History of Tread the Boards

Tread the Boards (TTB) was founded in Newport Pagnell, Bucks, in 1986. We are now a Registered Charity, but we started out as a group associated with the local Adult Education Centre and based in Ousedale School's Drama Studio.

TTB was launched by a small group of local enthusiasts including Brian Brooks who remained a member for over 35 years. You can read a tribute to him here.

Our first production was Alan Ayckbourn's "Bedroom Farce". This was followed by a variety of shows (see the Past Productions page), built a regular audience and developed to the point where we felt that we could achieve more as a group independent of Adult Education.

Over the next couple of years we put on a variety of shows (see the Past Productions page), built a regular audience and developed to the point where we felt that we could achieve more as a group independent of Adult Education.

We moved from Ousedale to the old Electra Cinema in Newport Pagnell, which at this time was being run as an Arts Centre. Here we put on another Ayckbourn, "Time and Time Again" which was a great success, performing to very good audiences.

Buoyed up by this we prepared for our next production, "Play it again, Sam", only to be hit by the news that the Electra had gone bankrupt and was to be sold for redevelopment. We had to find an alternative venue at short notice and moved to the Madcap Theatre, Wolverton to present "Play it again, Sam" and, later that year, our first pantomime, "Aladdin".

For a while after that we were nomads performing at various venues, Ousedale School; The Barn, Great Linford and Shenley Leisure Centre.

After a lengthy tenure at Wavendon Community Centre where we have had a number of successful performances to our credit, we relocated to the Madcap Theatre, Wolverton once again. In 2009 we were on the move again, with our main performance base being the Chrysalis Theatre in Willen.