Saturday's open day at Ledbury's Market Theatre attracted a number of people who expressed keen interest in joining the Ledbury Amateur Dramatics Association.

Theatre manager Paul Graham said around 20 people took advantage of the opportunity to see props and costumes, especially for LADS latest production The Taming of the Shrew, which opened on Wednesday evening.

They also enjoyed set inspections and lighting demonstrations.

Half of the people who attended the open morning took away membership application forms for LADS.

The loft at the theatre contains thousands of costumes, some of them dating back to the earliest years of LADS before the Second World War.

LADS member Elaine Graham said there were so many costumes, they had not been counted.

She said: "We have some lovely dresses, but some of the older surviving ones tend to be very small and no-one can get into them."

The costume collection is so large that some of it is stored in locations outside the theatre itself.

Sometimes LADS hires out costumes to other theatrical groups, for a small donation, and it also hires in costumes where required, including from the Malvern Players and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

For its latest show, LADS has set Shakespeare's play in the 1930s and has drawn mainly on its own resources for costumes.

The next open day at the theatre will take place tomorrow (Saturday), from 10am to 12.30pm.