It's time for the show again and the big Sunday school room has been taken over and turned into an auditorium or sorts, The Old Hill Tabernacle Amateur Operatic Society is in full swing again - this year it's "The Desert Song". Go behind the scenes and find the dressing rooms are divided by a curtain; men on one side and ladies on the other and no mixing, certainly not on Methodist premises. From these humble beginnings rose the present day Tab Operatic Society.

In 1947 we became affiliated to NODA Ltd, putting on "Zurika" for our first major production as an Operatic Society. We have had our ups and downs, with draughty windows, rotten flooring, leaky roofs, and broken down heating, but through it all the TAB (as it was affectionately known locally) went from strength to strength. Decisions were made to build a proper stage with dressing rooms on the site of the old stage, and in 1964 after many months of fund raising the new stage was opened and dedicated, with much anticipation of the wonders to come. The first production on the new stage being "The Quaker Girl" played to full houses the whole week with queues at the doors clamoring for more!

The walls rang with the haunting melodies from Sigmund Romberg, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Ivor Novello and Johann Strauss to name but a few, over many happy and glorious years in Old Hill, under the expert guidance of Producer/Musical Director Mr. Frank Richards. But good things often have to come to an end. The Methodist Circuit, of which the Tabernacle Church was a member, was in terrible financial straits, decisions were made to close Chapels in the Old Hill Circuit, the Tabernacle Chapel being one of them. The land was to be sold to build houses! The Operatic Society had a choice - fold or reform on a new site. Fold - NEVER - we are made of sterner stuff than that. We relocated to Brierley Hill Civic Hall for productions and used rehearsal rooms at another Church premises.

A very emotional production of "The Student Prince" in 1983 marked the end of an era in Old Hill, and the new TAB OPERATIC SOCIETY was born.

"The Dancing Years" was our opening production at Brierley Hill Civic Hall in 1984 proving our critics wrong that we couldn't make the transition from Old Hill to bigger things. "Most Happy Fella", "Show Boat", "Kismet", "Die Fledermaus", being a few or the more challenging shows we have successfully performed under the guidance of Mr. Alan Horton Producer and leading man, Mr. Geoff Totney, Musical Director and Mrs. Audree Henwood Choreographer.