Our History

Lightnin drama was formed by accident in September 1980. A lady by the name of Brenda King was campaigning for all she was worth to keep the cancer unit at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford open. The powers that be had decided that cancer sufferers, on top of being sick and feeling very unwell, could then endure journeys to Bart's Hospital in London for treatment. Brenda was suffering with terminal cancer and she thought this was putting unnecessary strain on her and people like her. She started to campaign Doctors, Nurses, Newspapers and the general public all joined the crusade to keep Oldchurch cancer unit open.

Brenda was a barmaid and a lot of her fund raising was in and around pubs and clubs which was fine. Apart from the fact that her son Tony and a lot of her friends children were also quite desperate to play their part and help with her campaign. Which is where i came in - “How about if we do a show”. And so we did – a variety show at Chafford School Hall. All the kids loved it and Brenda and her father also took part along with a lot of her friends. Soon after the final curtain, Brenda looked at me and said “This is what your meant to do”. Nearly thirty years later I believe she was right!

For a community drama group that is probably the most unpolitically correct in the world, we have had turbulent times and magical times. On our ten year anniversary I can remember performing Rock 'n' Rolling Robin Hood at the Queens Theatre. I look back with great affection at our pop party's where children took the mic for the first time and how people who are normally behind the scenes also found themselves singing their hearts out on stage.

I love the family atmosphere, I love the fact that we have done reasonably well at drama festivals and extremely well in July 2007, when we went to Wales to represent England – Yes Us – good old Lighnin Drama Group and out of four awards we walked away with three. Magical!

On our 21 st birthday we celebrated with a most memorable occasion a full scale original musical production at The London Palladium – She-riff – What a night!!!

What makes our group special is the people. I feel so honoured and extremely lucky and proud to have around me so very many good people who share the same passion for drama that Ii do. I was 18 years old then lots of people have come and gone over the years – next year I shall be fifty years young!!!!!!