VISITORS got a behind-the-scenes peek at an award-winning success story in Caterham on Saturday.
Each Monday to Friday daytime, the Miller Centre, in Godstone Road, runs a drop-in for active pensioners, with a wide range of attractions and a 1,500-strong membership.
By night it hosts regular drama productions in its 198-seater auditorium.
Two years ago, the centre's founders Michael and Christine Pilch won an award for the venture from developers McCarthy and Stone.
An open day at the weekend enabled the public to see the well-equipped theatre at first hand.
They could tour the backstage, control room and scenery workshop areas.
Visitors, who included Caterham's Town Crier Sonia Hunt, also saw the centre's renowned wardrobe hire section. It houses an amazing array of about 5,000 outfits.
They could also pretend they were actors for the day. The set for Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd – which is showing until Saturday – was in place.
The production will next have a week's run, from July 21, at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. A model of the Cornish theatre – an amphitheatre on a clifftop – was there to view.
The drop-in centre was also on show for the open day.
Paintings by members dotted the walls, and people attending the open day could also see and hear about the film club's activities there.
