logo
Orchard West Dartford's line up of events including drag bingo and craft cocktails

Orchard West Dartford's line up of events including drag bingo and craft cocktails

Yahoo04-05-2025

A theatre has announced a lineup of events for spring and summer.
Orchard West has partnered with Dartford Borough Council for the season, which includes events such as a community fair, West End workshops, and drag bingo.
The community fair, taking place on May 10, June 7, and July 5, will see local businesses, makers, and bakers showcase their products and services at the Acacia Sports Hall.
On May 24, the Orchard West Theatre will host an open house event, giving the public special access to explore the venue.
West End workshops, led by Larissa Alexandrovnia, are scheduled for May 27 and 28, providing masterclasses in singing, acting, dance, and directing.
The Community Performance Platform will bring together local dance schools for a performance on the Orchard West stage on May 30.
Themed 'Once Upon A Time,' the event promises a dance extravaganza featuring developing local talent.
Open mic nights are set for June 5 and July 11, inviting performances in singing, dancing, poetry, comedy, dramatic reads, and music.
Drag bingo, led by local drag queen Dee Star, will take place on June 6 and July 4.
Attendees can look forward to lip-sync performances, banter, spot prizes, and full house wins.
June 9 will see the Curtain Up Musical Theatre Open Mic event, where participants can sing their favourite musical numbers accompanied by Musical Director Steve Trill.
Craft and Cocktails workshops are planned for June 12 and July 3, offering participants a chance to personalise a ceramic plate while enjoying a cocktail menu.
The BIG Orchard Quiz is scheduled for June 13 and July 17, with teams competing for top prizes.
On June 14, On The Hunt Productions will present an evening of up-and-coming talent and student recitals from the Barry De Jager school of music, accompanied by local band favourite Knights of Nevada.
'Dartford's Got Talent' will take place on June 21, with local talent performing for a panel of judges and the audience.
A silent disco, a first for Dartford, will be held on June 28 as a Dartford Pride afterparty.
Participants can dance to non-stop hits in the main auditorium with hi-tech headphones.
On July 5, the House Edit will bring an Ibiza vibe to Dartford as Orchard West transforms into a dance music venue.
The event will feature live mixing on stage by DJ Simon B from Raindrop Radio.
An Evening With Anton Stephans is scheduled for July 19.
The X Factor singer and Dartford favourite will share tales from his life performing in the West End and beyond.
He will be joined by showbiz friends and local Dartford talent.
The theatre is also planning to launch a community cinema club on Sundays, with film titles set to be released soon.
All events are free to attend and aim to bring the Dartford community together.
Organisers hope the events will provide opportunities for local talent to shine and for residents to enjoy a wide range of activities.
For more information about the events, visit Orchard West's website or contact the theatre directly.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Simple Minds on 40 Years of ‘Don't You (Forget About Me)' & Their Friendship, Despite the Occasional ‘Screaming Match'
Simple Minds on 40 Years of ‘Don't You (Forget About Me)' & Their Friendship, Despite the Occasional ‘Screaming Match'

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Simple Minds on 40 Years of ‘Don't You (Forget About Me)' & Their Friendship, Despite the Occasional ‘Screaming Match'

Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill have been playing music together for some 48 years, most of them in Simple Minds. Kerr assures us that familiarity has bred fondness; he even says the 'parallel story' in the band's 2023 documentary Everything Is Possible is 'the friendship of Charlie and I, which is quite remarkable because usually in long-working relationships in music people hate each other after 20 years. But Charlie and I still go on. There's a great friendship there.' Despite that, Kerr tells Billboard that it's not always a lovefest between frontman and guitarist, either, as Simple Minds is in the midst of its first full-scale North American tour in seven years. 'We're still able to have our rows and our fights. We're not always on the same page,' Kerr acknowledges, adding with a laugh that, 'We had a screaming match last week and everyone around us…. First of all they said, 'I've never heard such a f–kin' intense screaming match,' so afterwards Charlie and I felt embarrassed. Y'know, usually it's not even (about) a thing. You're not on the same page, and it's frustrating. Someone will just say the wrong word, and it triggers. More from Billboard Rachel Zegler Serenades Crowd Outside Theater for Free in a New London Production of 'Evita' Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis to Receive Vanguard Award at The Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala & Benefit Concert Shakira Announces Two More Dates in Mexico, Extending Record to 28 'But here's the good news; at the end of the day there's no scars, no wounds. We get up the next day and everything is fine. How amazing that we're still so passionate about it. How amazing that we still care. How amazing we're in the rehearsal room, trying to make it as great as it can be for our audience, and how amazing the next day we go to breakfast with each other.' During its current trek, whose U.S. leg wraps up Saturday (June 22 in Noblesville, Ind.), Kerr, Churchill and the latest incarnation of Simple Minds have been supporting their new concert album — Live in the City of Diamonds, which came out in April — and the 40th anniversary of an eventful 1985 that included: the Billboard Hot 100-topping single 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' from the hit film The Breakfast Club; a performance at Live Aid that summer; and the band's best-selling studio album, Once Upon a Time, which came out that fall. 'It was beautiful,' Kerr recalls. 'It was so unexpected in a sense. You had the movie, you had the song, Live Aid, MTV, 'Alive & Kicking' [a No. 3 Hot 100 hit], the Once Upon a Time album itself…and lo and behold, 40 years later we're still here talking about it. That's what 1985 felt like to us.' Simple Minds was famously ambivalent about recording 'Don't You (Forget About Me),' which was written by producer Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff for the John Hughes-directed film. The group had already planned to make an aggressive assault on the U.S. market in the wake of its 1984 album Sparkle in the Rain and was confident 'we had songs up our sleeve' for what would become Once Upon a Time. 'Then out of nowhere these phone calls start to come in about this movie, and the record company thinks it would be a good thing to bridge to the next album,' Kerr recalls. 'We were like, 'Yeah, we want to do it,' then 'Oh, hang on a minute. They want us to record someone else's song? That's not what we do; we're credible artists. We write our own songs, and we've got some good ones in the pipeline, so we're not sure about that.' But after meeting the people involved we decided to do it.' The key, Kerr adds, was that his band found a way to make the song its own. 'I'm not taking anything away from the song and Keith and the guys who came up with the music. You can find the demo of the song online; it's a good little song. But Simple Minds, what we brought to it was 10 years of playing live, and we put our heart and soul into it and we put our lifeblood into the record. It would've been a different song if OMD did it, or the Psychedelic Furs — it would've been a different record, rather. So it's not our song, but it is our record.' Simple Minds will follow the North American tour with a jaunt through Europe, starting June 27 at home in Glasgow, where the band plans to play Once Upon a Time in its entirety. That trek wraps up July 27 in Italy, after which Simple Minds plans to return to working on a new studio album — the follow-up to 2022's Direction of the Heart — which Kerr, Burchill and company began working on before hitting the road. 'We've got a whole bunch of songs up our sleeves,' Kerr says. 'They're not finished yet, but the backing tracks are down, the rough mixes. So we're excited. People might say, 'What's the impetus?' because obviously records don't sell like they used to and there's a limited appeal for new stuff no matter whether you're Bruce Springsteen or whoever you are. But this is who we are. This is what we do. It just goes on. It's all about creativity and you have it in you and you've got to get it out. That's the same now as it's ever been, and for us every time you do something new you're still using those muscles. It's like a chapter to a book; it seems to refresh the rest of the story and stops you from calcifying.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart

Rachel Zegler Serenades Crowd Outside Theater for Free in a New London Production of ‘Evita'
Rachel Zegler Serenades Crowd Outside Theater for Free in a New London Production of ‘Evita'

Yahoo

time2 days ago

  • Yahoo

Rachel Zegler Serenades Crowd Outside Theater for Free in a New London Production of ‘Evita'

In a new production of Evita, one of the biggest moments isn't on the stage. Midway through the show, Rachel Zegler, playing Argentine first lady Eva Perón, emerges onto an exterior balcony at the London Palladium and sings 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina' to whoever is passing by below. The performance is streamed back on video to the audience inside. More from Billboard Watch Rachel Zegler Play 'Finish the Lyrics' Disney Edition Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis to Receive Vanguard Award at The Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala & Benefit Concert Shakira Announces Two More Dates in Mexico, Extending Record to 28 News has spread quickly since the show began previews this week, and hundreds have gathered outside the historic venue in London's West End theaterland to enjoy the free serenade by the Snow White star. The show's composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, said that it makes for 'an extraordinary moment' in his musical about a woman who rose from poverty to power and was adored by the masses. 'Within the theater, it's really exciting because suddenly you see her with a genuine huge crowd, which you can't do onstage,' Lloyd Webber told The Associated Press on Thursday (June 19). 'I think there will be people who are disappointed that she hasn't sung it live in the theater, but I think it's going to be greatly outweighed by the theatricality of using film in that way.' The decision by director Jamie Lloyd has sparked some grumbling from ticketholders who paid up to 245 pounds ($330) for a seat, only for the musical's most famous number to be sung offstage. It's a technique Lloyd has used before. He had a character in Sunset Boulevard perform a song while walking down the street outside the theater, and his production of Romeo and Juliet saw star Tom Holland play a key scene on the theater blogger Carl Woodward told the BBC that he could understand why some theatregoers who'd forked out for a ticket felt 'a bit aggrieved,' since 'a trip to the theater for some is really a once-a-year occasion.'But Lloyd Webber cited an opinion piece in The Times of London noting that the gesture is 'kind of what Eva Perón would have wanted — that people are actually experiencing her big anthem, as it were, for free.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store