The Society stages some five or six shows a year at its Daylesford premises, and puts on its annual Christmas production at the City Hall Theatre, as well an annual concert by it's own orchestra, The Daylesford Sinfonia . In addition to its own productions, the Society is often pleased to help other arts organisations with theirs. Help has been given to such groups as The Bermuda Festival , The Gilbert and Sullivan Society, The Menuhin Foundation , Circle Theatre, the Bermuda Ballet Association and the Jabulani Repertory Company, to name just a few. But if all you're after is a convivial atmosphere, good company and a stint behind the bar, BMDS has that too. It is, in short, a membership club for trained and untrained amateurs with an interest in all aspects of theatre production and stage management.
Membership is open to all.
The forerunner of the Society was founded over fifty years ago, by theatre-lovers with no place to go other than the big drawing room at Newstead. The group used to meet thereafter in the homes of its members to read plays, stage rehearsals and hold musical evenings. In 1953, they teamed up with the Music Makers Circle to form the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society. These venues also became homes to the Society and its growing membership, until 1972, when the Society had grown sufficiently to afford the luxury of the glamorous premises now housing its clubhouse and theatre. The building, known as Daylesford, was a private home for many generations until it was abandoned and fell into disrepair.