Arts & Entertainments

New Stour & Avon, July 30, 2021 Arts & Entertainment Gwen’s publishing debut at age of 82

By Faith Eckersall

A project to raise money for Witchampton’s 15th century church tower has resulted in one villager becoming a published author at the age of 82. Gwen O’Brien has seen About a Village: Witchampton and More go on sale this month. It’s her first venture into solo book publishing but, as the longserving editor of the village newsletter – she’s been producing it for the last 18 years – she had plenty of material to choose from. “The church is 15th century and needs a lot of looking after and they wanted some fundraising done so I suggested compiling a book from the stories in the newsletter,” says Gwen. A computer whizz, Gwen had saved newsletters from the millennium onwards on her computer harddrive. After reading every one of them she compiled up to 140 pages of publicationworthy tales, which she produced between May and March. Despite occurring in what is thought of as the modern era, Gwen says the stories show how village life has changed in just 21 years. She designed the book herself, using her own painting as the cover and teaching herself the intricacies of laying out a manuscript for publication. Gwen, who was president of the village’s Women’s Institute for 16 years, believes her experience helping to produce their book of walks in 2007, which beat more than 700 others in a WI competition, helped. However, she says, producing the Witchampton book, which also covers the Crichels, was a ‘bit of a learning curve’. “I did it on separate Word pages before I learned how to string them together,” she says. She also added photos, old and new, of village locations. One problem was covering the pandemic era which affected the village in the same way as many others –almost everything got cancelled, Gwen says. “In the end I emailed a lot of people that I know and asked them to tell me what happened to them in lockdown and we had some amazing stories back; a person who was bereaved, someone whose first greatgrandchild was born, another person who’d got stuck in Spain,” she says. The book was launched with a cake sale at Witchampton’s Village Shop and costs £10, with all profits from the sale going to the Witchampton Church Tower restoration fund. Copies are on sale at Witchampton Village Shop and from the editor by emailing: gwenob@ btinternet.com.

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DAD’S ARMY

Thur 5th to Sat 7th August 7.30pm Tickets £16 Matinees Fri 6th & Sat 7th August, 2.30pm Tickets £16

1 in 10 tickets FREE! Via Box Office only

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee) OFF THE RAILS (15)

9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 18th & 19th August 7.30pm Matinees 12th & 19th August 2.30pm Tickets: Adults £8 (eves) £7 matinee U16s £6

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee) THE BOHEMIANS

Fri 13th August, 7.30pm Tickets £20.50

(Box Office bookings over £20 incur £1 booking fee) BARRY STEELE & FRIENDS

The Roy Orbison Story

Sat 14th Aug 7.30pm Tickets £24.50

(Box Office bookings incur £1 fee per transaction) MATT BLACK

Piano Man

Fri 20th August, 7.30pm Tickets £16.50

(Box Office bookings incur £1 fee per transaction)

CIRCUS OF HORRORS

OVER 16’S ONLY! Sat 21st August, 7.30pm

Tickets £26 & £22 PETER PAN

Wed 25th to Sat 28th August, 2pm. Fri 27th & Sat 28th August, 6pm Tickets Adults £17.50 U16s £14 ANDRE RIEU:

Together Again

(Recorded screening)

Sun 29th August, 7:00pm Tickets £15 (concs £13.50) BE BOP A LULA PURPLE ZEPPELIN

Sat 4th September, 7.30pm Tickets £19.50

New Stour & Avon, July 30, 2021 Arts & Entertainment Van-tastic fun, with strings attached

An open-air theatrical adventure for families is on offer next month. Dorset’s touring arts charity Artsreach will present the award-winning visual theatre company Half a String with The Lost Colour, an energy fuelled physical show full of clowning, puppets, and paint all told from on top of The Puppet Van. Join Malcolm Brushell, a professional painter and amateur alchemist, on his quest to find the pinky-est pink paint on the planet! Through cracking rocks, mashing every conceivable vegetable, and even bottling and fermenting his own cow’s wee, he has created every colour imaginable on his quest to make the most vibrant pink ever seen. Half a String Theatre create, explore, and share spectacular worlds and powerful original stories. With design at the forefront of everything the company do, their miraculous transforming sets bring a collective wonder of discovery to every performance. The Lost Colour is a vibrant and joyful explosion of colour, all performed on top of The Puppet Van; a roaming outdoor venue that presents performances 2m in the air! Expect stunning puppetry in this energy fuelled race to create the most potent pigmented pink paint! The Lost Colour- will be performed at Broadmayne First School at 2pm on Saturday, August 21 and again at Lytchett Matravers Village Hall at 2pm on Sunday 22 August. Tickets must be booked in advance, full details about the event is available when booking. After the show children can use poster paint, brushes and glitter in a fun, hands on painting workshop with Puppet Van designer Peter. Have a go at mixing colours, creating sponge fluffy clouds, painting stunning mountains and bringing to life your very own landscape picture in this relaxed painting workshop for children aged 5-11yrs. Places are limited and must be prebooked. Visit artsreach.co.uk

E TH T H EXCHANGE

Live a more eventful life

Friday 6th August Spectacular

Tina Turner Tribute

IN  THE  PINK: In search of The Lost Colour with Half A StringTickets £19.50/£18.50

––––––––Mon/Tues 6th/7th Sept Beauty & the Beast 7:30pm Tickets £14 –––––––– Thursday 9th September Our fascination with murder throughout history 7:30pm Tickets £22 ––––––––Tuesday 14th September 2pm Tickets £13/£11/£9 ––––––––Saturday 18th September Entertaining, enthralling & electric, the King is back!! 7.30pm Tickets £22 Choir on song at Bestival slot Dorset’s coolest bunch of choralistas, the Funky Little Choir, will be joining the likes of Fatboy Slim, Sophie EllisBextor, Friendly Fires, Level 42 and Heather Small to entertain the crowds at this year’s Camp Bestival familyloving music and camping festival at Lulworth Castle. Founded in Christchurch in 2013 and Led by Sandie Elkins, the 200-strong ‘Funky’, has members aged from eight to 80, all from around Christchurch and Bournemouth. They can’t wait to return to everyone’s favourite fancy dress festival at the castle to perform their trendy takes on club classics in an eclectic lineup that also includes Groove Armada, kid’s (and grownups’) favourite, Mr Tumble and The Worzels. The choir, which has bagged loads of awards and been on Dorset choirmaster, Gareth Malone’s TV show, loves the fact although they’re an amateur choir they have a really big, professional sound, which they’ll be filling the arena with this weekend. They promise endless dancefriendly club and funky tunes and are looking forward to making some memorable moments when they interact with festival goers. Watch out, they may just come and sing to you!

n Camp Bestival’s gates open this Thursday, July 29 and the fun continues until Sunday, August 1. Proof of covid eligibility is required, see campbestival.net Ticket availability (at time of going to press): Adult Weekend - £230 Student Weekend - £225 Age 13 to 17 Weekend - £150 Age 10 to 12 Weekend - £125 Age 5 to 9 Weekend - £105 Age 4 & Under Weekend - £85 Babes In Arms (1 & Under) FREE (but ticket required)

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