MEMBERS of Kidderminster Operatic and Dramatic Society are celebrating 90 years of staging popular operas, musicals and plays.

The society dates back to 1916, when it was known as The Kidderminster Amateur Operatic Society - KAOS.

It began when Ellis Talbot and some friends from the town's New Meeting Church decided to hold a concert in aid of war charities.

Their first performance was Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan and is said to have been an ambitious project, as both men and materials were in short supply during the First World War.

Frank Titterton and Wensley Lowe had to be brought in from Birmingham to play the parts of Duke and Bunthorne and were paid a fee of two guineas.

The production was staged at the Opera House on Comberton Hill and the society hired glamorous costumes previously used by The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

In 1917, it became affiliated to The National Operatic and Dramatic Association - NODA - and presented The Gondoliers followed by The Mikado in 1918. While the Gilbert and Sullivan works were popular, the society also performed works of other English composers, including Merrie England by Edward German in 1920, Miss Hook of Holland by Paul Rubens in 1928 and The Arcadians by Lionel Monkton in 1931.

By the early 1930s, the society was also tackling productions by continental and American composers such as The Gypsy Princess by Kalman and The Waltz Dream by Oscar Strauss.

After the Second World War, the Opera House became the Playhouse and was administered by the Nonentities, who now run the Rose Theatre, until its closure in 1968 to make way for the ring road.

Until 1986, the society moved its productions to Stourport Civic Centre and in 1987 performed Oliver at the Rose Theatre, where it has remained ever since.

Members have performed an annual play every autumn since 1979 and also held a concert in the early summer.

In the 1980s, to reflect the changing nature of its productions, members changed the society's name to Kidderminster Operatic and Dramatic Society - KODS.

More recent shows have included My Fair Lady in 1995, Follies in 1997 and Guys and Dolls in 2004.

Throughout the early 1990s, the society ran a youth group for children aged from eight to 16.

Today, the society has around 80 members and still rehearses in the New Meeting Hall in Church Street, where it has been based since 1916.

It is also a special year for the society's patron and life member, Edna Church, who will be celebrating her 90th birthday in July.

Edna joined the Society in 1937 and holds the NODA 60-year long service award for amateur theatre.

Members present a 90th anniversary production of My Fair Lady at the Rose Theatre from Thursday, March 2 until Saturday, March 11.

To find out more about the society, visit www.kods.org.uk