Playmakers came into existence in 1966, when the ladies of St Marks Church, Ash, filled in a questionnaire asking what sort of social activities they would prefer. Such a large number ticked the "drama" column that they decided to put a notice on the Ash Village notice-board, announcing an inaugural meeting to be held at the Victoria Hall, Ash. Plenty of people unconnected with the church turned up and the Playmakers Dramatic Society was born.

Throughout the first crucial years the society had a galaxy of members talented in all aspects of amateur dramatics led by a forceful and intelligent lady who had a wealth of experience. As the years have gone by, people have moved away, grown old, their circumstances have changed; but there have always been others to replace them. In 1987 we moved to the Mytchett Centre, where the facilities were very much better and there was a bar! Here we have stayed, now being in our 41^st year.

The first production was "Before the Flood", the first pantomime was "Jack and the Beanstalk", since then, there have usually been one or two straight plays a year, often a music hall or variety night, certainly a Festival play until the local Festival ceased to be; but always, a pantomime, everybody's favourite thing. Quite often we have put on plays or pantomimes using home grown scripts. We have performed in many venues, from a church to a canal centre, even once performing at the Army Show in front of an audience of thousands! Over the years we have given a quite large handful of actors to the professional stage and TV; and one of our members won the colander at the Festival of Coarse Acting.

On the whole we've been a friendly bunch of people, and have always given free performances to disabled and disadvantaged groups, not to mention a respectable amount of charity fund raising. We don't only put on plays. For thirty-two years we ran a rather high-powered annual Quiz, which finally ran out of steam as pub quizzes took hold; we have all sorts of social activities, from carol singing and karaoke nights, to joining in local Carnivals, and just plain parties. AND...several marriages and/or partnerships have resulted from our members treading the boards together!