In an interview Sue Pomeroy of Bridgwater Opera explained why they had changed their name from Bridgwater Amateur Operatic Society. She said: “We dropped the word ‘amateur’ from our title as we feel we provide the most professional level of opera we can – but we still don’t get paid.”

Apart from two years in the 1970s the group have staged their productions at Bridgwater Town Hall however from April they will be performing the musical Annie in the McMillan Theatre in the town. In the 1970s the current cinema was part of the Classic chain and had an audience capacity of 1,200 which was ideal for a major production as in a single week they packed in 5,000 to see The Sound of Music. However after two years the cinema changed as multi-screen picture houses became the fashion and so opera moved back to the town hall where there are just 365 seats.

Predicting what will sell is something of a uncertain art as some shows can surprise the box office in a good way or they can bomb.

“Bridgwater audiences will come in droves to see musicals that they know,” she said. “My Fair Lady or the King and I do well, but lesser known shows such as Steven Sondheim’s works struggle. Funnily enough Gilbert and Sullivan used to be popular but now they’ve gone out of fashion. In our centenary year in 1908 we thought it would be nice to stage The Pirates of Penzance as it was the first show the company put on in 1908. We did the Broadway version which is very modern but it didn’t sell very well.”

She said shows with children in them bring in larger audiences as their families come to support them in productions such as Oliver or this April’s show of Annie. Although Sue admits with a large cast of children and adults the work load for her as director rises dramatically. The King and I had a cast of 60 she said while Hairspray in 2015 which sold out had just 30 in the production.

Sue was born in Bristol during the war and after leaving school she trained as a registered nurse at Southmead Hospital before moving to Bridgwater when she married Tony (who is musical director) and raising a family. Opera and music was always in her blood and so she joined the town’s group and has been active ever since even writing a history of the society in her book But We Don’t Do Opera. Another volume she has penned is a biography of Brian Buttle who was a stalwart of the society and was well respected across the South West as a musical director and who died in 2010. She’s now the vice chair, the box office manager, and subscriptions secretary.

Louise Ploughwright who has appeared in Les Miserables in the West End and has featured in the BBC’s Eastenders was one alumini of the group while others have moved on to stage school or the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to further their careers.

“We have a professional accompanist,” she said, “and he takes all of the rehearsals and who is with the orchestra during the week of the show. It costs us about £3,000 just for the music.” The company also has an artistic director in Tony Pomeroy who is unpaid and who teaches the music to the cast and also conducts a fully professional orchestra during the week of the show.

Talking of money the company almost disappeared in 2004 when membership slumped and a cash crisis saw opera in danger of making its final bow in the town. Fortunately a public meeting and an appeal pulled in fresh blood and enthusiasm and to a certain extent the rest is history.

The president of the society is Bill Young who used to be musical director, the current chairman is Gavin Roberts, the finance chief is Tony Edwards and the chief choreographer is Lucy Taylor. The next show is Annie directed by Sue, which runs from the Wednesday, April 27, to Saturday, April 30, at the McMillan Theatre.

Send in your memories of the society to harry.mottram@nqsw.co.uk