Tale Valley Community Theatre
Contact Name: John Somers
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PDFTVCT Meeting – April 2017
April 30th, 2017
The Committee held a meeting on 24th April, at which John Somers made an important statement about its future. To read the minutes please click TVCT Meeting April 2017 and to read John’s statement please click TVCT – JS Statement April 2017.
[Read More...]TVCT AGM 2016
December 1st, 2016
TVCT held its AGM last month and discussed possible future projects. Artistic Director, John Somers, briefly recalled the original work undertaken in a great variety of sites since he was invited to create a production to mark the arrival of the new millennium in 2000, resulting in the multi-site performance of ‘Parson Terry’s Dinner’. The most recent was ‘They Dream of Home’, a walking performance to commemorate the Parish’s involvement in WWI. The aim is to create new work of various kinds and to widen participants’ experience of different forms of community theatre. Details are being worked out and news […]
[Read More...]TVCT 2016 AGM
November 7th, 2016
The AGM of Tale Valley Community Theatre will be held on Thursday, 17th November at 7.30pm in the small hall at Payhembury Parish Hall. Artistic Director John Somers will outline projects which are planned for the next year which will include an extension of the WW1 Promenade Theatre project which TVCT actors performed in Princesshay as part of the commemoration of the Battle of the Somme. There is also a plan to work on a new play written by John about farming. This will get its premier at The Walronds in Cullompton on 14th and 15th October. If you have […]
[Read More...]A Success For Caius
April 30th, 2016
You may be interested to know that Caius (Cai) Nicholas, a member of Tale Valley Community Theatre and who played the lead role in They Dream of Home last September (pic attached) has, in the face of great national competition – around 5,000 people are auditioned each year, been accepted into the National Youth Theatre. He will work in London this summer and take part in a performance at the end of the summer-school. Well done Cai! John
[Read More...]BBC Radio visits Tale Valley
November 30th, 2015
BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country is to broadcast an episode focusing on aspects of the Tale Valley. In addition to items on Hembury Fort and the Tale Valley Trust, there are interviews with people associated with the Tale Valley Community Theatre (TVCT) and the eyewitnesses who contributed to the research on the 1941 crash of a Junkers 88 German bomber in the Valley. This incident was the focus of Foresight, a 2007 play by Rose Watts, performed by TVCT in a marquee at Tuckmill. The play sold out and the audience exited the marquee near the play’s end to […]
[Read More...]They Dream of Home
November 1st, 2015
In a car-free village centre and on a battlefield-disguised school playing field, an inspired cast gave memorable performances in Tale Valley Community Theatre’s challenging and emotive outdoor autumn production of “They Dream of Home”, directed and written by John Somers, reflecting the lives of two young soldiers, killed during WW1, whose names are on Payhembury memorial. After reading the script, their relatives had given permission for use of the young men’s names in the play. The young actors who played the central characters – soldiers, Bertie (Caius Nicholas) and Tom (Mark Rose), and village girl Gwen (Catherine Davies) – were […]
[Read More...]They Dream of Home – Payhembury Roads
August 30th, 2015
They Dream of Home is a promenade production which takes place at a number of village sites, thus requiring the audience to walk between scenes. I need to ask for people’s co-operation in parking elsewhere as the sight of modern cars will undermine our attempt to transport people’s imagination back to the early 1900s. Parked cars will make the scenes on the Green and at the Memorial impossible to stage. Also, if driving when the audience is transferring from the site of one scene to another, please tolerate a short wait whilst the audience moves on the road. Parking […]
[Read More...]Unique WW1 Theatre Production
August 30th, 2015
After taking a short summer break, the Tale Valley Community Theatre company will resume rehearsals this month for ‘They Dream of Home’. This unique performance will be staged at sites around Payhembury village on Sat 9th and Sun 20th Sept Starting at 7.00pm in the Parish Hall An original play, written and directed by John Somers, it captures the excitement amongst the young men of the parish as war is declared and their progression through recruitment, intense battles and the awful consequences of warfare. Two of the characters are based on real men whose relatives have given permission to include […]
[Read More...]Unique WW1 Theatre Production
August 5th, 2015
Following Tale Valley Community Theatre’s recent and very successful ‘Here we are again – an evening of songs and poems from WW1’, the company will take a short summer break before resuming rehearsals for ‘They Dream of Home’. This unique performance will be staged at a number of sites around Payhembury village on September 19th and 20th. An original play written and directed by John Somers, it captures the excitement amongst the young men of the parish at war’s declaration and the progression through recruitment, intense battles and the awful consequences of warfare. Two of the characters are based on […]
[Read More...]They Dream of Home – Use of Payhembury Roads
May 31st, 2015
They Dream of Home is a promenade production which takes place in a number of village sites, thus requiring the audience to walk between scenes. Compared with, for example, when the roads were closed for the first TVCT production in 2000, Parson Terry’s Dinner, the cost has multiplied and the procedure for achieving it hugely complex. I need to ask for people’s co-operation in parking elsewhere (the sight of modern cars will undermine our attempt to transport people’s imagination back to the early 1900s) and, if driving, tolerate a short wait whilst the audience moves from site to site. In […]
[Read More...]
