AND THE SHOW GOES ON! A century of Entertainment in Yeovil - Part Two

The Octagon, formerly the Johnson Hall, is over forty years old and Yeovil Amateur Operatic Society has been active for over a century. The old Assembly Rooms/Princes Theatre and the Town Hall, which was lost to fire in the 1930s, housed music and drama from the nineteenth century. The history of entertainment in Yeovil goes back even further than that... This show from July 2016, is the culmination of a project involving a partnership between The Octagon, Windrose Rural Media Trust, YAOS and Westfield Academy. The aim has been to create an archive of entertainment in Yeovil and to make it possible for the theatre to go on recording its history as the years go by. Old films and videos of past performances and the town's prolonged efforts to build an entertainment centre have been discovered. A mass of photographs and memorabilia has been brought together. A series of new interviews has been filmed with performers, historians, users of the theatre and those who have brought entertainment to Yeovil to enshrine their memories for the future. All of this material will go into a permanent archive to be drawn upon and added to by generations to come. A strong selection has been used in the show, which also features live recreations of YAOS performances and old and new songs from students of Westfield Academy. The final song has been specially written by the students for the occasion. We are both celebrating the past and looking to the future.

Added 7 Aug 2026