The time had come, the walrus said, to tell you our confirmed tour dates for our new show on our mobile theatre wagon!

Please note that all tickets are availiable straight from the venue/organisation, we will not be selling from the wagon itself.

So, 'Little Matter' in our mobile theatre wagon will be visiting the following places...

3^rd May                         Preview at The Point Theatre, Eastleigh

4^th May                         Norden Farm Centre for the arts, Maidenhead

18^th & 19^th June              The Great British Tea Time, Amiens, France

29^th June                       Uckfield Community College, East Sussex

1^st July                          Blissfields Festival, Woodmancott, Winchester

2nd & 3^rd July                Hat Fair, Winchester

9^th July                          South Hill Park, Bracknell

23^rd July                        *Edinburgh Fundraiser* at Spinney Hollow

 Woods, Fair Oak

The current wagon working it's magic at Bestival

We're currently very excited about our next project. We're developing a bigger and better (and more roadworthy) wagon to perform in. But this one will have a bigger stage, benches for audience seating, a solar powered LED lighting rig, and will be covered by a large canopy.

For the wagon we will be developing a new show, about growing and reflection, with influences from William Blake and quantum theory, and of course with the usual magical blend of puppetry, live music and storytelling.

The wagon will allow us to create a unique experience, the audience will be able to walk in to world of The River People. We're very excited.

The plan is to apply for funding and tour the wagon around festivals next year, then to veues around the south east in autumn 2011. Keep your eyes peeled!

The River People have all safely arrived in Edinburgh, in their new van (she is called 'Maudrey'!) all set to start 'The Terrible Tales of the Midnight Chorus' tomorrow at 4:15pm at the Bedlam Theatre....would be lovely to see you there!

We have been busily re-rehearsing 'Lilly through the dark' to take on tour, starting in Bath on the 7th & 8th of May. It will be our first Arts Council funded tour, and we are really looking forward to it. For all tour dates, check our home page.

Rehearsals this week were put on hold when our new performer, Jake, had a motorbike accident. Its nothing terribly serious though there are a few broken bones! Fortunately he is going to be well enough to start rehearsals again this coming week, so no real damage done to the process!

We'll be blogging in the week so keep an eye on our blog...

http://theriverpeople.wordpress.com/

Jake gets serious during our read through

Well, it took two hard weeks, 12 auditions, a lot of tea, discussion and disagreement but we have now found a new performer to play the role of 'The Willow' on our 'Lilly through the dark' tour 2010, which kicks off in Bath 7th & 8th of May.

So we'd like to welcome Jake Cuddihy into the company, Jake got off to a brilliant start in rehearsals, settling in well, picking everything up very easily...and then last saturday he had a motorbike accident, so we've had the past week off and had to postpone the rehearsal! Jake is okay and is recovering well at home so we do not have to postpone the tour!

After that hell of a start we'll be keeping you posted on news from the rehearsal room through next week.

Early rehearsal shot for 'The Ordinaries' 2006 (L-R) ANdy Gray, Joe Bone, Clare Pointing, Kathryn Bond, Ed Wren

We are waving a sad goodbye to our longest serving River Person, Andy Gray. Andy is leaving the company to join to RAF as an airman, and whilst we wish him every success in his chosen career he will be sorely missed by us all.

Andy joined us back in 2006, before we were even a company, for the first casting of 'The Ordinaries' a year before we got our first break at NSDF in 2007. He took the role of 'The Son' and received fantastic feedback for his portrayal of the puppet 'Sarah's older step sibling. Andy then went on to be offered the role of 'The Willow' in award winning show 'Lilly through the dark' which was equally met with praise for his performance.

We will be having a big send off for him before he joins the RAF in june, and we're sure you will join us in wishing him the best of luck in his new career!

(Andy isn't really spanish,..this was part of his favourite warm up song during his time with us!)

The River People at Spinney Hollow 2009

We love performing at Spinney Hollow, a copse of ancient woodland in Fair Oak Hampshire, its always a magical evening under the stars with fabulous audiences...so we've decided to do it again!

Following our success out in the Hollow last year (sold out super quick!) we are performing 'The Terrible Tales on the Midnight Chorus' on Saturday 24th July at 7:30pm. This show combines a live band, with story songs and puppetry in a raucous yet delicate tapestry of the jolly and the macabre!

Thanks to Kate and Geoff (our lovely chums who run Spinney Hollow) we are taking bookings already for this performance as its bound to sell out quickly.

Tickets are £20...but for your money here's what you get...

a candlelit promenade performance into the hollow, a drink, some locally sourced food, a roaring fire, a 40 minute performance, and possibly best of all...a compost loo.

Want to join us in the Hollow?

Tickets are availiable NOW by emailing kate on : kate@spinneyhollow.co.uk

and for more inforation on this event and others at Spinny Hollow visit this link

http://www.spinneyhollow.co.uk/9.html

We hope to see you there!

Joe, Claire and Clare try out some junk puppetry!

After a successful week playing with wood, cardboard and making new puppets Ed, Claire, Joe & Clare came up with 20 minutes of material for 'Little Matter' and got some very useful feedback from a small test audience at BAC (thank you if you came!) will this material make the fianl show for Edinburgh International festival?? Who knows! but we had a lot of fun making it.