'Listen Carefully!'

“Stand up straight, hands by your side and Silence!” Headteacher Margie Barbour aka the artistic director marshalled the 60 children from Westbury Park Primary School in Bristol into the theatre. They had come as part of their week at Woodbury Down Activity Centre  for a Mary Anning experience at the Marine Theatre on Monday 18th June.  Jacky Hedley Tuffs, the theatre’s finance director and  Sue Lipscombe from Bridport also dressed up as teachers from 1810 and kept the children in old fashioned order. 9 year old Flo Ralston laughed “I liked the old fashioned costumes and doing things on the stage. The actors played their parts very well”  Lemon barley water and plain biscuits were offered to the children in their break by Mrs Monika Henshaw and her daughter Holly, who had dressed as cook and scullery maid for the occasion.

The children had to fill in gaps on special cards that the education department of the theatre had designed, which helped them learn more about Lyme Regis at the time of Mary Anning. From childhood illnesses to the long walk into Lyme from the stage coach stop at the top of Charmouth Hill the children discovered how different life was for children in the early 19th century. “I enjoyed looking for clues about Lyme Regis, this is fun!” added Mahfuz Rahman also aged 9.

Then they learnt facts to recite by rote on stage, from the seven times table to special rhymes to help you remember the number of yards in a mile. “George the third said with a smile there are seventeen sixty yards in a mile” and “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen  hundred and ninety two”  Ben Palmer (10) said “I  liked learning about the history of the theatre , the acting felt real, especially when I was told to stand up straight and take my hands out of my pockets!”

Then Peter Linnett, the Community Choir leader, taught them sea shanties, with rhythmic actions and dorset accents they threw themselves into these age old songs. Umar Saleem (9) said how much fun the singing had been, and doing the “heave – ho” actions. The theatre is planning to offer more Mary Anning at school experiences to local school children and to children visiting the Woodbury Down Activity centre.

   'Stand up Straight!'

   'This is how you take a bow!'