Our aim is to promote participation in, and support for, creative and performing arts in Terrington and the surrounding area. We had no idea how much enthusiasm there would be for arts related activities when we set up Terrington Arts in July 1997, but we would like to thank you all for your support for the variety of events and activities we have set up in the last two years. Without this support we could not take the risks we do, particularly in bringing live theatre to the village.

The last members’ meeting was held in September 1998 on the day of the unveiling of the Banners in the Village Hall. We know that you are proud of the Banners from the number of requests for keys to show them to your visitors, but we received external recognition for the work when we won third prize in the Yorkshire Rural Community Council’s Village Ventures competition. The £100 prize and the proceeds of raffles at two shows went towards the curtains, which have recently been installed.

The Textile and craft work continues, though not at the same hectic pace. Angela Hayward of Rural Arts North Yorkshire, who worked with us on the banners, ran two successful days on mosaic work in August ‘98, with children and adults learning together. She also ran 2 days of devoré work last November, a chance to make scarves for ourselves, using a technique we had learnt on the Banners. Since then Elaine Hubery has been running fortnightly workshops for a small but growing group, covering patchwork and other crafts, with some full-day workshops with visiting artists making paper and notebooks and a children’s workshop to make a Banner for the entrance hall.

Four excellent Rural Arts on Tour productions have been staged in the Village Hall.

In September we welcomed a shadow-puppet artist and an Indian dancer with The Ramayana. We also arranged for a shadow-puppet workshop for children at Terrington C of E school. The children enjoyed the work, and about 50 people attended the performance, which was not enough to prevent us losing money on that venture.

However in November many more people flocked in to see the marvellous Jiving Lindy Hoppers who inspired children and adults to dance with them, and the whole audience to hand-jive! Finances looked better after that.

Clara, the life of Clara Schumann, featuring one actress and one pianist, was a gentler kind of show, but was well-received by a good audience in March. The final professional show of the year was The Bob Hall show - an evening of Blues and Boogie Woogie, which earned a great reception. It was their first show of the week, but they said the audience was like a Saturday night.

Encouraged by your support of our shows, we invited David Goodwin to bring the 1812 Theatre production of Two to Terrington. David, with Pauline Armour, gave an excellent thought-provoking performance to the largest audience they had played to.

David Goodwin has brought more to the village than one production. Not only has he staged cabaret style evenings for village events such as the Over 60s party in December, but he has single-handedly enabled people in the village to brush up their own acting skills and have a go. Starting with a series of slimly attended drama workshops in Autumn 1998, he introduced play-readings after Christmas, and suggested a play for the late summer. The results were seen, firstly in It Could be Verse, an evening of poetry and song given to an audience of 70 on August Bank Holiday Saturday, and then in All in Pieces, five one-act plays in September. The two hundred people who saw the production over the two nights will forever see their neighbours in a new light! So Terrington Players has been reborn, the last production having been in 1971.

There have also been two group outings, to Martin Guerre at West Yorkshire Playhouse in January, and to A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Helmsley in July.

The Millennium Festival Fund through the Arts Council has offered Terrington Arts a grant of £5000 for a Living History project in which we intend with the help of a photographer and a writer and as many people as possible to record the village in the year 2000. A considerable amount of work has been done behind the scenes, but we cannot access the funds until the year 2000. Meanwhile Terrington Parish Council and Ryedale District Council have given support for the initial stages.

We have also helped to support the Willow Corner project in the village. We have plans for some outdoor artistic endeavour once the land is cleared and access achieved.

Another new venture in the village over the past year has been the Choir. We are delighted to see it flourish and look forward to working with them on village entertainments in the future.

On a more domestic note, we are very happy to report that our membership in ‘98/’99 was 103 adults, which included 37 couples. Your membership subscriptions give us the buffer we need to take risks, and they enable us to keep in touch with you by newsletter and telephone tree. The telephone tree worked well in some branches and less well in others. Care will be taken next time to consult members about their position on the tree and which members they would ring.

We adopted a constitution in Autumn ‘98, but revised it in August ‘99 when we decided to opt for charity status. Our application is being processed.

On behalf of the Terrington Arts Working Group may I thank you for your support during the last year and encourage you to continue to take part in our activities, and to tell us what you think and what else you would like us to do. We are all willing to stand again, but we are aware that we cannot always all be on hand. We desperately need help such as leafleting, helping with shows and so on. Don’t be shy of volunteering - we can always find you a job, and we will need your co-operation in the coming year to make Millennium Year as successful as the past two years.

Lesley Bradshaw, Secretary, Terrington Arts 5/10/99

back to top