About Us

In 1958, ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ by Gilbert and Sullivan was performed by members of an evening class held at The Sarah Robinson School in Ifield. The group called themselves ‘The Sarah Robinson Opera Group’ and the production was a financial success making a profit of £20! In 1961, two shows a year were being staged and in 1964 the name was changed to ‘Crawley Operatic Society’ after the local press ended a review of one of our performances with the words, “Crawley now has an operatic society to be proud of”. In 1977 the venue moved to Thomas Bennett school for the next 10 years . In 1988 Crawley’s new theatre ‘The Hawth’ opened with our performance of ‘Hello Dolly’ and our average audience doubled overnight. To date we have presented over 22 shows from classics (“The Merry Widow”) to rock musicals (“Chess” and “Hot Mikado”) to a hugely enthusiastic audience averaging over 3500. In 1997 Derek Hicks and Mike Tyrrell, founder members of the Society wrote a short history called "From an Acorn". To read it click here.