June saw us back once again in the gardens of Westwood Manor with a very popular production of The Taming of the Shrew, directed by guest director Jenny Steadman. This is one of my favourite venues and proved a magical evening¹s entertainment. The summer, normally a quiet period for the Society, was enlivened by Freda's play reading evenings. These proved very popular with the bonus that one of the plays was subsequently performed at Paul and Mary's good-bye celebration evening. This in itself was quite an event with around 50 of the West's friends attending. In many ways this was an emotional moment for Paul & Mary who have been active supporters of the Society for many years. They will be sadly missed and we would all like to wish them our very best wishes in their new home and hope they stay in touch and come and see some of our future events. Thanks to all involved in organising the evening, especially Sue and Ian Bolden for all their hard work. Our autumn production of Habeas Corpus was virtually a sell out and was greeted with great enthusiasm from cast and audience alike. It is some time since I have heard laughter so hearty and frequent during one of our shows and something that I feel was long overdue! With a recent history of putting on such enthusiastically received shows perhaps it is not surprising that we attracted no less than five Rose Bowl nominations this year, although sadly we didn¹t win anything at the award ceremony - still at least that gives us something to improve on next near! All in all a very successful and rewarding year for the Society and one which makes me very proud to be a part. I would like to say a very big Thank You to everyone who has contributed in any way to making this such a fantastic year and would like to wish you all, very best wishes for the New Year. I look forward to working with you all again in the coming year and making it just as successful as the last.

Rob Hearn

Annual Dinner

Friends Evening

New Newsletter Editor

Letter of Thanks from Paul and Mary

A Little Puzzle from Roger Payne

Slipper and the Rose

With rehearsals now well underway and the back room teams beavering away all is set for another entertainment spectacular. Rhys Young is directing with Bruce Walcroft as Musical Director. Production dates are 13th to 16th February at Trinity Hall, St Laurence School. Tickets will be available from our Box Office in the Town Library from 21st January.

Friends Evening

We are hoping to arrange the next Friends Evening for Saturday 13th April.

Letter of Thanks from Paul and Mary

Dear Rob,

We thank you and the committee for organising Œour¹ special evening on Friday. Many memories were awakened and it was an evening we shall look back on with fondness for a very long time, especially every time we use or look at the lovely Hors D¹oeuvres dish we were presented with. We wish you and the Society all the best for the future and look forward to coming to the next production.

Paul and Mary.

Annual Dinner

The Society¹s Annual Dinner will be at the Dandelion on Saturday 2nd March 2002. Full details to follow shortly.

A Little Puzzle from Roger Payne

Roger thought some of you might like to exercise your brains on this little puzzle. Answers will be published in the next Newsletter.

Can you name the following plays?

1. 1494 farce.

2. Unsuitable behaviour by a playwright.

3. A racist Greek play about de Gaulle and Pompidou.

4. A member of the union with matron and Mother Superior.

5. The captain¹s opinion of the play.

Can you name the players?

1. Was this playwright apprehensive about Christmas?

2. A smart stout actor.

3. One of a major royal family.

4. A frost resistant type of herb.

5. Did he write two books in the Bible telling a young man where to go?

New Newsletter Editor

This will be the last Newsletter I produce as Freda Ferne has kindly offered to take it on in the new year. Freda can be contacted on 01225 865260 and would be very happy to receive any suggestions or articles you may have.