Players' Club Alumni

The Players’ Club Alumni of the University of British Columbia was established in 1933 to provide an organization of past and future members of the Players’ Club to help form a permanent theatre company. With encouragement from Freddy Wood, the Players’ Club Alumni (PCA) entered the 1933 Dominion Drama Festival with a one-act play, Fog, written and directed by Sydney Risk.

Full-length productions began the following year with the presentations of Jules Romain’s comedy, Dr. Knock, directed by Bea Wood. Ensuing productions included; By Candlelight, Fresh Fields, Once in a Lifetime, Boy Meets Girl, The Lady of Lyons, Lovers Leap, The Adding Machine, and The Man Who Came to Dinner. The productions of Distant Point and Claudia following a brief war-time hiatus exhausted the organization’s resources.

The PCA returned in 1949 with the production of three one-act comedies as well as The Winslow Boy. In 1955, the group’s production of The Crucible for the Dominion Drama Festival in Regina won the Calvert Trophy for the best play at the Festival. The PCA continued with a number of productions all under the direction of John Brockington that included: The Living Room, I am a Camera, The Cherry Orchard, Waiting for Godot, and The Potting Shed. In 1958, the group staged its last production, At Our Wits End.

Although it continued for several more years, the PCA at its general meeting in July 1965 wound up its activities and voted to donate its remaining funds to the Dorothy Somerset Scholarship Fund.

Poster for Players' Club Alumni production of "The Adding Machine", 1940
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