About ACT
Atlantic Coast Theatre began life in 1974, although then it was formed by a small group of theatre enthusiasts and named 'Braunton Productions' - as you can guess, based in the town of Braunton in North Devon.
In 2009 'Braunton Productions' became 'Atlantic Coast Theatre', as part of a complete facelift, but always maintained its aim to give locals the chance to take part in small and large scale productions - whether it be through treading the boards, stitching costumes, nailing scenery or getting in the all important 'Bums on Seats'!
The society brought together some of the most talented production team members in the area to train ACT's casts in song, dance and acting in a friendly and exciting atmosphere which spawned many a new career in the theatre for some of our younger members.
Over the years the society has tackled all kinds of productions, but in recent years has put the emphasis on more contemporary popular shows with big successes including ‘The Witches of Eastwick’, ‘Footloose’, ‘Acorn Antiques’, ‘Avenue Q’, ‘Rock of Ages’ and the NODA award-winning ‘The Producers’ and ‘The Wedding Singer’. You can see photos of our previous production posters on this PAGE
But, ACT hasn’t always been about big musicals. We have also had success with our touring productions, and these have included original content written by our members such as ‘Death in Dallasty’, ‘Murder in Middle Bottom’, ‘So You Think You’ve Got the Star Factor?’ and ‘What a Relief 11’. Our productions of ‘Blackadder’ and ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ were big successes for ACT, playing to packed audiences and having them in stitches.
In 2022, Chris and Martin Northey-Youngs, together with Richard Barbery agreed to link their Murder Mystery Company ‘Murder We Wrote’ to ACT for purposes of promoting this as a new direction for the society. Committee members all agreed that, to survive ACT would have to branch out, with a different ‘offering’ than that already provided by other local theatrical societies.
If you want to book us for your ‘Murder Mystery’ event or get involved with ACT on ANY level, please get in touch at contact.atlanticcoasttheatre@gmail.com or via our Facebook page.