In 1976, it was Dave Melling who first approached the resident Parish Priest of the time, Fr. Ned Carey, and suggested that St. Bernadette's should have a Drama Group. Fr. Carey readily agreed, and so it was set up with a number of interested individuals, which included Dave Melling, Bernard Melling and Mike Lambe. In those old days we had to build the stage in the School Hall on the Saturday before a performance and dismantle it the following Saturday. It was Frank Morlidge who masterminded the whole thing and we owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. Dave Melling became the first Chairman .
Our first production was 'When We Are Married', by J.B. Priestley, produced by the late Windy Littler in 1977. We reprised the production in October 2006 to mark the beginning of our 30th season. In 1985 we performed our first pantomime – Cinderella, which we reprised in February 2007 (again to mark our 30th season). The last production performed in the school hall was Snow White. At the time the plans for the new church hall were well advanced and there was even room for a permanent stage in the building! It was with much relish, tinged with a certain amount of sadness that we dismantled the school hall stage for the last time. What joy to be able to finish a production and not have to wield screwdrivers, hammers et al to take everything down, not to mention having to fit it all back into the cramped store.
The new hall was opened in 1991 and the first play to be set on the new stage was ‘And Then There Were None’ by Agatha Christie produced by Iris Purcell. That production showed up many of the challenges facing the drama club not least of which was the realisation that all the scenery flats from the school hall were not high enough for the new stage. However they say that the sun shines on the righteous (but then again the devil looks after his own!) and we heard that the St John Vianney G & S group were being wound up and that they were prepared to donate their scenery flats to us. By sheer coincidence they were exactly the right height for our new stage! The other advantage of the church hall was that, for the first time in its existence, the drama club had a permanent home and so could function as a true club and have it’s own meeting night once a week. And that is how Thursday night became drama club night.
Since then we have managed to raise funds, with the help of Lottery grants and the Blackpool Community Chest fund, and have built ‘The Ark’ which is a workshop and store for the group; and we have just had our stage floor replaced in June of this year, again with help from the Community Chest. Future projects are to revamp the whole of our lighting system and also to have our flats (scenery) replaced, as they will have over 60 layers of paint on them! We welcome help from all corners of the community so, if you know of anyone who may be able to help us with our future projects, please point them in our direction.