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A new programme and a change of name...
While we remain committed to programming high quality theatre, dance and music in Dorchester, the name reflects a change of emphasis from product to process.
Over the coming years, we will be putting more effort into developing participatory arts projects with a wide range of people. There will continue to be great performances to attend but, the chances are, there will be opportunities for participation on the way.
For example, after a successful residency with us at the start of the year, Angel Exit Theatre Company return on October 16th with their exciting production of Moonfleet – coproduced by Dorchester Arts, with performances running alongside a programme of participatory workshops for young people and schools.
This is the model we want to develop – high quality performance with the added value of increased participation.
2010 is a huge year for Dorchester Arts with an African themed Dorchester Festival and community fringe based on this year’s hugely successful Moving On – plus a full workshop programme leading up to an Inside Out festival in September with spectacular finale performances in Maumbury Rings.
Don’t miss a thing!
Alastair Nisbet. Chair
Fri 15, Sat 16 January • Dorchester Youth Theatre • The Stolen Heart
THOMAS HARDYE SCHOOL • Doors open 7pm /
Performance 7:30pm • £4
Madcap
is full of life but Maudlin is never happy! As
Madcap brings to life an amazing adventure, how
will Maudlin resist a smile? Set just after
Christmas in a world of toys, Madcap’s tale
includes Halo, the broken angel and Christian,
the tin soldier who promises to rescue her.
But when his heart is stolen disaster strikes.
Now he must go on a quest to Tanglewood, to get
back his heart and return to save Halo, but time
is running out… Will Halo be saved? Will they all
live happily ever after? And when the story is
over, will Maudlin be able to
smile?
Saturday 30 January • DRUM CIRCLE • Magic Drum Workshop
Under 16s • Suitable for all ages and abilities
Come, play drums and percussion instruments from Africa, Brazil, Cuba, India, the Middle East and North America, in a group with up to 70 people. Let Magic Drum lead you on a musical journey where you will be the performers and the audience at the same time!
Bring your own instrument if you have one.
Ralph Cree (01305 853479)
ralphcreee@yahoo.com
Glyn Bush (01305 848026)
biggabush@googlemail.com · www.magicdrum.org.uk
Saturday 6 February • BLUESNIGHTS • Spikedrivers
Another Bluesnight favourite returns! The trio of Ben Tyzak (guitar/vocals), Constance Redgrave (bass/vocals) and Maurice McElroy (drums/vocals) deliver a stunning mix of original songs and blues standards guaranteed to warm a midwinter’s Bluesnight.
www.spikedrivers.co.uk
Friday 12 February • Cabaret theatre • Whirling Dog Superstars
The Whirling Dog Superstars are coming to town this February with an exciting new show - with actor, comic and TV presenter Mat Fraser.
Bournemouth-based Double Act Disability Theatre Company is touring an exciting cabaret show this winter.
Mat the UK’s leading disabled comic and actor, has joined forces with Bournemouth-based Double Act Disability Theatre Company and other Dorset-based theatre makers to create a dazzling new piece of theatre.
Whirling Dog Superstars' revue-style format features short interludes of drama, dance, comedy, singing, music and poetry – as well as moments of audience participation.
Mat Fraser said: ". . . Double Act are 100% committed to being great on
stage, they're ready to work hard, be focussed, and perfectly show how
disabled people can be just as good as anyone else at entertainment. Cabaret is very different to theatre, and they have embraced all the changes and techniques it takes to make a great night out, showing they can take on new forms of entertainment with ease and flexibility.
Steve Mc Carthy from Double Act said, ‘As a budding singer/songwriter, it has been exciting for me to work with Helen Porter, as I have had no singing training in the past and she has shown me techniques that have improved my singing ability.’
Half Term Children's workshops February 15-19
Celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Tiger – Create a chinese animation, learn Lion and Ribbon dancing – Chase out the New Year monsters and re-enact the story of “Nien”
Monday 15 + Tuesday 16
Dance Workshop Join this fun filled workshop of chinese dance and learn the skills of Ribbon and Lion dancing.
Wednesday 17 Drama Workshop
Join Sharon Hayden for “Nien” - Story of chasing out the New Year Monsters. Enact this ancient Chinese tale about New Year traditions and how they developed using drama, movement and a giant green monster.
The story on the plate - a Film for Chinese New Year
A beautiful daughter, the man she loves... their quest to escape her father’s harsh rule and and find happiness. The story depicted on millions of willow pattern dinner plates across the country is now set to become an animated film....
Children aged seven and up will work with film-maker Alastair Nisbet to draw and animate this classic tale.
Participants will learn a variety of techniques as animation, stills, drawings, sound effects, music and voice overs all come together in the finished work. Each child will receive a copy of the completed DVD. Parents are invited to view a “rough cut” of the film on Friday 19th at 4pm.
Other animations from Alastair's previous workshops (click to play):
Friday 26 February • THEATRE PREMIERE • Unhappy Returns
Two One Act Plays celebrating two very
differentbirthdays!
Directed by Melanie Hooley
A great evening’s entertainment provided by some
well known faces including Maggie Ansell, Trevor
Williams, Ann Ottaway and Lee Stroud, as well as
newcomer Georgie Willis, and others you have yet
to meet!
The Triplets – John Reason
The triplets are turning 100 years old. They are
in the Town Hall waiting to be presented to the
Queen. While waiting each reacts in their own
special way, each very, very different from the
other. Are they what they seem? Can you figure it
out?
Bang,
You’re Dead! – Paul Reakes (A Comedy
Thriller)
It is Miss Trim’s birthday. She is Theo Spink’s
loyal, prudish secretary. He brings her home for
a celebratory evening. Unbeknown to him, his wife
Lydia is planning, with her lover Marcus, his
murder. At first all goes according to plan,
until a ghastly mistake sets off a chain of
events which eventually results in a happy
ending, for one of the players! Who comes off
best? Can you guess?
Supper will be served during the
interval.
Saturday 27 February • THEATRE PREMIERE • Unhappy Returns
Two One Act Plays celebrating two very differentbirthdays!
Directed by Melanie Hooley
A great evening’s entertainment provided by some well known faces including Maggie Ansell, Trevor Williams, Ann Ottaway and Lee Stroud, as well as newcomer Georgie Willis, and others you have yet to meet!
The Triplets – John Reason
The triplets are turning 100 years old. They are in the Town Hall waiting to be presented to the Queen. While waiting each reacts in their own special way, each very, very different from the other. Are they what they seem? Can you figure it out?
Bang, You’re Dead! – Paul Reakes (A Comedy Thriller)
It is Miss Trim’s birthday. She is Theo Spink’s loyal, prudish secretary. He brings her home for a celebratory evening. Unbeknown to him, his wife Lydia is planning, with her lover Marcus, his murder. At first all goes according to plan, until a ghastly mistake sets off a chain of events which eventually results in a happy ending, for one of the players! Who comes off best? Can you guess?
Supper will be served during the interval.
Friday 5 March • Dorchester Arts FUN QUIZ Night
Think your arts and general knowledge are up to scratch ? Then why not get some friends together for our Quiz Night ? It should be a blast!
Register your team of 4 to 6 people for just £5 per person including food. There’s a well stocked bar to keep you going and the inevitable raffle for amusement!
FUNDRAISING EVENT
Saturday 6 March • BLUESNIGHTS • Mike Burke & Fran McGillivray
With more than 30 years at the heart of the U.K. blues and roots music world, the duo of Mike Burke (guitar/vocals) and Fran McGillivary (bass/vocals) make their first visit to Bluesnights.
Come and be dazzled by fine guitar playing and soulful singing.
www.franmike.com
Friday 12 March • Café Scientifique • The bullet-speed car - Bloodhound SSC
DORCHESTER ARTS • Doors and bar 7pm / Talk 7:30
pm • FREE EVENT • Donations
welcome
Faster
than a speeding bullet - the jet powered
Bloodhound SSC is not just an extraordinary car,
but an amazing tribute to some of the world’s
finest engineering talent.
One of the men behind this 1000 mph car, education director Ian Galloway, is Café Scientifique’s Science Week guest for an extraordinary evening of science and technology.
After Thrust2’s extraordinary 650mph, how did this team design a car capable of travelling more than half as fast again ?
Ian’s presentation will discuss how to confront and overcome the seemingly impossible using science, technology, engineering and maths.
This free event is sponsored by Thomas Hardye School - donations to Dorchester Arts welcome.
One of the men behind this 1000 mph car, education director Ian Galloway, is Café Scientifique’s Science Week guest for an extraordinary evening of science and technology.
After Thrust2’s extraordinary 650mph, how did this team design a car capable of travelling more than half as fast again ?
Ian’s presentation will discuss how to confront and overcome the seemingly impossible using science, technology, engineering and maths.
This free event is sponsored by Thomas Hardye School - donations to Dorchester Arts welcome.
Friday 19 March • DANCE • Switch - ACE Dance and Music
Switch is about change, choice, breaking the mould, embodying new rituals and living again. It takes inspiration from the leaves which resist the wind.
Are you swept up, or do you face the storm? With a robust and agile cast of both international and local dancers and two brilliant live musicians.
Directors Gail and Ian Parmel will work with internationally acclaimed Choreographer Koffi Kôkô from Benin, who unites two ways of thinking: that of the artist and the priest.
ACE Dance has to be seen to be believed. A company of contrasts; rooted in the past, spiritual, completely relevant and bang up-to-date. East meets West with a sense of humanity in this powerful, atmospheric production.
Switch video trailer
Friday 26 March • THEATRE • The Uninvited - Cube Theatre
Cube Theatre presents ‘The Uninvited’, a story of two men waking up in a cell in an eastern European mental asylum.
One starts trying to piece together the reason he’s there, unaware that he and his cell-mate are the same person. “You threw the toys, and you scratched your name on the wall. And then she came in and it was too late”.
A buzzer sounds. Wake-up time in D Block. Perched on his bedstead in his windowless isolation cell, Pietr begins to chat to himself.
This morning is different. Someone else is in there with him, curled up in the shadows. Someone whom Pietr would prefer not to wake up.
‘The Uninvited’ is a story with a dark heart, told with innocence, love, brutality, and break-neck dialogue, where, in the end, an unlikely redemption is allowed to find a voice.
“It would seem cube have another hit on their hands” - The West Briton on The Uninvited
“This is surely drama of high quality, for which the terms riveting, mesmerising and spellbinding are not excessive. Bleak and dark it may be, but from beyond that very bleakness emerges the satisfaction of witnessing the craft of staged drama at the top of its game.” - Charlie Pugh, The Tolmen Centre, Constantine
Saturday 27 March • BLUESNIGHT • The Guy Tortora Band
Born and raised in Pasadena, California, Guy Tortora is now settled in London. What he does as a songwriter and performer is what people like to call Americana these days -- a hard term to define as it seems to mean different things depending on who you're talking to. But if to you it means original songs, well constructed and well performed, in some of the various musical idioms that originated in the USA -- blues, jazz, folk and roots -- and also interpreting the work of other writers in these genres with depth and feeling, then you should check out his work if you haven't already.
Over the last few years he has laid claim to a unique niche on the Blues 'n' Roots scene in the UK and European Continent, from small clubs and theatres to festivals. His two recent solo albums received a warm welcome in the Blues 'n' Roots reviews, a third album was released in 2008 to great acclaim from reviewers and audiences alike.
When travelling light, he performs in stripped down acoustic mode either on his own, or accompanied by bass or keyboards. At many UK gigs he appears with the Guy Tortora Band, his own four-piece outfit of accomplished musicians from the UK and Europe. With this band he has performed live with artists as diverse as Eric Clapton, Pee Wee Ellis, John Cleary and Eric Bibb.
Guy is a guitar player of some accomplishment. On both acoustic and electric guitars he plays finger style, and is a fine bottleneck and slide player. His playing is not the flashy guitar-slinger style beloved of bluesrockers everywhere, but understated, and leaves room for the songs to make an impact, whether his own or the "covers" he performs that include many old standards and traditional tunes as well as songs by more recent American writers such as Eric Bibb or Kreig Viesselman.