Your Midlands and Shropshire am dram guide

The likes of Alan Ayckbourn, Ray Cooney and Peter Quilter’s works remain available for amateur licence and usually suit most group’s abilities and offer light relief for audiences.

With this in mind, Shropshire Drama Company will be performing Ayckbourn’s Round and Round the Garden at the Walker Theatre within Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, from November 6 to 9.

Annie, who looks after her bedridden mother, has decided to take a respite break, so her brother Reg and his wife Sarah have been asked to take over the care of their mother for the weekend.

However, the question that intrigues them is whether Annie is going away solo or with a companion, possibly the local vet Tom who seems to be a regular caller. The brother-in-law Norman turns up and then later his wife Ruth to help with mother.

Chaos ensues as Annie’s plans unravel, resulting in a memorable few days together but for all the wrong reasons!

For tickets priced at £16.50 and £15 for students and groups of 10 or more, visit www.theatresevern.co.uk or call 01743 281281.

For more information on Shropshire Drama Company, visit www.shropshiredramacompany.co.uk

Also at Theatre Severn, from November 7 to 9, you can catch a production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! presented by local group, Get Your Wigle On.

For tickets, visit www.theatresevern.co.uk www.gywo.co.uk or call 01743 281281.

Further afield in Birmingham, the team at Hall Green Little Theatre has written a showcase of new written works, dramatic scripts, funny plays and exciting excerpts. They tell me that this annual event shines a light on emerging talent and always proves to be an evening filled with thrilling new drama.

Why not take a look? It’s at their own venue in Pemberley Road, Acocks Green.

For tickets priced at just £6 each, visit www.hglt.co.uk or call 0333 666 3366.

Brownhills Musical Theatre Company is renowned for presenting the most professional, actioned packed variety shows they possibly can and this autumn is no exception.

From November 6 to 9, they will perform A World of Musicals at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Cannock, at 7.30pm nightly and a 2.30pm matinee on Saturday.

The group is set to go on a global journey of discovery, featuring musicals from nine different countries, including cultural hotspots as diverse as Dagenham to Alice Springs, exotic locations in the Far East and South Pacific, as well as Paris, New York, Transylvania and Greece.

I am presuming, therefore, there will be excerpts from Made in Dagenham, South Pacific, Miss Saigon and Young Frankenstein at the very least!

For tickets priced at £15 to £17 visit www.boxoffice.wlct.org or www.postitickets.co.uk or call 01543 578762.

Lovers of choral and classical music will be delighted to hear that Stourport Choral, a mixed voice choir of around 50 members, made up of all age groups and abilities, will be presenting their autumn concert, entitled Show Stoppers, at Stourport Civic Hall on November 2.

Featuring the music from shows including We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia!, Jekyll and Hyde and Les Miserables, to name but a few, it promises to be an evening of pure entertainment and a must for musical theatre fans.

For tickets, visit www.ticketsource.co.uk/thecivic/events or call 07876593408 or 07818417111.

From November 16 to 19, the resident group at the Crescent Theatre in Birmingham will present the unforgettable play, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Written by Tennessee Williams, this celebrated drama follows troubled former schoolteacher Blanche DuBois as she leaves small-town Mississippi and moves in with her sister, Stella Kowalski and her husband in New Orleans.

Blanche's flirtatious Southern-belle presence causes problems for Stella and Stanley, who already have a volatile relationship, leading to even greater conflict in the Kowalski household.

The original movie version starred Marlon Brando as Stanley, Vivien Leigh as Blanch and Kim Hunter as Stella. Although the movie differs slightly from the play, the plot remains largely intact and it is the staging which is different.

For tickets, visit www.crescent-theatre.co.uk or call 0121 643 5858.

At the Rose Theatre in Kidderminster, there is a production of The Herd, written by Rory Kinnear and presented by the resident theatre group there, The Nonentities, from November 4 to 9.

The Herd, although amusing and witty, does deal with the author’s own experiences as a sibling of a severely disabled sister and so is emotional and touching too.

Carol has arranged a small family party to celebrate her son Andy’s 21st birthday. Andy has been brain-damaged and physically incapacitated from birth and has the mental age of just ten months.

His mother is counting the minutes until he arrives at the party (but he doesn’t appear), counting the unexpected guests and counting the times that this has happened before.

It is worth noting that the play does contain strong language and so it’s not one for the younger family members.

For tickets visit www.rosetheatre.co.uk or call 01562 743745.

Finally this week, we are calling all tappers - get those tap shoes on to support Children in Need.

Rehearsals are up and running at Zennor’s Dance and Musical Theatre Academy in Bewdley, for tap dancers of all ages and abilities to help break the Guinness Book Of World Records in Tapathon’s 10-year anniversary event on November 17.

Organised by The Performers Project, Tapathon is the UK’s biggest tapdancing event. Rehearsals start next week in Far Forest and Stourport.

This will be the sixth time Zennor's dance school will be participating in the challenge which was narrowly missed last year by just 102 people.

What a great way to have fun, incorporate participants of any age and level and at the same time, help raise money for such a worthwhile cause.

Visit www.zennorsdanceandmusicaltheatreacademy.co.uk or www.theperformersproject.co.uk or call 01299 266814 or 0775909750 for more information.

Well, that’s all for this week. Keep sending me all your news and remember to include good quality colour photos too to a.norton@expressandstar.co.uk, call me on 01902 319662 or follow me on Twitter @AlisonNorton or on Facebook.

Break a leg!