When a new drama group called The Petuaria Players was formed in Brough in 1961 a young mum called Moreen Spence went along to see their first ever production – Sabrina Fair – and decided to join.

And there begins a ‘dramatic’ journey that led to her direct involvement in The Petuaria Players for the next fifty eight years.

Moreen, “Mo”, as she was always known to us, passed away on the 28th December a few weeks short of her 90th birthday after a happy and fulfilled life. 

It means that past, current and new members as well as audiences across the decades have never known a time without Mo as a society member in her various capacities. 

From joining at the birth of the Petuaria Players in 1961 and for the next six decades, involvement in our drama group became a huge part of Mo’s life, initially with a variety of back stage tasks before quickly gaining the confidence to tread the boards herself and begin acting before she finally decided to ‘retire’ from the stage at the age of 60 back in 1994. The statistics are impressive. During that time she had taken on tasks as prompt, props, wardrobe, make-up, stage manager, acted in 37 plays and produced and directed 5 .  

Upon her ‘retirement’ the group asked her to become Honorary President in 1994 in honour of her being a founder member and for her contributions over the years – a role she only relinquished in 2019. 

For many of us our recent memories are from Mo’s post-acting phase: her continuing support at our plays as our leading refreshments expert for one.  Most of our audiences will have been served tea or coffee at some point by her and attempted to purloin a second biscuit without her schoolmistress hand flicking you away.

Also remembered, on a Saturday night, the actors on stage unable to see the audience clearly through the dazzle of the spotlights but well aware that Mo and husband Peter would be seated on the front row, enjoying the performance but also watching with a critical eye – the result of which would be her feedback and President’s report and critique the following Monday, warts and all – but mostly with the kind of uplifting motivational comments that was the trained teacher at work.

By the time she stepped down as President in 2019 she had been involved in a total of 111 plays. 

Richard Bateman is the only current active member to have had the privilege of acting with Mo going back many years. He especially remembers her 1974 tour-de-force performance in Frederick Knott’s popular and violent thriller, Wait Until Dark. Mo played the leading role of Susy Hendrix, a recently blinded housewife who unwittingly possesses a doll filled with illicit drugs. Brutal criminals are intent on getting the doll. It is at night, with the lights off that Susy is able to dramatically outwit the criminals.  He fondly remembers her skill at navigating the darkness in portraying the sightless Susy.

Her last direct involvement in a play would have been the 1986 production of the Ben Travers farce, Thark but in 2002 she found herself drawn out of her relaxed non-executive role as President and pushed back in at the deep end to direct the Oscar Wilde classic The Importance of Being Earnest – always a demanding production in terms of acting, costumes, set design and Mo stepped up out of retirement to direct with help from Richard who had produced it in back in 1983.

Although Mo had stepped back from the demanding and time consuming world of the Petuaria Players productions the desire to perform still remained, turning up occasionally for our summer play readings to read parts and, outside of the group, to perform her wonderful Joyce Grenfell monologues to local organisations and thus raising money for charity.

Mo’s performances are from a pre-digital age but we have dusted off the archives and found some photographs to share….

We saw less of Mo over these last four years but remained in constant touch and will always think of her quietly spoken and gentle demeanour, her almost mischievous smile and wry sense of humour and she may have been amused if we were to call her the matriarch of The Petuaria Players, not in all definitions but as “an older female leader of a society in which power passes from mother to daughter“ - because it is fitting that today we have a sense of continuity – her daughter Nicci, who has supported us over the years, is now our President.  And it is to her and brother Paul and their families we offer our condolences whilst at the same time we smile warmly at our memories of Mo and a life fulfilled.

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