COMPANIES across the FTR core area have taken the top awards in this year’s Rose Bowl contest, and leading the way was Claudia Pepler’s astonishing production of Come From Away (pictured right) at the Merlin Theatre in Frome in July, which took the Bristol Evening Post award for best musical production. Sarah Nias (right) won…
IF there is one thing a pantomime dame needs, it is to be seen – or perhaps B-Scene, as the newest company in the area is called. The Yeovil-based group will be bringing panto to Sherborne this Christmas, and it’s the perennial favourite story of Cinderella In this version, the wicked Morsus and the Ugly…
THE Mowlem Theatre at Swanage has stood proudly overlooking the sea for almost 60 years, sometimes battered by winds, rain and even snow. But now the old roof is leaking and the theatre has launched an urgent crowdfunding appeal for £10,000 to stop the leaks and save the building. This much-loved community space has a…
EXETER’s Northcott Theatre has announced its first 2026 Made By Exeter Northcott production – Forever Young by Erik Gedeon is a musical play that blends big laughs, heartfelt moments and iconic songs. The cast will include South West actors from past Northcott productions and pantomimes and the production will be the first musical play to…
DORCHESTER Corn Exchange gallery is the setting for a powerful and challenging exhibition, Ungrievable Lives, from Saturday 18th to Monday 20th October, open from 10am to 4pm, with free entry. There is also a free panel discussion on Saturday from 4 to 6pm, and a diversity flag workshop on Sunday from 11am. Ungrievable Lives brings…
BOURNEMOUTH Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor Mark Wigglesworth will be conducting 22 performances across the new 2025-26 season, which takes the region’s major orchestra to venues in major towns and smaller centres including Bristol, Exeter, Sherborne and Taunton, as well as its home at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre, where the season opens on Wednesday 1st October….
ILLUSTRATOR Gabrielle Parker’s delightful, surreal and whimsical creations will be celebrated at this year’s Arts by the Sea, the South West’s biggest free celebration of art, culture, people and place, returning to Bournemouth from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th September. Gabrielle Parker, the 2025 Artist in Residence, is an Arts University Bournemouth graduate, who creates…
AN exhibition, at Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury, from 27th September to 10th January 2026, A Life Outside: Hope Bourne on Exmoor, offers a new appraisal of the work and life of the Exmoor writer and artist. Created in partnership with The Exmoor Society, which cares for The Hope L Bourne Collection, the exhibition considers…
WE all have our favourite shoes – they may be red carpet-worthy, six-inch high Jimmy Choos or comfortable if unglamorous Allbirds, but shoes follow the footprints of human history. Fashionable or functional, delicate or dependable, shoes are an essential part of our lives. And while other brands may come and go, one name remains proudly…
VISITORS to Moors Valley Country Park near Ringwood can enjoy an unusual sound installation, Canopy, created for this year’s Inside Out Dorset festival, until 21st September, by Dorset-based artist Lorna Rees, of Gobbledegook Theatre,. It draws on contributions from a range of people including scientists, artists, folk musicians, arborists and Year 4 children from Malmesbury Park…