2013

08 May 2024

WIMBORNE COMMUNITY THEATRE AGM TUESDAY 22ND APRIL 2014 AT ALLENDALE HOUSE, WIMBORNE   CHAIR’S REPORT  Review of WCT activities in 2013  This report covers activities between October 2012 and September 2013. This year was a year of consolidation with some exciting ventures, particularly the move towards establishing a strong digital presence for WCT. We built on our successful fundraising efforts to continue to raise funds for the various projects. The Year’s Activities:

  • The Quarter Jack’s Christmas Challenge
We staged a production of The Quarter Jack’s Christmas Challenge with two performances at the Priest’s House Museum and Allendale House in December 2013. Both performances were well received with a positive review in the Stour and Avon magazine. We were able to further adapt the script to introduce a seasonal atmosphere and new characters to stress the site-specific aspect, using the character of Charles Castleman as host at Allendale House and Hilda Coles at the Priest’s House Museum. We responded to a request from the BID group to dress in costume and advertise our Christmas show in the enhanced Square on 8th December.
  • Reminiscences Project/Wimborne at War Project
We held a planning meeting for the Reminiscences project on 6th March when Tony Horitz led a successful workshop on “What we think of when we think of World War One”. We worked on 3 dimensional models representing themes from World War One. The first Gathering Day was held on 15th June at the Priest’s House Museum to source material.   Members of the community brought their artefacts and told their stories to members of WCT. We followed this up with a meeting on 27th June to look at the materials and plan for the future of the project. This inspired us to take forward several strands of people’s memories into workshops later in the year. We were delighted that EDDC granted us £1,250 for this project in September 2012. This allowed us to cover expenses and input for a series of workshops. A programme of Autumn workshops, starting in September, was successfully mounted at St Catherine’s RC Church hall, exploring themes and creative ideas. Some new members attended and enjoyed the practical work. Throughout this period, members of the group met with key people locally to discuss locations, resources and ideas for the project.
  • Archive Project
Congratulations to Gill Horitz for successfully winning an HLF award of £10,700 to create a community digital archive in partnership with the Dorset History Centre, containing information on WCT’s past projects and productions. The year has included many events and activities related to this grant and the development of the website. Dorset Creative was selected as the website designer and Rowena and Nathan met several times with members of the group to discuss the creation and design of the website. Sorting of the materials continued at Allendale House to prepare for uploading to the website. Digital artists, Alistair Nisbet and Sharon Hayden from ScreenPlay, were appointed through an interview process involving Allenbourn Middle School pupils on June 27th, to lead workshops with 2 local middle schools to create two animations for the new website.
  • Fundraising
On fundraising, this year has again been highly successful. ×                We held a Skittles Evening at the Coach and Horses pub on December 7th 2012 which was well attended and a pleasurable evening for all, raising £430.00. ×                We also held a Quiz Evening on 13th February 2013 at the Colehill Sports and Social Club which generated over £500.00. We are grateful to John Billington for hosting both of these events. ×                We continued to take advantage of Local Giving’s Grow a Tenner scheme to double donations, funds raised and subscriptions during the period this scheme ran. ×                We are constantly looking for grant opportunities to support our work financially and during this year we researched applying to the BBC for their Community Grant Fund and to Dorset Community Foundation and have been subsequently successful in both bids.
  • Mayor’s Service
Tony and Gill Horitz represented the group at the Mayor’s Civic Service at the Minster on 12th May 2013.
  • New Year Party
An enjoyable New Year/Christmas party was held at Jeff & Barbara Hart’s house on 4th January 2013 which also raised some funding through a raffle run by Clare. AGM Last year’s AGM was held on 18th April 2013 when officers were elected for the following year. Donation WCT made a small donation to Bubble Theatre in January 2013 to help continue the work of this group in view of our previous connections to Bubble Theatre. Newsletter The WCT monthly newsletter has continued to keep members, supporters and friends of the group informed of the latest events. It is hoped that the website will keep members well informed in the future. Thus 2012 – 13 has been a successful year for the group in terms of fundraising and continuing the work of the group through staging a small production, while moving forward with larger projects, in particular the Archives and Reminiscences projects. We are grateful to supporters who come along to events and fundraising activities. Gill Horitz continues to do a great job in promoting the group’s work and also in the application she successfully made on our behalf to HLF and the BBC.   We continue to be extremely grateful to Tuppy Hill for her excellent work as our secretary and to Adrian Williams for keeping us on track as Treasurer. Jeff Hart   Chair WCT   06.04.2014