Celebration of 50 years with Hereford Musical Theatre Company

8:00am Monday 22nd March 2010

By Philippa May

MIKE Tomkins, who this year celebrates 50 years with Hereford Musical Theatre Company (formerly Hereford Amateur Operatic Society), has played a huge range of roles in his half-century on stage.

But his favourite is Lord Brockhurst in The Boy Friend, one of the last parts he played before he was taken ill two years ago.

“But,” he says, “the very first show you’re in is one you remember with huge affection and for me that’s South Pacific.”

Mike’s lifelong love of music started when he joined the choir at Holy Trinity Church as an eight-year-old, rising to become head chorister, before adding drama to the mix when he joined the drama club at Hartpury Agricultural College.

But it was his meeting with Peter Hill – then of Russell, Baldwin and Bright and the former chairman of Hereford United – that led to the start of his long association with HMTC.

“It was Peter who persuaded me to join,” Mike recalls. “They were short of men then, and we’re still short of men, 50 years on. Peter himself was renowned for managing to bring the football score into the show, no matter what part he was playing.”

“I joined for South Pacific and thoroughly enjoyed myself, then I just stayed and slowly it became a big part of my life.”

So big, in fact, that Mike joined the committee in 1964, became vicechairman in 1970, chairman in 1975 and was “kicked upstairs to president in 1998”.

“We went to the SAS place when it was Bradbury Lines until the IRA started their offensive on the mainland and they couldn’t let the public in.”

He was also a key player in creating one of the city’s theatres, when HAOS, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Hereford Players and Wye Players came up with the idea of converting the swimming baths on Edgar Street into the Nell Gwynne Theatre.

“We formed ACT, the Action Committee for a Theatre and held a public meeting at the Green Dragon,”

“The first question from the floor was, ‘if we get a theatre, will it provide a panto?’.

“We said yes, and that started it. We secured the lease on the pool and the whole thing, until the very end, was done with voluntary labour.”

Mike remained involved with the Nell Gwynne Theatre after it was let to Stan Stennett, and then with its successor, The Courtyard, of which he remains a trustee.

In half a century of involvement with HMTC, Mike has amassed a wealth of memories, but one that has proved totally unforgettable was the sight of the late Ernest Boon conducting.

“He brought his baton up to bring us in and his teeth flew out. The whole chorus just fell about,” he remembers.