My mother, Irene Purdy, who has died aged 104, was a factory worker turned school pianist and teacher. She also spent many years involved in amateur dramatics in her native Rochdale, Lancashire (now part of Greater Manchester).
Irene first took to the stage in the 1950s, regularly appearing in plays performed by three companies, the Kirkholt Amateur Dramatic Society (KADS), the Alumni, and the Curtain Theatre Company. She also produced plays for KADS and light operas for the Kirkholt Gilbert and Sullivan Society. In 1978, with her husband, Tom, she took over the writing of the Amateur Stage column of the Rochdale Observer, reviewing all local amateur productions until Tom’s death in 1983.
