Fareham Musical Society, or FMS to its friends, was formed in1983 by Betty Richards, when she wanted to provide the residents of Fareham with their own Musical Society.
It started, as many societies do, with just a handful of people, and now has grown with a membership in excess of 60. It is fortunate in that more than half of our members are under 35 and we therefore present ourselves as a very young and vibrant company.
Our main bugbear is that we suffer from what many other companies suffer - a shortage of men. Nevertheless, we go from strength to strength and in 1996 we received the NODA Southern Region Accolade of Excellence for our production of "The Sound of Music", directed by the late Eileen Hodges. In 2000 we received the NODA Southern Area Accolade of Excellence for our production of "Me and My Girl", directed this time by John Bettesworth.
The society is proud that it has potential directors within its membership. Sue Hope and Jane Kenyon have attended the NODA Summer School Directors' Course, and Kevin Mitchell who directs the local Naval Establishment's pantomimes. Also, Marina Voak has recently attended the NODA Summer School Director's Course and has assisted various directors of our recent productions.
It also has two musical directors in Nigel Duffin and Susan Burnett, who have both attended NODA's musical directors' course. Both are talented performers, on stage and in the pit.
The start of
2004 saw FMS stage a very successful production of "OLIVER!",
playing to full houses on 4 out of the 6 performances. The press, as
were the audiences, were extremely complimentary (click
HERE to see the press reviews).
Our Autumn show for 2004, "Musical Magic", saw Marina
Voak in her directing debut. Supported by Wezley Sebastian (choreographer) and by the
award winning musical director, Nigel Duffin, the show was a great
success with those on stage enjoying the production as much as those
who came to see it.
Our two presentations in 2005 saw us stage Gershwin's "Crazy For You", for which we won the NODA Southern Region Accolade of Excellence, and then "Guys and Dolls" in September 2005, what a year!
2006 saw two wonderful shows. In March Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" was staged, followed by "Annie" in September.
In March 2007 we performed Meredith Wilson's, "The Music man" followed in September by "Fiddler on the Roof".
This coming year, 2008 sees FMS celebrating its 25th anniversary. In March we will be performing "SILVER", a compilation show with songs and dances taken from the shows we have performed over the past 25 years. Then in September we will stage "42nd "Street", what a year that's coming!
