Alison Rich (Dame Carruthers) has been involved in amateur musical theatre for very nearly 30 years, since she mistakenly joined the operatic, instead of the dramatic, section of C.O.D.A. After many happy years in the chorus, she made it to the title role in The Merry Widow and has dipped her musical toes into several other leads along the way. Favourite roles include Queen Victoria (Poppy), Little Red Riding Hood (Into the Woods), Irene Molloy (Hello, Dolly!) and Linda Porter (Red Hot & Cole). Challenges were faced with Sally Brown (Snoopy) and Katisha (The Mikado), following that she played the verbose Queen Agravan (Once Upon a Mattress) and now Dame Carruthers! - type casting or what? This is all a far cry from Mary Poppins which has been her not-so-secret fanasy. Whilst still a member of C.O.D.A., She has guested with other groups and is part of the triad that are 'The Phoenix Theatre Company' , sporadically staging small cast shows that the larger companies are unable to do. Alison's last show with WWOS was Iolanthe, 18 years ago, and she is pleased to be back to share this G&S production, especially as it was The Yeomen of the Guard where her love of musical theatre began, following that early mistake!