Treehouse Theatre
Interactive theatre and drama for the history curriculum,
plus story telling, pantomime, festival fun and more...
The Shaftesbury Tales: Summer 2024
This is a community project, and there's lots to join in with!
Write the Tales with us, help turn them into performances pieces, jump up on stage alongside us,
be entertained, explore our history, and walk with us along St Edwards Way.
Supported with public funding from Arts Council England and Dorset Council,
and in collaboration with Doppelganger Productions, Artsreach, and The Shaftesbury Fringe
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It’s Dorset in the Dark Ages
Join us in ‘The Pilgrims Inn’ as our merry company rests for the evening on their journey to Edwards shrine in Shaftesbury, entertaining each other – and everyone else - with Tales of murder and miracles, music and mayhem.
Inspired by Chaucer, and the terrible fate of teenage King Edward the Martyr in Corfe, Treehouse Theatre takes a mischievous peek into life 1000 years ago. ‘The Shaftesbury Tales’ is walking from Corfe to Shaftesbury , village to village, stopping to perform hilarious and interactive family shows along the way.
The Shaftesbury Tales have arisen from the collective creativity of the people of Dorset!
Woven through the central Tale of Edward the Martyr, are Tales written by local people and entered in our short story writing competition held this spring. What happened when? Who saw what? Who lived to tell the Tale...and who didn’t?! All of the winning stories can be read in the booklet-programme which accompanies the show (also called ‘The Shaftesbury Tales’, of course!).
Some of the stories have been adapted for this performance by Treehouse Theatre and local theatre groups.
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Watch a show!
Thursday 11th July - St Edwards Church, Corfe Castle - 7pm
Friday 12th July - Corfe Castle Village Hall, Corfe Castle BH20 5EE - 7pm
This performance will now be held at Corfe Castle Village Hall due to the vagaries of the English Summer!
Sunday 14th July - Wareham Priory Church of our Lady - 4pm
Monday 15th July - Wareham Town Hall - 7pm
Thursday 18th July - Dunbury Academy School, Winterbourne Whitechurch - 7pm
Saturday 20th July - Childe Okeford Village Hall - 4pm
Monday 22nd July - Springhead Trust - 7pm
Thursday 25th July - Shaftesbury Abbey - 7pm
Friday 26th July - St Peters Church Shaftesbury - 2pm
Saturday 27th July - St Peters Church Shaftesbury - 2pm
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Perform with us
Join a drama workshop - open to all - where you can learn performance skills, make new friends,
and help us put together 'The Pilgrims Tale' which you can then perform as part of that days show.
The workshops are free when booking a performance ticket, and open to all ages and abilities.
Places limited - BOOKING ESSENTIAL - children must be accompanied.
Sunday 14th July - Workshop 1pm-2pm - Wareham Library
Saturday 20th July - Workshop 2-3pm - Childe Okeford Village Hall
Thursday 25th July - Workshop 4pm - Shaftesbury Abbey
Friday 26th July - Workshop 11am - St Peters Church Shaftesbury
Saturday 27th July - Workshop 11am - St Peters Church Shaftesbury
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Performance days will alternate with Pilgrimage days. Everyone is invited to walk with us, following the pilgrimage route of St Edwards Way (costumes provided!), for an hour, a day, a week. Pilgrimage is walking with intention; this nature- and story-based experience will immerse walkers in the Dorset landscape and its folklore, and feel its history come to life.
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Write a Tale!
This is a tale-telling competition, as was Chaucers ‘The Canterbury Tales’.
During the Spring, a storytelling competition will everyone of any age living in Dorset to have their pieces included in the touring work.
Cash prizes and plenty of glory: The winning Tales will be collected together and published
as a booklet-programme: 'The Shaftesbury Tales', with some adapted into performance pieces for the touring show.
Look out for our creative writing workshops aimed at sharing writing skills and inspiration to empower new writers to enter the competition. The workshops and competition are free and open to all ages and abilities; children must be accompanied.
COMPETITION CLOSED! Well done to all that entered; Winners announced above!
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Adapt a story for performance
During early summer, four local theatre groups will take on the challenge to each adapt a winning entry from the story-telling competition into a Tale for performing, with support from our professional team.
Each of the theatre groups will perform their Tale as part of the main production on a different day!
All the theatre groups we're working with are well established and offer wonderful local performance opportunities, and are always looking for new members - so if you'd like to get involved in local theatre, now is a great time to throw yourself in!
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Remix the Originals (Activate performing Arts)
Sturminster Newton Amatuer Dramatic Society (SNADS)
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The Story so far...
The Shaftesbury Tales began with Creative Writing workshops, to inspire and inform people of all ages, to pick up a pen and get creative.
Thank you to everyone who came along!
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These free events were generously hosted by Shaftesbury Arts Centre & Scribblers Writing Group, Wareham Library, and Sturminster Newton Library.
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The workshops were led by 3 industry professionals: John Foster (BAFTA award winning founder of Doppelganger Dialogues), Charmaine K (SISATA Open Air Theatre), and Ben Lindsey-Clark (Treehouse Theatre).
The writing competition closed on 18th March - the date of Edwards murder (and now his feast day).
Just shy of 100 stories were read, enjoyed and deliberated over by our 4 strong judging panel:
John Foster (BAFTA award winning founder of Doppelganger Dialogues)
Dee Hughes (Arts University Bournemouth)
Charmaine K (SISATA Open Air Theatre),
Ben Lindsey-Clark (Treehouse Theatre).
Short Story Writing Competition
A huge thank you to everyone who wrote and submitted a story for ‘The Shaftesbury Tales’ Short Story Writing Competition. SISATA Director Charmaine K who sat on the judging panel said “We were blown away by the high quality and amazing variety of stories”.
Congratualtions to all the Winners! They will enjoy a cash prize, performance tickets, and see their story published in our booklet-programme.
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Inspired by Chaucer, ‘The Shaftesbury Tales’ is a collection of stories – both written and performed.
Treehouse Theatre are now working with local theatre groups to adapt some of the winning and highly commended stories for performance in July.
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With grateful thanks to our Judges:
John Foster
(BAFTA award winning founder of Doppelganger Productions)
Dee Hughes
(Arts University Bournemouth & StoryWorks.org)
Charmaine K
(SISATA Open Air Theatre & Doppelganger Productions)
Ben Lindsey-Clark
(Creative Director Treehouse Theatre)
Listen again!
Alfred FM interviews competition winners Stuart and Anne about their stories. This is Alfred,11th April edition, from 31:50
Read all the winning Tales here
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The Yak Pack Theatre Project, which took theatre to remote parts of the Indian Himalayas in 2018 and 2022, on foot, with our props and costumes carried by donkeys, was the original inspiration for The Shaftesbury Tales.
Arriving in rural communities on foot was a wonderful way to connect with people, especially children, and enabled us bring immersive live theatre to places which wouldn't normally experience it. Now its Dorsets turn!
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