The upper picture is c.1954 and captures girls from St. Mary’s Convent School, Rhyl, putting on The Magic Flute, a version of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Don’t let the moustaches fool you; they are all girls. Standing are (left to right): Angela Cummings, Shirley Bosson, Mary Sellwood, possibly Valentine Newton, Maureen Digan, Anne Clementson, Don't know girl with star, Judy Watson, Marie Churchill, Judy Cocks, Mary Higgs, possibly Antoinette Heysham, Janet Jones, and Margaret Thomas.Kneeling: Jennifer Kirkup, Don't know, Nora Watts, Ann Lloyd-Ellis is sitting in centre, Audrey Cordukes, Don't know, Marjorie Jones.
The lower picture immortalises St. Mary’s Convent School’s Winter Ballet of 1952. The four on the left are Shirley Bosson, Antoinette Heysham, Sylvia Parr and Ann Yoxall. The four on right are Anne Clementson, Angela Cummings, Diana Nicholas, Christine Broadbent. The tots around the snowman are not named.
Diana Nicholas (now Diana Davies of Canada) is the sender of both photos. Diana says:
"Sometimes our productions were staged at Rhyl Town Hall but these photos were taken at the school. We had fund raising events of some kind to buy curtains for the stage and also for the hard surface tennis courts. Our stage had a painted drop curtain at the front. The back walls of the stage area were painted too: a garden scene of some kind, I think, with steps and huge pots of flowers.
“One of the classrooms opened onto the stage. One of the little girls in that class used to wander around the classroom all the time, so the teacher in charge opened the door to the stage and put her just through it and tied her to the chair. Loosely and gently of course, but wouldn't there be a fuss if it was done now?”
I’ll say there would, Diana!
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