Rehearsal/Badbury Rings/Almost Forgotten
A posting by Emerald Ant, a community arts organization, called for ideas in September 2022, set the wheels rolling for an event located at Badbury Rings, an ancient hillfort, to be held in 2023.
Ideas for a heritage arts project titled Glow Badbury were being asked by Emerald Ant. The locality of this event was, as mentioned, at Badbury Rings. A new heritage arts project telling the story of Badbury Rings through the ages.
Emerald Ant had set up a meeting for ideas to be put for the Glow Badbury project. Putting forward the suggestion of telling the story of the Clubmen. A rendezvous, which was held, in the midst of The English Civil Wars of the 17th century at this ancient hillfort, was now, a reality.
This third sort, The Clubmen, said to be in contemporary reports of the time "greater than the others both in fortune and number" came together to make demands for a peace between the two warring parties, Royalist and Parliamentarian alike. Thomas Young a lawyer had spoken to four thousand Clubmen from a declaration penned in Dorset, agreed at Gorehedge Corner and read at Badbury Rings. Titled "The Desires and Resolutions"
Emerald Ant, now securing funding for this event, Wimborne Community Theatre and Millstream Theatre, would be engaged in developing this idea of The Clubmen put forward in 2022 into a theatrical representation for 2023. Titled, Almost Forgotten.
This collaboration worked at putting together a 10-minute theatre piece, telling the story of this Clubmen gathering at Badbury, and the reasons why, as a performance.
Following a talk on The Clubmen where I had the pleasure to speak of The Clubmen with WCT and Millstream Theatre, I really wanted to be more involved with this coming event. A chance to be in anyway a part of was on my mind. Approaching Wimborne Community Theatre with my wish, I was welcomed into the theatre group with my partner, Sheila Wiggins, both of us novices in the arts of dramatics.
Several weeks of rehearsals, two new songs for The Clubmen, new friendships made and a performance, two in fact an evening over two evenings, a performance of Almost Forgotten, The Clubmen story was told.
REHEARSAL, PERFORMANCE, ALMOST FORGOTTEN,
WIMBORNE COMMUNITY THEATRE AND MILLSTREAM THEATRE, 2023
VIDEO
Almost Forgotten/Wimborne Community Theatre and Millstream Theatre
Badbury Rings 2023
Rehearsal Almost Forgotten Sept 2023
Almost Forgotten, directed by Tony Horitz, musical compositions by Karen Wimhurst and choreography by Claire Benson.
A full list of performers and account of via Wimborne Community Theatre, link here.
Links
Wimborne Community Theatre https://www.wimbornecommunitytheatre.co.uk/
Millstream Theatre https://museumofeastdorset.co.uk/community/
Emerald Ant https://emeraldant.com/
Notes on The Clubmen
Hawles/George Hawles of Monkton Up Wimborne Dorset and Thomas Hawles of The Close, Wiltshire, Salisbury 1645. These notes are free to download via Flickr, click on link or image. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAHYNT
The Desires and Resolutions of the Clubmen of Dorset and Wilts.
The Third Sort
