On April 4th 1955 a meeting was convened by the teacher John Caskie to form "a play-acting group independent of all other such organisations." Nineteen people attended, and the name chosen for the group was The Country Players. The first officers were

President                      Mr J Caskie

Vice-President                Mrs A Caskie

Sec-Treasurer                  Mr Jack Roberts

Publicity                              Mr M Windlebom

Committee                          Joyce McKenzie, Yolande Wood, W Wilkes                   and Lynne Shuttleworth

Monthly meetings were held, also "Green Rooms" or instructional sessions.  Meetings were held in The Barn behind Hooper's store, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. A Wood. Tiered seating was a plus, but it was very cold. Our first traveling show, The Camel's Back, was taken to Murchison in November 1955.

The Country Players became an Incorporated Society on May 7, 1958. Standards of production rose, and in 1964 we came second with The Shifting Heart in a NZ wide competition commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's birthday.

The group headquarters moved to the Wakefield Public Hall in 1968, only to lose everything, equipment, gear and records, when the hall burnt down on the 3rd of July 1968. As audiences had fallen off due to the advent of television, the group went into recess from August 1973.     

The arrival of Don and Jackie Ramsay in 1975 re-vitalised the group, which re-formed (Sept 1975), and has since gone from strength to strength. Young people were included from 1977, and there are now 2-3 productions annually.   Dinner Theatre was introduced in 1980 and proved an extremely popular feature.

Country Players is going strong in the new millennium.    We have continued with dinner theatre and a comic or farcical production at year-end.  A newer offering is a mid-winter “picnic” style production.   Some years this will be a joint production with Junior Country Players or a dramatic production with Country Players.

Quite recently we successfully held our first “Acting Up in Wakefield”.  With a gold coin donation, a sense of adventure and a thirst for the limelight people were able to show us their stuff on stage. It was a great night and perhaps the beginning of a new tradition for Country Players.