"I've lived in the Blackdown Hills, about seven miles from Chard, for almost eight years, and got to know the local community quite well through my work as a District Adult Learning and Leisure Manager in South Somerset. I was based in Chard, then Ilminster, though my role covered the whole District and our eight Adult Learning and Leisure centres.

I found out about the LHI project through the local press. I saw an advert and a bit of editorial in couple of local papers early in 2005. I rang up South Somerset District Council, as suggested, to find out more. Following an initial meeting, script readings and castings, parts were allocated and rehearsals commenced.

Something I hoped to do when I took early retirement, in 2004, was to develop a professional acting career. The LHI project seemed to me at the time a tentative first step towards achieving that ambition. I decided that if I got involved in some local projects, I could begin to develop a CV which may be of interest in the profession.

After acting in school productions, I trained as a drama teacher, taught in various schools in this country and abroad, established youth theatres and directed numerous local productions. In 2004 I really wanted to get back to the other side of things, to tread the boards again, so getting involved in the Chard LHI project worked out well for me. It helped open some doors and enabled me to revisit and rediscover some of the acting skills that I developed whilst training to be a teacher a long time ago.

Soon after the Chard project I read that Taunton`s Brewhouse was staging an in-house community production of "Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas. I contacted them with a view to acting in it, and ended up directing it! I recruited three cast members from the Chard Lace Riots Project to take part in it too. It was another radio-style piece of work, but this time we were presenting it as a reading, live on stage, not as a recorded piece. A few of us have taken up other opportunities on offer at The Brewhouse since the Project, like acting in a recent "murder mystery" production – "Dead Reckoning" - where the audience had to work out whodunit.

I landed a part in a professional production of Terry Johnson`s "Hysteria", during August and September 2005, at Exeter`s Northcott Theatre. This wasn't directly linked to the Chard Project, but being involved with the LHI was a step towards developing my portfolio as a performer. Since September 2005, I work as a Lecturer in Performing Arts in Somerset College of Arts and Technology, Taunton. One of my current students was a cast member in the Chard Project, since when she has also appeared in other Chard-based productions."