The Douglasdale Players are an amateur dramatic group (or more truthfully – a pantomime group) from the village of Douglas in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.

The group was founded in 1979 to raise funds for the Bi-centenary year of the St Bride’s Church in Douglas.

The first show, in 1979, was ’Carry on Clootie’ and was written and produced by local lad Jimmy Clarkson. The show proved successful and raised a considerable sum for the Church. The show was based on the search for a stolen recipe for a traditional ‘Clootie Dumpling’.

The style of the show has been used over the years as a ‘search’ or ‘chase’ to link up key scenes and to provide much journalistic licence to the writers. Some shows have been based on traditional ‘panto’ themes but all have been re-written in the much acclaimed ‘Douglas Style', to relate all stories to the locality and to the local sense of humour.

The cast, back-stage and front of curtain have all been locals from Douglas, Glespin, Coalburn, Rigside and recently from Motherwell and Lanark.
The members have ranged from pre-school to primary and secondary school students to adults and to those of pensionable age -- truly a whole cross section of the Community.

The producers and writers have been local people with little or no training when they began, but have since discovered a natural talent.

We have used the facilities of Douglas Primary School for every production, supplementing the lighting and sound systems from our own resources.
The group is voluntary with no ties to other organisations. All shows have been funded by our own efforts with no external support.

We have in the last 26 years donated the majority of our profits to local or national charities as well as to local worthy causes. So each year we start again.

Charities we have donated to include Guide Dogs for the Blind, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Erskine Hospital, Beatson Oncology Unit, The Samaritans, CHAS, McMillan Cancer Unit, Laser Fair, Simona Trust for Romania, Capability Scotland - to name a few.

With local causes such as Lady Home Hospital, Stanmore House Lanark, Dalziell Hospital, Douglas Heart Start Appeal, St Andrew’s Ambulance Assoc., St Brides Community Hall, Douglas Playgroup and Douglas Horticultural Society benefitting.

In our time we have donated over £34,00.00 to other causes which gives us satisfaction in the thought that our pleasure helps to provide some help or relief to those in need or who are less fortunate.

This year is our 28th Show and hopefully will be as spectacular as the last 27. Many of our members have taken part in every show which is a remarkable feat. Our current membership is listed on another page( not yet --sorry) and our 27 year olds highlighted.

Many ex- members have moved away from Douglas to various parts of the country and even further afield. We look forward to them contacting us on our ‘message’ page , indeed we look forward to any of our supporters or friends contacting us by 'e' mail.

DEREK HAIR Dec 2006