Tudor Players have been a leading amateur group in Sheffield for over fifty years. We have our own rehearsal rooms and storage facilities in Attercliffe.

We perform three full length plays a year in February, May and October and will normally take part in the Sheffield One-Act Play Festival, which is held in june each year.

All our plays are performed in the Library Theatre, which is in the heart of Sheffield's theatreland, in Tudor Square alongside both the Crucible and Lyceum Theatres.

Registered Charity Ref. 511692 - 23July1981

Founded March 3rd 1967

During the 1950s and 1960s one of the best known and respected amateur theatrical groups in Sheffield was the Brightside and Carbrook Players. This society was supported financially by the B&C Co-operative Society. In the mid-1960s however, the co-op decided that they were unable to continue to support the Players and the society disbanded. One of their members, who was introduced to them by our Chairman Jack Parkin was one Michael Palin who has since made a certain amount of progress in the entertainment business! On the closure of the B&C Players, some members joined other societies but a number felt they would like to keep the team together and decided to form a new society. As the society intended to produce their plays at the Library Theatre, which is on Tudor way, it was decided to name the society Tudor Players.

Having been a Co-op supported group, the new society moved to the Conservative Party committee rooms on Abbeydale Road presumably to demonstrate a lack of political bias! Informality was the order of the day at the commencement but it soon became apparent that a more structured organization was required and on March 3rd 1967 a meeting was held to appoint a body of officers to run the society. It was at that time very small, consisting of approximately fifteen members. Of those founder members, only Carolyn Heslop is still a member.

Since then, the society has continued, with varying degrees of success, having been close to closure on more than one occasion. We have rehearsed in pubs, church halls, members' houses, a photographic club and Hillsborough Barracks, until in 1987 we acquired a derelict church building in Attercliffe which has now been converted into rehearsal rooms, workshop and lounge, giving the society a secure base from which to operate. Throughout its history, the society has played at the Library Theatre and has been a member of SADATA. We have always taken part in the annual competition run by SADATA and during the past 35 years the society has won over 60 awards including 26 first places. In recent years we have presented a number of firsts in the area, including "Amadeus", "Whose Life Is It Anyway?", "On Golden Pond", "The Dresser" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest".

A number of our players over the years have turned professional and a quick look through old programmes has revealed at least ten such people and we believe that a number of young people have had a useful theatrical grounding with the society.

Having presented over the past 42 years 110 plays of considerable variety, including comedy, farce, suspense, drama old and new, over 260 people have appeared on our stage.