*) Polish film night - Friday Mar 5th - details below
*) The Record Shop will be closed for the first few months of 2010 whilst Jules recuperates. In the meantime, the Book Shop next door have kindly agreed to sell tickets. We thank them, and wish Jules a speedy recovery.
TICKETS and OPENING HOURS
Unless otherwise stated alongside an event, tickets and further details are available from the Centre - details above. If you wish to pop in, our new Administrator, Rosemary Stephenson, is usually onsite on Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings, 9am-1pm.
For some events, as marked, tickets are available from the Centre AND from the Book Shop, 100 High St, Crediton, 01363 774740
HIRE
The Arts Centre is available for hire - for details contact the Administrator.
Programme - Spring 2010
Welcome to our brochure of theatre, music, dance and visual arts. Crediton Arts Centre exists for you and we hope you will join us at our events and classes. Come along ... you'll be very welcome.
This talented young band from Poland’s lake district
on the border with Lithuania are embarking on their
first South West England tour. They have sought
out a large and almost lost treasure of old lyrics
and melodies and have brought them up to date
with imaginative arrangements and surprisingly
striking voices. With fiddle, bellow accordian,
guitar, percussion and distinctive vocals this is
music that will lift the heart and stir the soul. Stela
introduce their songs with stories and throughout
the performance there is a slideshow of stunning
photographs of their home region.
Tickets: £7.50/£5.50 (Bookshop).
BAR
This event is supported by Villages in Action
Friday 5th March 7:30 for 8pm start -
Polish film night - 'TRICKS'
Director: Andrej Jakimowski.
Poland 2008. Subtitles. 1 hr 30mins. Cert 12A.
This film follows a young boy living in a provincial mining town near
Wroclaw who tempts fate by connecting a handsome commuter with his single
mother in Jakimowski's working class family drama.
Traditional Polish food will be available.
Tickets: £5 (Bookshop). BAR
Saturday 20th March -
The Arts Centre Foyer Opening Event
An occasion for all Friends of the Arts Centre to celebrate the creation of our stunning new
entrance, foyer and kitchen and to thank all those who have made it possible. (time to be
confirmed.)
Saturday 27th March 3pm
- Puppet theatre from the Theatre of Widdershins ‘ARABIAN NIGHTS’
Sheherazade, the greatest of all storytellers,
presents three fabulous tales from her Arabian
Nights. A tale from the desert; a tale from the bed
of the ocean; and a tale from a donkey’s mouth,
all told with great skill, imagination and exquisite
timing. This show drips with lavish colours and
textures, accompanied by an original soundtrack
which will transport you to mystic lands.
Theatre of Widdershins is a Bedfordshire based
Puppet Theatre Company which has been touring
highly visual and innovative shows nationwide for
more than 13 years. Suitable for everyone over 3
years old.
“Superb stuff all round” – the Stage.
Tickets: £5.50/£4.50 (Bookshop)
This event is supported by Villages in Action
CRAMP Open Mic Night -
Last Friday of every month @ The Lamb Inn, Sandford 8pm-11pm
Whether it's music, poetry or comedy you love to perform / observe, there is something for everyone at these popular events ! Free entry. More details: www.crampdevon.org .
Crediton Rural Arts & Music Project (CRAMP) is a voluntary, not-for-profit community organisation, set up to nurture, support and promote the creative works of local people.
Sun 24th - Sat 30th October 2010 - Arts Centre Trip to Berlin
Following the success of our trip to Madrid, we are organising a cultural visit to Berlin.
A deposit of £35 made payable to Friends of Crediton Arts Centre will need to be paid to secure a place on this exciting trip. The trip will cost just £330 per person for 6 nights B&B in twin bed rooms at Park Inn, Alexanderplatz, Berlin excluding travel costs
Details Paul Cartwright, tel: 01363 774115
Email: pfc_art@lineone.net
Thursday 14th, 21st, 28th Jan and 4th
Feb 7:30-9:30pm - The Brown Paper Bag Theatre
Company Workshops
The Mirror, Rabbits and The Thirty Nine Steps ...
Come along and get to know well known and
lesser known tales through physical theatre,
characterisation and storytelling. All over the age of
14 are welcome to join the sessions and play with
some of the stuff and ingredients of theatre making. £2 per session.
For more details contact Peter Hamilton
01363 772365
Saturday 3rd April 10am-3pm - Printmaking Workshop
A day of printmaking. We will be making 'monoprints', 'collographs' and 'drypoint' prints - all ways in which you can
make beautiful and unusual pictures. Whether you are an experienced artist or a complete beginner you will come
away with work you can be proud of. The day is run by Simon Ripley of Double Elephant Print Workshop - Simon will
bring a printing press and all materials are provided. The day is suitable for ages 12 and up. £30 per person. Please bring a packed
lunch.
Details - Simon Ripley on 01363 776773
10 weeks from 11th Jan. £70.
This informal friendly class is individually taught and
is suitable for both the beginner and the more experienced. A wide variety of media is encouraged
to explore the basis of composition, tone, form etc., as well as work to develop the imagination. Daphne Cartwright 01363 774115
Mondays 10am-10:45am - Bonjour Tonton!
- French classes for kids
12 weeks from 4th January
(no session 15th February). Parent + one child £30 per half term
(£15 for each additional child).
Bonjour Tonton! classes are designed to introduce
parents and children aged 1-5 to the French
language in a fun and relaxed setting. We offer all the
things you might expect of a preschool group: music,
movement and games all entirely in French! Classes
are led by an experienced language teacher.
Booking is essential.
Details: Heidi Rivolta 07929 419798
email bonjourtonton@hotmail.co.uk
web www.bonjourtonton.co.uk
Mondays 1:30-3:30pm - Painting for All
10 weeks from 11th Jan. £60.
As above with the emphasis on the use of colour. Daphne will also help to prepare portfolios for entry to further or higher education if required.
Details: Daphne Cartwright 01363 774115
Mondays 7:30-9:30pm - Watercolour
10 weeks from 11th Jan. £60.
Create successful paintings using watercolour. Course emphasis is on values, edges, colour and light over a range of subject matter. Suitable for all abilities.
Places limited to 10.
Details: Richard Teasdale 07985 314008
Tuesdays 9:30am-12:30pm - Life Drawing
10 Weeks from 12th Jan. £80.
Working from the nude model. Suitable for beginners to professional. In addition to fees, cost of model is shared between students.
Details: Daphne Cartwright 01363 774115
Tuesdays 1:30-3:30pm - Watercolour
10 Weeks from 12th Jan. £60.
Create successful paintings using watercolour. Course emphasis is on values, edges, colour and light over a range of subject matter. Suitable for all abilities.
Places limited to 10.
Details : Richard Teasdale 07985 314008
From 5th Jan. £18 per half-term.
Activities include games, warm-ups, drama
exercises, song writing and improvisation. Our aim
is to create a new piece of original musical theatre
to be performed in February half term. We do not
hold auditions and all members get a speaking and
singing part in our productions. You can join at any
time, subject to available places - do come along as
you’ll be very welcome. Early booking is advised!
To book
your place, please call Jez Taylor on 01363 773337 (leave
a message) or email: cyt@waxroom.co.uk We are currently looking for volunteers to assist in
sessions. If you are interested, please get in touch!
Half Term Drama Project
- Crediton Youth Theatre will be running a 3 – 5 day
performance project during the February half term. Contact Jez Taylor for more details.
Wednesdays 9:30-11:30am - Portrait Club
From 13th Jan. £2 per session including coffee, tea & biscuits.
A friendly group that meets in the art room on Wednesday or Friday mornings. Bring own materials and take a turn at modelling.
Further details: Sandra Chalton 01363 773518, or Hilary Hamilton 01363 772365.
Wednesdays 2:30-4:30pm -
Writers' Workshop
5 weeks from 6th Jan. £30.
A workshop course for those wishing to explore different kinds of writing - fiction, poetry, autobiography and
descriptive prose. Running through the group's explorations will be the search all writers make to find their own
voices. This will be a taught workshop, but given a collaborative approach, both inexperienced writers and those
who have been writing for a while will be able to support each other in their work.
Details : Pam Barnard 01363 772357
Wednesdays 5:15-6:45pm - Spanish
5 weeks from 13th January. £30.
Spanish for keen beginners or improvers to continue
from the Autumn term. To run for 5 weeks with an
option to continue for 5 more weeks.
Course book: Take Off in Spanish (Oxford)
Details: Nancy Dowling 01363 775656
Wednesdays 7:30-9:30pm - Life Drawing
10 weeks from 13th Jan. £60.
Details the same as Tuesday's session.
Fridays 9:30-11:30am - Portrait Club
From 15th Jan. £2 per session including coffee, tea & biscuits.
A friendly group that meets in the art room on Wednesday or Friday mornings. Bring own materials and take a turn at modelling.
Further details: Sandra Chalton 01363 773518, or Hilary Hamilton 01363 772365.
Book Club
The Arts Centre hosts 2 book clubs. One meets in members homes around the district, and the other at the Lamb Inn in Sandford. Meetings are held throughout the year, roughly every 6 weeks. For information about both groups, contact Pam Barnard (01363 772357).
The Friends of the Arts Centre support its programme through taking part in activities, attending performances, giving time as volunteers and through a modest subscription. Current membership is around 160. An elected committee of The Friends meets about 10 times a year with various sub-groups taking responsibility for different areas of our activities. Annual subscriptions at present are £14 for an individual and £24 for family membership, though many Friends choose to give more than these basic sums. The money goes towards the running costs of the Centre, but Friends also receive the three termly brochures with information about forthcoming activities along with, where possible, regular email updates about future shows, classes etc. The Friends are the core audience and the most frequent participants in those activities. However, the last thing the Friends want to be is some sort of exclusive 'club', so we always try to offer the warmest of welcomes to newcomers - the Centre is there for the community. Further information is available from Rosemary Stephenson, the Centre's Administrator (contact details at top of page).
The building which now houses the Arts Centre was previously part of Hayward's School. When new buildings for the school were constructed elsewhere on the site in the early 1960s, the enterprising Drama Adviser for Devon, Derek Bowskill, transformed the building into a well equipped drama studio, painting the space as a 'black box' and installing modern lighting equipment which students themselves could learn to use. These were exciting times in educational drama, with an emphasis upon improvisation and evolved performances developing alongside continuing, but more imaginative, work on scripted plays. For several years, the Devon Drama advisory team - in those halcyon times consisting of seven or eight members distributed around the regions of the county - used the Centre, meeting weekly to plan their work and testing out their ideas through practical dramatic explorations. The space was also used by other organisations - for example, local schools developed drama projects and education students from Exeter University came out each week to learn about teaching workshop drama.
The impetus for what now makes up the life of the Centre began in the mid 1970s when Peter Hamilton was appointed by Devon County Council as Community Drama Tutor. In 1983, things took a huge step forward when a community play, Today of All Days, with a cast of 120, was produced under the guidance of the Colway Theatre Trust. A series of productions followed that event as a group of people came together to develop a range of artistic ventures. In 1992, the Crediton Drama Centre was formally instituted.
Over the years, the Centre has provided a home for many initiatives. The Brown Paper Bag Theatre Company actually pre-dates the Drama Centre, and continues to thrive, most recently producing a version of The Canterbury Tales in which the Centre became the interior of The Tabard Inn, with the pilgrims just back from their journey into Kent. There have always been classes in the visual arts - at present some six groups meet every week. The Centre has hosted a regular Street Jazz Dance group, a Photography group, two Reading groups, a Creative Writing class and Drama Clubs for younger children. In recent years, there have been projects in which nine new stage plays have been written, directed and performed, largely by new writers, directors and actors. In 2007, a dozen new radio plays were created and performed. Both these projects were taught by artists with national reputations. Various other groups hire space at the Centre, including Queen Elizabeth's Community College and the Woodcraft Folk.
The town is probably most aware of the Centre through its major outdoor productions of Shakespeare, begun in 1995 with Henry IV Part 2, and the annual festivals in Shobrooke Park. Four of the Shakespeares took place in specially erected arenas on the council carpark down Market Street - and those productions were a major influence in the town deciding to build a new piazza-style square on that site. In 2007, a 400 seat theatre was built in the new town square for the production of Measure for Measure. All of this work has been on a grand scale with budgets in excess of £25,000 secured from funding from well-wishers in the town community and other funding agencies such as Arts Council England South West and Mid Devon District Council. Before the Fire Station was razed to the ground to make space for the new square, the Centre performed a specially written play about firefighters in the station itself (and outside, for that matter, ignoring the November chill and rains); a handsomely illustrated book, Fire! Fire!, was produced to chronicle the work and lives of Crediton's retained firefighters. The project photographer was so impressed by what she was photographing that she has become a retained firefighter herself.
The Shobrooke Festival (with bands, artistic work by and for children, outdoor films et al) arose from a project funded by the Millennium Festival Fund. An amphitheatre, with power and water supplies, was sculpted from a gentle hillside leading down to the lake in Shobrooke Park, a beautiful landscaped estate about a mile from the town centre; the Shelley family, the owners of the Park, were willing and enthusiastic collaborators in the project. On the day of the amphitheatre's opening, over 1000 people visited the park to attend and take part in a daylong series of arts events mounted by local groups. Subsequently, the amphitheatre has seen schools productions, touring Shakespeare, and plays from the Brown Paper Bag Company.
Outstanding among our other activities has been a series of overseas trips led by Paul and Daphne Cartwright, both artists and teachers. Groups have visited Florence (twice), Barcelona and Venice. Plans are already made for a trip to Madrid in 2008.
A glance at past brochures would show how the activities and entertainment offered at the Centre have broadened in their appeal. We have had dance events, music, juggling, stand up comedy and a variety of self-help funding events, some of which beggar description.
In 2004, we took the decision to acknowledge the broadening of our base by translating ourselves from a Drama Centre to an Arts Centre.
Peter Hamilton retired as Artistic Director in 2004 and was replaced by printmaker Simon Ripley - though Simon's tenure was short-lived as running the Centre left too little space and energy for his own work. Both Peter and Simon remain very active members of the committee. Our Administrator is now Rosemary Stephenson, supported by our Caretaker John Downes, who doubles as a County Councillor as well as serving on the Management Committee of the Centre.
