The bar/lounge has been renamed –The Wilkinson Lounge – in honour of a dedicated, long serving committee member, Alan Wilkinson

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CORONAVIRUS – Stay safe. Stay home. Protect our emergency services, especially the NHS

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Tarvin Community Centre into 21st Century!

We now have the facility for card payments both on the door and at the bar. You can also pay for bookings via card.  The Community Centre does not have access to your personal details.

If you are like me and my family, we seldom carry much cash any more. Payments are made either by card or mobile phone.

We believe that our users would welcome the convenience of making payments electronically. With most banking technological things these days, a cost is involved for the Community Centre but we believe our customers will appreciate the convenience.

Last week the Community Centre was given a rare chance to meet with a writer/director as they started the creative journey to produce a piece of theatre. Sponsored by the Lowry Theatre and mentored by Cheshire Rural Touring Arts, Laura Lindow met a group of rural promoters at the Action Transport Theatre in Ellesmere Port.

Scottish born Laura has worked in the North East since 1996 creating exciting theatre for both adults and children. She is a director, playwright and storyteller using words, music and puppetry to craft pieces that resonate with warmth and humanity. Her play, Heartbreak Soup, was nominated for an award at the Edinburgh Festival. Laura also takes her talents into children’s hospitals as a Clown Doctor, where she helps sick children cope with the stress of illness. (See www.clowndoctors.co.uk)

The piece that Laura brought to the group is provisionally called In Chips and tell of the emotional ties that bind families together, and that sometimes chafe. How do we talk about the important things that concern us when we can’t mention the really important issues that are like an elephant in the room? Laura read part the story as it is presently conceived, a captivating tale full of remarkable images that left all of us asking that most important question – “What Happens Next?”

In fact what happens next is that Laura and her producer, together with staff at the Lowry, will spend some weeks analysing, refining and moulding the story into a piece of theatre with a view to offering it to the Rural Touring network in the autumn. They will take the comments of the promoters on board because small rural audiences are not the same as urban ones, and Village Halls are often not proper theatres. How flexible does the set have to be? Is strong language acceptable? How long should the piece be? ( Interestingly rural promoters like a play that is long enough for an interval – raffle/bar, and long enough to give the audience a feeling that they have had a good night out!)

I would be delighted to be able to offer this play to Tarvin should it become available in the autumn menu. I would love to see how the gripping and evocative story I heard becomes a piece of theatre, so watch this space.

By the way, when I said there was an elephant in the room I wasn’t kidding – the story did contain a real elephant……………… possibly!

Start Small – Dream Big

In life people can usually be divided into two categories, the lovers of the round ball and the lovers of the oval ball! I am a round ball person myself though I expect to get drawn into the excitement of the 6 Nations Championship which has just kicked off. Both Rugby Union and Rugby League seem to have grown in their range an appeal, even to someone like me who finds the rules incomprehensible.
In Tarvin Community Centre on a Saturday morning an eager group of boys (and a few girls) gather to learn the basics of rugby with Rugby Tots. This company, a successful franchise, has been going since 2003, and provides a programme designed to use the multiple skills of rugby to create a fun and enjoyable environment while developing basic core motor skills. While playing a number of exciting games with a suitably soft oval ball, kids learn co-ordination and control, team skills, co-operation and the arts of winning and losing with grace and good humour.
If you have a little one from – well, maybe 3 or 4, with lots of energy to spare, then do consider this great class. I suspect that not many of them will go on to score the winning try at Twickenham – or even a goal in the F.A. Cup at Wembley, but they will have learnt that sport is fun and exercise a great pleasure. Hopefully this will influence them for the rest of their lives, keeping them fit and healthy.
If nothing else, it will get rid of some of that surplus energy!

(I lived in Fiji where rugby was akin to a national religion. I was there in 2003 when Jonny Wilkinson scored the winning point. I was surrounded by Aussies and Kiwis, a great patriotic moment even for a ‘round ball’ fan like me!)

For more information and contact details regarding Tarvin Rugby Tots go to www.tarvincommunitycentre.org/category/events/regular-activities

or visit www.rugbytots.co.uk

For information on all activities at the Community Centre go to www.tarvincommunity centre.org