Amateurs

We had booked a few nights in Torquay and wondered what was on at the theatres. Mostly rubbish, except for an amateur company doing Arthur Miller's "All My Sons". I couldn't believe it: amateur companies don't do Miller. Or Ibsen. Or Shaw. Or Pinter. They do Aykebourne and "Sailor Beware" and farces and such things. I wondered if times were changing for the better so, later, I looked up what amateur groups were doing in South London (since we were going there on a visit). To my amazement one group was doing "My Son Jack" an excellent play George Haigh about Kipling and his son who got killed in WW1. Another company was actually looking for new plays. Another was doing a play by Shakespeare.
I go back many years to seeing Blackwood Drama Group doing plays by Shaw and Euripides and Shakespeare as well as, of course, the general staple diet of amateur groups - no Aykbourne then of course.
But Blackwood had a very good company and an enterprising set of people in charge. I recall Sybil Thorndike doing Lady Macbeth there with a small company which was added to by local actors. Also I recall a performance of "St Joan" by Bernard Shaw which was excellent.
I write plays for amateurs - actually I don't write them specifically for amateurs, professionals are welcome to try them out too! What I mean is that I write plays and that only amateurs perform them. Sometimes. Not often.
Incidentally the production of "All my Sons" at Torquay was superb: acting and (what often lets down amateur comapnies) the set. It was..... I'm looking for the right word...... it was "professional".