutting

STUDENT GROUP 05 (1950/1951)

This was the first "regular" two-year course, meeting for the first time on 16 September 1950 with a selection of the students progressing to the second year in September 1951.

It was a distinguished group, including a number of members who would soon become "household names", such as Dennis Estop and Ruth Tremayne, and Questors "stars" who are still very much part of our family - Carla Craik (Field)* and Jo Arundel (Irvin).

*[Carla Field died in 2022]

The Second Year's February production consisted of four short plays
  ARMS AND THE MAN (Act One) by George Bernard Shaw
  A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (Extract) by William Shakespeare
  DEIRDRE by W B Yeats
  THE ANNIVERSARY by Anton Chekhov
The director was Dorothy Dickinson  
The Cast:
Noreen Abley, Jo Arundel, Carla Craik, David Eldridge, Dennis Estop, Ned Gethings, Brenda Harvey, Anthony Holloway, John Howard, Valerie Lowson, Donald Manning, Margaret Popham, Ruth Tremayne, Betty White

Programme for Four Short Plays
Photos of Deirdre

[Photo: A Midsummer Night's Dream]

Paul Bedford, writing in the Middlesex County Times, found the 10 students in the cast rather "too studied and tense for comfort" in their performances and somewhat overshadowed by the more experienced Acting Members who had been brought in to support them. These included John Howard, Donald Manning and Anthony Holloway (the latter two having graduated from previous Student Groups). Ned Gethings also made an appearance in Deirdre as "a dark faced executioner".

Press cutting

A few weeks later, the students performed The Dream extract, Deirdre and The Anniversary at the Rudolf Steiner Hall off Baker Street as part of the British Drama League Community Theatre Festival. 

In July 1952 the second year students presented
   CORINTH HOUSE by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Directed by Dorothy Dickinson
Cast:
Noreen Abley, Josephine Arundel, Carla Craik, David Eldridge, Brenda Harvey, Valerie Lowson, Margaret Popham, Ruth Tremayne, Betty White

Press Cuttings for CORINTH HOUSE

This time the students seem to have managed without the help of extra Acting Members, although some of them were swapping parts during the run.

Sadly there are no surviving photos or reviews of Corinth House in archives. However Alfred Emmet did have this to say in the the September Edition of Forestage (The Questors Club magazine at the time):
"Many members were frankly disappointed with the standard of the one-act plays produced by the Second-Year Student Group in February. It is particularly pleasing, therefore, to record the really excellent standard shown in the performances of Corinth House, which seemed a considerable advance on their work. The authoress, Pamela Hansford Johnson, and her husband C P Snow, present on the first night, were most congratulatory."

The December issue of Forestage also published the following article by a former student:

As from a magical date in September, I was a Questor Student! It has been said by someone-or-other that anticipation is better than realisation but, excited as I was by the prospect of the Course which lay ahead, I had no conception then of the happiness and comradeship it was to bring me.

On that first Saturday afternoon, twenty brand-new "First Years" assembled in the Green Room. We had all received lengthy, written instructions on what would be required of us during the Course, from our attitude of mind - to our footwear! and now our first class, under the Director of Studies, was about to begin.

We stole tentative glances at one another and at our mentor, apparently deeply engrossed in a formidable pile of documents on the "props" table in front of him. Next-door neighbours whispered friendly overtures.

The D. of S. cleared his throat, raised an eyebrow and smiled whimsically round at us. We thawed. " Well, now - ...”

By tea-time our thirst for tea was only equaled by our thirst for knowledge - knowledge of our work to come and of our colleagues to be. "What's your name? Have you done much before? What did you do or your audition?” "Good heavens ! So did I!" The class was resumed after tea, and at half-past five we left the Theatre, our heads reeling with Searches for Truth and the Purpose of Acting.

The months passed with incredible speed. Movement, Speech and Acting classes, odd evenings in the Wardrobe and Workshop, filled our lives. There were poems to be learnt, relaxation exercises to be practised, imagination tests to be performed. It was tremendously exciting, and the work itself was punctuated by uproarious sessions in a friendly café nearby, where we discussed sometimes with levity, sometimes with its true seriousness, our work as students. The friendships which spring from a common purpose were realised to the full.

Inevitably, we had fits of depression, when our work seemed to deteriorate. Then, perhaps at the next class, we would win approbation for an acting exercise or the rendering of a poem, and once more we would be buoyed up with hope. If our faith in our own abilities sometimes flagged, our enthusiasm for the Course never did.

The Second Year, too, had its setbacks and disappointments, but we had "hitched our wagon to a star" - and that star was not easily dimmed by storm clouds of temporary failure.

If a benign deity offered to me the repetition of any two years of my life - I would make the Student's Quest again !