APS is hosting at the Sherborne Studio Theatre this highly popular Dorset folk music and other folk traditions evening. Dorchester-based actor and folk singer Alastair Braidwood is joined by his mentor, esteemed and respected singer and folk musician Tim Laycock, for an evening full of festive cheer, including humorous stories read and acted, traditional songs and carols to be sung along to, poems recited, and folk tunes to tap your foot to. These energetic and knowledgeable entertainers are bringing their Christmas offering to Sherborne, with words and music from Dorset and beyond, all to do with the traditional Christmas known to Thomas Hardy and William Barnes. A homely treat for the season!

The 39 Steps is a parody, adapted by Patrick Barlow from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept and production of a four-actor version of the story was written by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, and premiered in 1996. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005. It is riotous blend of multiple roles, inventive stagecraft, shadow puppetry and physical theatre.

Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have this hilarious fast-paced whodunit with well over 50 roles played by three of the cast of four. The main protagonist, Richard Hannay, leads a boring life until he meets a woman with a thick accent who says she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organisation called "The 39 Steps" is hot on his trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale!

Jane McKenna says
"This will be a really challenging production, both creatively and technically, for both actors and backstage crew. Theatrical in its inventiveness, the play asks the audience to suspend belief and use their imagination. The year is 1935. The fast paced action takes us from the London Palladium to the misty Highlands of Scotland with a mutating set and effects. The action includes physical theatre, slick comedy, quick role changes, atmospheric original music, dramatic sound and lighting effects, life-size puppets and shadow theatre. We will need a backstage crew of 3+ people including puppet operators (training will be given). Above all, The 39 Steps is a riotously funny play. All welcome at the reading on Tuesday 10th December at 7.30pm."

NEWS AND EVENTS...
CURRENT NEWSLETTER
EVENTS

All events take place at 7.30 pm in the
Sherborne Studio Theatre
unless otherwise indicated


December Production
The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
directed by John Crabtree
Mon 2nd - Sat 7th Dec, 7.30 pm
Sat 7th Dec, 2.30 pm

Play Reading
The 39 Steps

Tue 10th December

Welcome or Welcome Not
Tim Laycock and Alastair Braidwood
present an evening of seasonal celebration in words and music.
Fri 13th December

March Production
Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen
directed by Graham Smith
Mon 24th - Sat 29th March, 7.30 pm
Sat 29th March, 2.30 pm

Dead on Cue
A one-man show
written and performed by
Mark Carey
Fri 11th April, 7.30
Sat 12th April 2.30 pm and 7.30 pm

June Production
The 39 Steps
by Patrick Barlow
directed by Jane McKenna
Mon 2nd- Sat 7th June, 7.30 pm
Sat 7th June, 2.30 pm

August Production
A Servant of Two Masters
by Carlo Goldoni
directed by Martin Williams
Mon 25th - Sat 30th August, 7.30 pm
Sat 30th August, 2.30 pm

PAST NEWSLETTERS
ROSE BOWL AWARDS 2024

We are pleased to announce that the set for A Wife For All Reasons, directed by Adrian Harding,
has been nominated for the Rose Bowl Walter Hawkins Award for Creativity and Design.

 
NODA SOUTH WEST AWARDS (2023)

Twelfth Night, directed by John Crabtree,
was awarded NODA's Most Innovative Production.

 

Twelfth Night was also nominated for the Hazelmere Award for Visual Excellence.
In addition The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, directed by Bev Taylor-Wade, was nominated for the Best Comedy Production award,
and Art, directed by Graham Smith, was nominated for the Best Drama Production award.

Theatres Protection Fund Small Grants Programme
Supported by The Linbury Trust

We are delighted to report the completion of a project to transform the approach to the Sherborne Studio Theatre. The work was made possible due to an award from the Theatres Trust Small Grants Programme supported by The Linbury Trust.

The trust has provided funds to enable the exterior of our popular little theatre on Marston Road to be aesthetically enhanced whilst enabling access over the previous gravel surface to be significantly improved, especially for those with reduced mobility. We have removed broken flagstones and resurfaced an uneven gravel entrance area that had become prone to weeds despite our best efforts to manage them. The area has now become a gentle sloping ramp, free of loose material and obstructions. The 'good' flagstones have been relocated under two new benches which give audience members somewhere to rest as they queue for entry, or when they take their interval refreshments on a hot summer's evening. The area has been decorated with complementary planting of sensory aromatic herbs and evergreens. Handrails have been fitted to the inside of the main doors, to provide support to those who need it as they enter the theatre.

In all, the entrance to the theatre is more attractive, more enticing, safer and generally easier to navigate for everyone, but with a special emphasis on helping our less mobile patrons. We look forward to welcoming our loyal audience members and newcomers at the earliest opportunity.

For further information, please contact Adrian Harding at anharding@btinternet.com/span>