About

CHIPS, we are a friends and family orientated amateur dramatic group that performs every year, with a panto every other year. Everyone is welcome! We are a welcoming group always happy to see new faces, whether you're wanting to be on stage or hiding behind the scenes helping make the show tick, contact us and we will see you in the next show! You will find us within the Crockham Hill village hall where all of our performaces and rehearsals take place.

Membership

Fancy Getting Involved?

With amazing family discounts for membership there is no reason not to get the whole family involved! Don't worry if your not a perfomer we are always on the look out for behind the scene roles as well as the lead roles. Whether you like painting, sewing, building or you want to try you hand at anything theatrical, CHIPS is a great place to enjoy what you enjoy.

For full membership details go to our Contact page from the About menu and send us an email.

History

The Story Behind “C.H.I.P.S.”

It was towards the end of 1981 that two mothers in Crockham Hill sat down together wondering how they could keep their six children (3 each!) occupied in a creative way. At that time there was little in the village that involved all the children. They thought a Saturday morning drama club would be fun, one mother felt able to act as producer and the other as creative/artistic specialist. The age group was to match their own families so would be for 8 – 14 year olds. However they wanted to put on a musical and sadly lacked a pianist/musician. A chance overhearing on a doorstep one morning led to Jilly Murison joining Sue Stafford and Morna Whitlock (Jilly with two daughters in the same age group). That night one of the dads had an inspiration and the mnemonic for Crockham Hill Infant PlayerS - C.H.I.P.S. was born.

The flyers were distributed, and the three Mums waited anxiously on the designated Saturday morning in the Staffords barn. Would there be 10 or 12 turn up they wondered? The time arrived and 42 children were squashed into the barn to start rehearsals for The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner by David Wood, all the rehearsals were in the Barn at Cloverlea, every single costume was hand made and on April 23rd 1982 to the sound of Jilly on the piano and wonderful enthusiasm from the cast the curtain rose on the first performance by CHIPS in the WI Hall. The three performances were a resounding success, CHIPS had become a part of Crockham Hill.

By popular demand we followed this a year later with Papertown Paperchase (also by David Wood) and performed by the same age group.

By this time there were rumblings from the adults in the village that they wanted to join the party! And so CHIPS slightly changed its course and went into pantomime though definitely still with the aim of keeping all the children in the village in contact with each other. The venue for rehearsals changed to the WI hall and the time to Sunday afternoons from September to production in the Christmas holidays. Suddenly the age group changed to 8 – 84 years. The pantomimes were a biennial happening in the village, and continued to be performed in the WI Hall until January 1995. In January 1997 CHIPS was privileged to be the opening event of the new Village Hall, with a panto in the round, as there was at that time no stage. A little later it became clear that there was a hankering for another increase in productions, and so the adult team produced its first play in the autumn of 1997.

Since then plays and pantos have interlinked, play readings have been introduced, but despite all the changes CHIPS has remained first and foremost a village activity to which everyone is welcome and its prime ethos is inclusion of all for fun.