About Tudor Players

 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 former Chairman, Jack Parkin, was one Michael Palin of Monty Python fame, 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 perform their plays at the Sheffield Library Theatre on Tudor Square (formerly 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 3rd March 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, our current President 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 1984 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 the now-defunct SADATA. Until 2018 we took part in the annual competition run by SADATA and over 35 years the society won over 60 awards including 26 first places. 

Tudor Players 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.

Since 1967 we have presented over 170 plays of considerable variety, including comedy, farce, suspense, drama old and new, with several hundred of our members appearing on our stage and supporting behind the scenes.