BUDDING actors, magicians and film directors are being offered the chance to start honing their talents at the Plough Youth Theatre in Torrington over the summer holiday. Tomorrow (Friday), five to seven-year-olds can take part in a play inspired by the Gruffalo stories by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Director of the Plough Youth Theatre, Rob Pudner, said: ?Participants can expect a day of specially developed games and activities focussing on a variety of skills. ?If they take a stroll through the deep dark woods they?ll meet the mouse, the fox, and a host of other characters, and they?ll even learn the Gruffalo song too!? Okehampton-based Rob set up the Plough?s youth theatre exactly five years ago. ?We started with just four members, but by the end of the month we had 30, and by the end of the year we had 120,? he said. Since then, the youth theatre has gone from strength to strength ? each year gaining new members, and taking on fresh challenges. It was one of the first youth theatres in the country to stage a large-scale production of Stephen Sondheim?s ?Sweeney Todd? and to produce Nick Stimson?s challenging musical ?Korczak? about the Polish children?s rights pioneer executed by the Nazis. This summer, Rob is offering children aged eight to 16 the challenge of helping to create a new piece of theatre in just four days. He is being joined by experienced director Richard Wolfenden and musical director Alan Boxer to devise a play based on Jonathan Swift?s seventeenth-century topsy-turvy tale, ?Gulliver?s Travels.? ?We?ll be creating a new version of this classic tale with original songs and frenetic physical theatre,? he said. The Plough Youth Theatre is also offering children aged twelve and over the chance to learn how to do calligraphy on Saturday August 18, and from Tuesday August 21 until Wednesday August 22, it is holding a film-making workshop, in which Artaura Productions? Matt Biggs will be expertly guiding participants through making a short film. There will also be two magic workshops on offer on Friday August 24, with professional magician Ian Keable ? one for children aged between eight and 12 ? and another for participants aged twelve and over. Ian promises to impart enough of the basic principles of magic for students to be able to instantly fool family and friends. Early booking is advisable for all of the courses, which are expected to prove very popular. For further information about cost and timings of workshops, please call the Plough box office on 01805 624624.
