Napier Operatic Society

Napier Operatic Society (often abbreviated as NOS) is an amateur theatre society based in Napier, New Zealand. Established in 1887,[2] Napier Operatic Society is the second oldest-existing theatrical society in New Zealand,[3][4][5] and is nationally renowned for its critically acclaimed professional-quality productions.[6][7][8]

Napier Operatic Society

The Tabard Theatre at night.
Formation	1887
Legal status	Incorporated Society[1]
Location	Napier, New Zealand
Region	Hawkes Bay
Membership	200~
Patron	Peter Cox O.B.E.
President	Ali Oldershaw
Website	http://www.napieroperatic.org.nz/

The society is based at The Tabard Theatre, which underwent extensive renovations completed in April 1994 – an extended rehearsal room, wardrobe hire, workshop, and restaurant-theatre complex were completed during the 5-year project.[9] The Napier Operatic Society produces multiple productions a year, and has done a major stage-show every year since 1887, with the exception of several years throughout the 20th century during overseas conflict and the aftermath of natural disaster.

History

The earliest known theatre company in Napier was the Napier Theatre Co., which in 1883, along with the Napier Musical Society and the Napier Amateur Drama Club combined to create the Theatre Royal. The Theatre Royal made its debut with the musical Trial by Jury, and out of this the Napier Operatic Society was born.

Most of the early productions were Gilbert and Sullivan plays, with the first production at the new Napier Municipal Theatre being A Greek Slave in 1912. The 1800 capacity of the Napier Municipal Theatre was noted to have been "frequently taxed to the uttermost", especially by people who drive in from the country areas.[10] Due to the onset of World War I, The Blue Moon was the last production by Napier Operatic Society until 1921.

Beauty and the Beast, 2007. Photo by Clive Ralph

The 1931 Napier earthquake caused significant damage to the Napier Municipal Theatre, contributing to Napier Operatic's hiatus until 1937. A Special General Meeting was held on 14 October 1937 where it was unanimously decided to revive the society. The first production in over 7 years, Rio Rita, was performed at the newly built Napier Municipal Theatre. Since then, with the exception of during World War II until 1953, there has been at least one production put on by Napier Operatic Society every year.

Mamma Mia!, 2014.

Napier Operatic Society has staged many hit musicals in recent years, including Les Misérables, 42nd Street, Chicago, Cats, Beauty and the Beast, Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia!,[11] and Evita.[12] Napier Operatic Society have since begun staging larger productions that typically would be seen at the Napier Municipal Theatre at the Tabard Theatre, such as Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Blood Brothers.[13]

Blood Brothers, 2017. Photo by Paul Taylor

Productions: 1887 - Present Day

1887	The Sorcerer	1888	No production.	1889	The Mikado Iolanthe	1890	Rip Van Winkle
1891	The Mikado Iolanthe Madame Favart	1892	No production.	1893	Rip Van Winkle Les Cloches de Cornville	1894-1907	No productions.
1908	The Gondoliers	1909	The Mikado	1910	The Geisha	1911	The Runaway Girl
1912	A Greek Slave	1913	Toreador	1914	Miss Hook of Holland	1915	The Blue Moon
1916-1920	No productions.	1921	The Geisha	1922	No production.	1923	A Country Girl
1924	Florodora	1925-1927	No productions.	1928	The Arcadians	1929	The Sunshine Girl
1930	Our Miss Gibbs	1931-1937	No productions.	1938	Rio Rita	1939	The Belle of New York
1940	Boots and All	1941-1953	No productions.	1954	Chu Chin Chow	1955	Desert Song
1956	The New Moon	1957	Oklahoma!	1958	Love from Judy	1959	The Vegabond King
1960	White Horse Inn	1961	Kismet	1962	The Music Man	1963	Where's Charley The Merry Widow
1964	The Maid of the Mountains	1965	Annie Get Your Gun	1966	Amahal and the Night Visitors	1967	Little Mary Sunshine
1968	The Sound of Music	1969	Camelot	1970	Pink Champagne	1971	South Pacific
1972	Oliver!	1973	Fiddler on the Roof	1974	My Fair Lady	1975	Man of La Mancha
1976	Pirates of Penzance Music Hall	1977	Oops Titipu Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat	1978	Oh, What a Lovely War!	1979	The Great Waltz Grease
1980	Jesus Christ Superstar	1981	HMS Pinafore Hans Christian Andersen	1982	Cabaret Oklahoma!	1983	Annie
1984	Man of La Mancha	1985	The Gingerbread Man Chicago	1986	Mack and Mabel	1987	The Sorcerer Nostalgia
1988	Oliver! An Evening with Gershwin	1989	Grease	1990	The Fantastiks Evita	1991	Tom Jones Me and My Girl
1992	Jerome Kern Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat	1993	Nunsense West Side Story A Place on Earth	1994	Canterbury Tales Cabaret	1995	Les Misérables A Slice of Saturday Night Chess
1996	Stepping Out Love off the Shelf	1997	42nd Street	1998	The Pirates of Penzance Dirty Weekends	1999	The Mikado Jesus Christ Superstar Showstoppers
2000	HMS Pinafore West End to Broadway	2001	Sweeny Todd Return to the Forbidden Planet Moby Dick	2002	Blood Brothers Les Misérables Some Enchanted Evening	2003	Buddy Annie Little Shop of Horrors
2004	A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum The Odd Couple	2005	My Fair Lady Gypsy The Full Monty	2006	The Threepenny Opera The Boy Friend Back to the 80's	2007	Beauty and the Beast Cats
2008	The Producers Thoroughly Modern Millie Urinetown	2009	Dinner with the Duke If You're Irish An ANZAC Tribute Miss Saigon	2010	The Wedding Singer Bad Girls	2011	42nd Street Dusty
2012	Spamalot Chicago Showbiz	2013	Hairspray[14] The Phantom of the Opera	2014	Young Frankenstein Dreamgirls Mamma Mia!	2015	Evita The Addams Family Forbidden Broadway
2016	Jesus Christ Superstar Barnum Nunsense	2017	Mary Poppins[15] Blood Brothers A Great Face for Radio

Theatre School Productions: 2000 - Present Day

2000	Establishment of Theatre School.	2001	Little Red Rockin' Hood	2002	The Halfmen of O	2003	Peter Pan - The Crock Rock Musical
2004	The Snow Queen	2005	Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat	2006	The Wonderful Wiz of Oz	2007	Aladdin Jr.
2008	Mulan Jr.	2009	Puss'n'Kiwiboots	2010	A Midsummer Night's Dream	2011	High School Musical Jr. Cinders in the 60's
2012	No production.	2013	Bugsy Malone	2014	Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat	2015	The Wizard of Oz
2016	Annie Jr.	2017	Beauty and the Beast Jr.

Society Presidents: 1890 - Present Day

1890 J. D. Ormand	1893 J. W. Carlile	1910 W. Simm	1924-1929 Dr. R. I. Sutton	1930-1938 J. W. Cargill
1939-1954 J. Harris	1955 K. Douglas	1956 A. E. Herniman	1957-1958 J. S. Henney	1959-1961 E. A. G. Collier
1962-1966 P. Cox	1967 R. A. Clement	1968-1970 W. Tolhurst	1971 H. N. Unsworth	1972-1973 J. Collier
1974 H. Unsworth	1975-1983 W. O. Beckett	1984-1987 Mr. F.T. Twyford	1988-1991 Mr. P. F. Shepherd	1992-1995 Mr. J. A. Briggs
1996-1999 Mr. N.L. Page	2000-2005 Mrs. L.F. Reid	2006-2009 Mrs. L.D. Reid	2010-2012 Mrs. S.R. Pardoe	2012-2016 Mr. M. Collier
2017-2018 Mrs. T. Brown	2019- Mrs. A. Oldershaw

Honorary Life Members

Mr. C.W. White*	Mr. P. Sorrell*	Mrs. M. Sorrell*	Mr. E.C. Collier*
Mrs. H. Collier*	Mr. R.B. Wright*	Mrs. W. Quarry*	Mr. R. Houston*
Mr. J. Collier*	Mr. C. Pritchard*	Mrs. D. Unsworth	Mr. A. Jones
Mr. D. Hurley	Mr. F. Twyford	Mr. B. Browne	Mrs. L. Browne
Mrs. R. van de Ven*	Mr. L. Robertson	Mr. C. Allen	Mr. B. Nathan
Mr. I. Reid	Mr. P. Shepherd	Mr. G. Ace*	Mr. J. Briggs
Miss G. Davies QSM	Mrs. L. Reefman	Mr. P. Eade	Mr. J. Matthews
Mr. J. Morgan	Mrs. L. Reid	Mrs. L. Jones	Mrs. A. L. Davies

"*" denotes deceased

References

1. "Certificate of Incorporation". www.societies.govt.nz/.
2. "Campaign: Clive Ralph – Napier Operatic Society". www.dphoto.co.nz/. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014.
3. "Amateur Theatre and Operatic Societies". christchurchcitylibraries.com/.
4. "Blenheim Musical Theatre - History". www.bmt.net.nz/.
5. "Hamilton Operatic". www.hamiltonoperatic.co.nz/.
6. "Beauty & a Feast for the Eyes" (PDF). www.napierlife.com/.
7. "Phantom casts spell over audiences". www.nzherald.co.nz/.
8. "Operatic Society celebrates a century of performances at the Napier Municipal Theatre". Australasian Leisure.
9. Briggs, John. "Briggs Builders". www.briggsbuilders.co.nz.
10. Wakely, Helen (1987). A Century of Shows. Dannevirke Publishing Co. Ltd. p. 20.
11. "Mamma Mia! Next for New Zealand Consortium". Stage Whispers.
12. "Napier Operatic Society Twitter". twitter.com/NapierOperatic.
13. "Blood Brothers comes to stage in Bay". Press Reader. Napier Mail. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
14. "Napier Operatic Society Photo Exhibition". Event Finder.
15. "Mary Poppins New Zealand Consortium".

External links

• Official website
• Napier Operatic Society on Facebook