Our January pantomime, sometimes bought in and sometimes home grown, involves both adults and children. Rehearsals begin immediately after the autumn play, though we try to delay rehearsals for the children (the younger ones, at least) until nearer the Christmas holidays. The pantomime is very popular, playing for six nights to packed houses. As with many other amateur dramatic societies, we rely on the profit from the pantomime to subsidise occasional losses on our plays.

In July we sometimes run an informal fun evening for members and friends which, in theory at least, allows budding actors, playwrights and directors to test their skills in a situation rather less terrifying than a public performance. We try to encourage junior members and the children of members and patrons to take part in this event.

In February or March, we usually enter a one-act play in the Cumbria Drama Festival, a preliminary round of the All-England Theatre Festival (AETF) which, in recent years seems to have settled permanently at the Victoria Hall, Grange-over-Sands. Since we began competing in this festival in 1981 we have reached the next round (the North West Divisional Final) four times but so far, success at this stage eludes us - but only by a whisker! We feel that participation in such events is tremendously important, since it gives us the opportunity to meet other societies and to compare the standard of all aspects of our craft against theirs. The constructive criticism of a qualified adjudicator is also very valuable, as is the opportunity to perform on a decently sized stage.

For those who are unable to get to Grange, we often also perform our festival entry at Gosforth, often as part of a cheese and wine evening.