Chesterfield Theatre Friends

Hard-working volunteers have raised £50,000 to support a theatre where Oscar-winning film star Gary Oldman trod the boards in the early years of his career.
Chesterfield Theatre Friends’ money-spinning programme for the town’s Pomegranate has funded the installation of a toilet for the disabled, a big projection screen for films, booster seats for children and winches for lighting bars.
Friends member Marilyn Pidcock said: “We are lucky to have such a lovely theatre and that the council is keeping it open when so many theatres elsewhere are closing.  By doing the fundraising we can help to keep the audience coming and it helps the council which doesn’t have to pay for everything itself.”
The Friends have raised the money over the past decade by organising raffles, talks and gala concerts.
Part of their remit is to preserve the history of the former Civic Theatre which celebrates its 70th anniversary next year.

An archive group is gathering photos, programmes, posters, lists of shows and memories to put online and promote via social media.
Liz Woodall, secretary of the Friends, said: “It’s been interesting to follow the careers of actors like Penelope Keith who started as an assistant stage manager here, Diana Rigg and David McCallum. Joss Ackland was here for a season, Gary Oldman was in Entertaining Mr Sloane in 1983 and Michael Praed was in Rockstar.
She was manager of the Pomegranate for ten years during her 28-year employment there. 
Liz said: “The basis of the archives was the photographs which Keith Tuttle and I found in the mid Eighties in a cupboard at the theatre which used to be a props store. 
“There were about 300 of them and we were frightened that they would get damaged so we loaded them into cardboard boxes and took them to the library.”

The treasured artefacts, which have been found at the theatre, in the adjacent museum and at the town’s library, include a programme for Chesterfield Operatic Society’s performance of The Gondoliers in 1906.
Liz said: “The thing that I have found most interesting was reading the Pomegranate manager’s notes from 1960s and 1970s, up to and including Derek Coleman, because it’s a social history about other things going on in the town. 
“There were plans for a new theatre, which would have replaced the Civic, on Rose Hill which had council and Arts Council funding but the Arts Council withdrew and supported the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield instead.”

Retired teacher Margaret McCall has learned a lot about actors, supporters and staff associated with Chesterfield’s Pomegranate Theatre through her work with the archive group.
One of her favourite stories is of David McCallum who has starred in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Sapphire and Steel and NCIS.
David was working as a stage hand at the Pomegranate where he was told to put a bag of soot up a chimney as part of a production. Margaret said: “When it was stabbed, he had put up such a big bag that the soot covered the first two rows of the audience and the council had to pay for their clothes to be cleaned.”
This was one of the anecdotes to arise from the recollections of performers, punters and workers at the Pomegranate which were recorded by Chesterfield Theatre Friends.
Frieda Lee, from Wingerworth, shared the tale of how a visit to the Pomegranate led to wedding bells. Margaret said: “She had been on a teachers’ course where a man needed to borrow a penny and said I’ll give it you back at the theatre. On the night he had to give the penny back, Frieda brought her friend who was engaged and who sat between them. The friend got fed up when they kept talking around her and swapped seats......and that led to marriage.”

Margaret’s late husband, Colin, was one of the driving forces of the archive group. She said: “He was keen to get the computers working to record everything so took on that responsibility.”
Her role with the group includes filing and checking that memorabilia goes back to where it came from.

She is also part of a sewing group which has made costumes for the Pomegranate Youth Theatre and two quilts. One of the quilts features the names of actors such as Penelope Keith and staff who have worked at the Pomegranate. Margaret, 67, of Moorcroft, Matlock, said: “We originally started it to make money for the theatre by raffling it off but it such an archival piece that we’ve kept it and it’s housed in the museum.”

Avid theatre supporter Marilyn Pidcock has been going to see shows at the Pomegranate for nearly 60 years.
Accompanied by her younger brother Neil and their mum Jean, who is 94, Marilyn has kept up a family tradition which began when she was just 15.
Marilyn, 72, of Mountcastle Street, Newbold Moor, said: “We used to come every week but I pick and choose now because of the prices.”

From her early years Marilyn has spotted the potential of actors destined for stardom. She said: “I was about 18 and we’d been to see Donald Sutherland in Two for a Seesaw. He had come over from Canada and was in lodgings on Saltergate. 
“My auntie had the corner shop on St Margaret’s Drive and Donald came into the shop where I served him sweets. 
“I went back to the theatre to see him again and sat close to the stage so I could be near to him. 
“He was fantastic and had such presence – I knew he would go on to great things.”

For several years retired health visitor Marilyn has been rattling a tin and selling raffle tickets during the Pomegranate’s pantomime run as part of her commitment to Chesterfield Theatre Friends.
She is also part of the Friends’ archive team and has sorted and filed hundreds of show flyers into folders. 
She said: “I’m no good at computers and feel that I should provide for people who can’t or don’t use a computer - you have to be all inclusive.”

Do you have any programmes, flyers or posters relating to performances at the Pomegranate Theatre?
There are gaps in the archives which Chesterfield Theatre Friends are hoping to fill.
Liz Woodall said: “The thing that is missing predominantly is amateur involvement, such as dancing school programmes and photographs for Chesterfield Operatic and Gilbert and Sullivan Societies. 
“The biggest gap is the mid and late 80s, amateur and professional.”
“We have the trophies for the Festival of One Act Plays, which was held at the Pomegranate until 1994, but we don’t have much information for that.”
If you have any items which you can loan or donate for archiving, email: ctfarchive@gmail.com or drop them off at Chesterfield Visitor Centre in Rykneld Square, marked for the attention of Chesterfield Theatre Friends.