Theatre director to take final bow after 70 years

An amateur theatre director will oversee her final production later, after nearly 70 years working on the stage.

Julie Webb, 92 first joined the Rotherham Phoenix Players in 1957 taking on a variety of roles, and has been directing plays since the late 1960s.

However, the curtain is set to come down on her career when her final production, the bedroom farce Key For Two, comes to the end of its run at the Rotherham Civic.

The former PE teacher said she was "not emotional" about it because the "people who are following will do a good job" and she was standing down to "pass the baton on".

Webb who was born in Birmingham moved to South Yorkshire to teach PE at High Storrs Girls Grammar School in Sheffield in the 1950s.

"I started on the stage at school," she said.

"I was involved with a number of high-class productions, so it's always been the thing I've enjoyed outside work.

"I've always said that had I been 10 years younger, I might have gone for a drama teacher rather than a PE teacher. But in the 1950s most drama in schools was done by the English staff."

It was through her late husband, Dennis, that she first joined the Phoenix Players, due to its links to his employers, British Steel.

As to what she's enjoyed about directing over the years, Webb said: "I think it's the teacher in me, which sounds a bit bossy doesn't it?

"I don't think I get cross very often. I do know what I want though and most people know me as the list lady because I'm always making lists of things.

"I want to make people enjoy the experience, but also improve what they are wanting to do.

"I come to rehearsals even if I'm not directing, because I just love to be amongst it."

Webb told the Phoenix committee in February that she intended to step down from her role.

"It does get more tiring. There's a lot of backstage shenanigans chasing this and that," she said.

"Usually I'm doing props or sitting in the prompt corner and I'm busy all the time.

"But all the directors will tell you that the week of the play they have to stand back and just wait and hope everything goes well."

Claire Haynes has been with the Phoenix Players for four years after originally joining to "get out of the house".

"You don't cross Julie. She knows everything," she joked.

"With that old school teacher attitude I was a bit scared at first. She demands that you learn your lines, but she's so caring and has been absolutely brilliant and it's given me a lot of confidence to carry on."

Neil Mather, the chairman of the group, remembers the moment in February when Webb announced she was stepping down.

"I think there was a collective looking around at the tumbleweed flying by and thinking 'oh dear how do we follow this act then?'.

"As a director, she's phenomenal. Nothing gets past her. It's like she's got 16 eyes round her head."

Mark Haigh-Flint, who has been part of the group for 15 years, said: "She's the lynchchpin of the society. It's going to be different not being directed by her.

Of all the productions Webb has acted in and directed over the years, particular highlights were adapting a version of Fawlty Towers from the original TV scripts and a performance of The Price of Coal, which was attended by the then President of the National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill.

Although this will be her last role as Director, Webb insists she will not be leaving the group.

"I'll still be a member. I'll still make props. I'll do whatever they need me to do," she said.

"I'll miss it too much."

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