Is it really nearly 2 years since our last production? We nearly had a go last year with ‘Trap for a lonely man’, but had to postpone that one and now we’re finally putting the finishing touches on ‘Happiest days of your life’.

During World War II, the all-girls St. Swithins school is evacuated from London to avoid the Blitz. Due to an administrative error, the female students and staff are relocated to the Nutborne Boys School, whose headmaster, Wetherby Pond, is alarmed. He and St. Swithins headmistress Muriel Whitchurch agree to keep their mixed-sex campus a secret to avoid disturbing the parents, but they find it hard to deceive visiting inspectors.

Performance of this play will be at the Dorchester Town Hall , High St East
Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1HF

Friday 26th & Saturday 27th November 2021

Tickets will be available at the Dorchester Arts Centre

As the country is continuing to adjust to the pandemic we had been hopeful to be able to provide a little bit of escapism from the chaos and put together a production. Sadly, our murder mystery and both of our productions this year have had to be abandoned, including Happiest Days of our Lives which we were hoping to perform in November
I wanted to update you all on what the committee’s suggestions are moving forwards.
Firstly, we are still very keen to be creative and sociable. We have a few suggestions and I’d be very keen to get your feedback on what you feel you’d like to be involved in. These are:

1. A number of one off group read throughs of various plays using either Zoom or TEAMS. This would need to involve plays either in the public domain that are easily accessible or for people to purchase plays for their own use. There would not be plans to record or publish these (for rights reasons if they’re not in the public domain). If there are any suggestions of plays you’d like to read, please let me know – these can be as many “handed” as you want  – allowing for availability of other members
2. For a “virtual variety performance”. This would involve members recording monologues, short plays, poems, sketches etc virtually. We would want these again to be free in the public domain as we would want to potentially publish these on Youtube or similar platforms to still give the group some exposure. If we get some decent interest for this, I’d be interested in speaking to anyone that has experience in video editing. I would be open for this to be combined with point 1 if anyone is brave enough to take ownership of the virtual recording and editing of a whole play, but I think asking people to record short clips and combine together is probably more reasonable!
3. One off, or a series of role playing games which I’ve got experience in running. These are very popular at the moment on Youtube and other mediums (see Critical Role, Geek and Sundry and Dicebreaker on Youtube as examples) and there are some options that have basic rules and equipment requirements.

We also want to continue issuing a regular newsletter. If you have any personal news you want to share, or if you’re creative in other ways please email me or Fran with any suggestions for the newsletter.
I’m also very open for any other ideas that group members have that we can do safely in the meantime. I will of course keep you updated on our position in light of government advice.
Finally, as we mentioned before, any subs already paid for members and friends as of August 2019 remain valid, and there will not be an AGM this year.

Tickets are available now, online, TIC, or reserved by telephone.

We’re still finalising details for this and tickets are not yet available, but if you’d like to reserve a ticket (price tbc), please contact us via email or ring the box office number (O13O5 268692) and leave your name and a contact number.

Last Wednesday, our Chairman ran a quiz for us. A superb evening of random questions and quizzical things.

We also took the opportunity to invite Julias’ House along to present them with a cheque for money raised during ‘A Moment with Dickens’.

Team 5ers took the first prize, donating their winnings back into DD funds and the chocolates to the next committee meeting.

Some excellent production photos courtesy of Kitty Sansom. A link to the whole Dickens’ Children album is below.

Google album Link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JfcdmiRLNyWMjWFj7

The Jellyby children get stuck in some mischievousness.