About Us
Welcome to the website of BLOC Productions, an award-winning musical theatre company that has been dedicated to performing light opera and musicals in Bristol for over 90 years. Our mission is to promote the performing arts in the region and to provide opportunity and encouragement for talented amateur performers.
BLOC Productions is currently the only non-professional company able to perform once a year at The Bristol Hippodrome, where we enjoy a reputation for producing shows of a highly professional standard. We were the first company to be offered the rights to ‘Evita’ by The Really Useful Company and one of the first companies to be offered ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’.
Recent productions have included ‘Sister Act’, ‘Sunset Boulevard’, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ (which won both NODA’s regional award for Best Musical and The Rose Bowl’s Bristol Evening Post Award for Best Musical), ‘Elf – The Musical’ (which played to sell out audiences for every performance) and 'A Christmas Carol'. All our productions feature spectacular staging and a large live orchestra.
Each year, we look particularly to recruit new members with a ‘triple threat’ combination of all-round musical theatre skills: strong vocalists, confident dancers/movers and convincing actors with an engaging stage presence.
The company rehearses on Mondays for company numbers and on Wednesdays for principals’ scenes. Rehearsals begin six to seven months before show week. For four weeks before the show there are also all-day Sunday rehearsals. Rehearsals mostly take place at the Newman Hall on Grange Court Road from 7.30pm to 10.00pm. Other venues around Bristol are also used from time to time.
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and therefore welcome applications from talented individuals from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds; and for individuals who have any access requirements and/or are not be able to offer all three skills for any reason, we make every effort to enable them to showcase the skills they have.
We are thrilled and proud to have been invited by Cameron Mackintosh and Music Theatre International (MTI) to be one of only 11 clubs across the UK to be granted a one-off amateur licence to perform one of the UK amateur premières of the full version of Les Misérables - “Let The People Sing” in 2025, as part of the iconic show’s 40th Anniversary celebrations.
Meet The Committee
Chair - Philip Hallworth
Vice Chair - Alex Turasiewicz
Club Secretary - Philip Hallworth
Treasurer - Graham Lewis
Production Secretary - Peter Jones
Social Secretary - Carrie Northam
Patrons' Secretary - Lucy Pope
Marketing Manager - Jo Phillips
Members' Rep - Chris Sterry
ED&I Officer - Mary Hilditch
Community Officer - Emma Griffiths
