Open Stage takes place in the gorgeous So You Cafe on Castle Street.  Doors open at 7pm for you to book your performance slot, and the show starts at 7.30pm.  £3 on the door.

The LATEST on 5  days of entertainment  at the Plainstanes in Dumfries

Fri 26 November
7.30pm Dumfries Musical Theatre Company present ‘MacConnachie’s Bus’
Brigend Theatre – Tickets from dgArts 01387 253383 or at www.dgarts.co.uk
8pm Cats play rockabilly at So Below
8pm Brian Harris & Friends at the Coach & Horses

Sat 27 November
1.30pm Scottish Traditional Music from the Plainstanes Stage featuring The Great Moniaive Road Show, which showcases the music of Brian Lewis and Rena O’Brien, McCrossan, Taylor and McFadzean and Black-eyed Biddy.
5pm an awesome Aerial Fireshow Finale with trapeze arts, fire and St Andrew’s traditional magic
7.30pm Dumfries Musical Theatre Company presents ‘MacConnachie’s Bus’ at the Brigend Theatre.

Sun 28 November
Children’s entertainments in town all afternoon from Hatrick & Friends, stilt walkers, pirates, Wonderland characters, orange-boiler-suited tea-break specialists and circus performers.  Suitably surreal and festive nonsense with children young and old.
1pm New line-up Flat Rabbit from Nick Jenkins & Co.
2pm KODA – a young band from Biggar with Fiddle, Pipes/Whistles and Eight Accordions supported by a lively Rhythm section
3pm  The Pipes and Drums of the The Royal Scots Borderers, 1^st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland marching up the High Street to the Plainstanes WITH REGRET THE ROYAL SCOTS BORDERERS HAVE HAD TO CANCEL DUE TO SEVERE WEATHER CONDITIONS IN LOTHIAN & BORDERS
3.15  Finding Albert http://www.myspace.com/findingalbert
4pm Panto Procession featuring the actors from River City in Cinderella
4.15  More From Jim http://www.facebook.com/pages/More-From-Jim/60362564437#!/pages/More-From-Jim/60362564437
5pm Christmas Lights Switch On with The Provost, River City Actors and Young Citizen

Mon 29 November
2pm Plainstanes Stage: Calside Choir led by choirmistress Rachel Reekie
2.15 Maurice Suthurst and Elaine Johnson
3.15 Summerhill Youth Dance Group dance to Time of My Life by Blackeyed Peas
3.20 Sweet Relief – young musicians from Gatehouse
4.20 Jade Walters accoustic guitar and a great voice
4.30pm St Andrew’s Eve Traditions…Look out for THE QUINE OF HEARTS, who will be at the Plainstanes, then at the Globe Inn,  coaching single ladies in the use of traditional magic to divine their future partners in the coming year…
7.15 Ali Baba Panto at Theatre Royal.  All tickets £7 from dgArts
8pm Scottish Music in The Globe
St Andrews Monday Comedy Club Special at So You Cafe with Comedian Paul Sneddon.  Vladimir McTavish introduces ‘Scotlands Top 50 Greats’
Tickets £5  from So You Cafe or on the door.  Ticket price includes a bowl of stovies.

Tues 30 November
20pm Plainstanes Stage: Euan Davies piper from Dumfries High School
2.15 reggae from Sky Ya Man
3.15 Attitude Dance Dumfries with dance and martial arts display
4.15 Luna Davidson solo artist
7.15 Ali Baba Panto at Theatre Royal.  All tickets £7 from dgArts

Have a Go Arts and Crafts Activities at The Y, Castle Street, Dumfries – FREE including lunch
dgArts in partnership with Building Healthy Communities creating opportunities for improved health and wellbeing
Arts Opps for people living with a long-term condition
To book your place on the day please ring dgArts on 01387 253383 or call in at the Midsteeple, High Street, Dumfries or call Kirsty McDonald 01387 279279
10am Welcome and tea and coffee
10.30 Demonstrations by four artists – see Mosaic Design, Silk Painting, Willow Workshops and Singing
11 – 12.30  Have a Go at one of the activities – you choose
12.30 – 1.30 Soup and sandwiches
1.30 – 3 Have a Go at one of the activities – you choose
3.00 Day ends

NHS Dumfries and Galloway will sign a partnership agreement with dgArts (formerly Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association) on 31st August. This agreement formalizes the collaborative work undertaken by both organizations to develop and implement an innovative creative and participative arts programme centred on the new Mental Health Hospital under construction in Dumfries.
dgArts have recognised expertise in public art delivery, project management and community engagement which will enable NHS Dumfries & Galloway to fulfil their aims of user and community engagement with the public art process for the new build, ensuring that the health authority can deliver a new hospital which reflects and supports the patient healing experience in line with the Scottish Governments ‘A Policy on Design Quality for NHSScotland 2010.
There is now a considerable body of published research, demonstrating the benefits of how the healthcare environment and creative engagement can serve as a therapeutic and healing tool, helping to reduce stress, providing opportunities for self expression, conversation and gentle positive distraction.
Through funds raised by dgARts from external sources such as charitable foundations and trusts, Healing Spaces will deliver a programme of activities by creative professionals working with patients and service users in the community across Dumfries & Galloway. This work will inform and be encapsulated into the final works integrated into the hospital and gardens. The Healing Spaces programme will ensure that the new hospital reflects its users and staff, demonstrates regional identity and results in a building that supports and nurtures the healing, visiting and working experience.
Jeff Ace Chief Operating Officer from NHS Dumfries and Galloway said:
“We are delighted to be signing this partnership agreement with dgArts. We believe it will add significantly to the development at Mid Park and will bring many benefits for patients and those who use the facility. Permanent creative works will be an integral part of the building programme following consultation with staff and users who suggested that the building should be a place where service users feel that they can begin their journey to recovery.”

Susan Garnsworthy, Director of dgArts, said:
“dgArts are delighted to be working with NHS Dumfries & Galloway and a wide range of community and voluntary groups to create Healing Spaces in the new NHS Mental Health Unit in Dumfries. There is compelling evidence demonstrating the importance of the visual environment in healthcare as well as the role of arts activity in delivering enhanced patient well-being, improved recovery rates and staff retention which can also lead to cost savings.”
-ENDS-
For more information please contact:
Jean Atkin, Marketing Officer, dgArts
01387 253383 or [email protected]

dgArts notes to editors:

•    Working with creative professionals, dgArts engages with and supports local communities within Dumfries & Galloway to participate in and enjoy a wide range of arts activities and events.

•    dgArts acts as a cultural broker, attracting and developing diverse arts projects and experiences by working with both national and local agencies, private businesses and creative professionals.

NHS notes to editors
    New £27.2 million Mental Health Development at the Midpark, Crichton site, recently visited by Secretary of State for Health and Well Being, Nicola Sturgeon.

And from the moment The Big Man emerged from his magic pod beside the High Street fountain and straightened up to his full 8 metres tall, Dumfries was an enchanted place.

…The Big Man stepped forward and looked down at the crowds, and blinked huge, wise green eyes, his lips curved in a gentle smile.  Crowds of people stood open-mouthed.  Then puppeteers with giant feather dusters tickled the Big Man’s hands.  He shut his eyes and shook very softly.  Babies held high on shoulders burst out laughing.

Across the High Street stood the willowy form of Devorgilla, a 6m tall maiden created by the people of Dumfries, in countless workshops, and led by artist Susan McKay. Devorgilla was a show-stopper in flowing skirts painted with the glorious landscapes of Dumfries and Galloway: fields and hills and woods flowed down to the golden beaches, and a blue sea lapped around her mighty ankles.   She read aloud a love poem composed specially for The Big Man’s visit.

A crowd of 10,000 turned out on a cool wet day at the end of May to take the Big Man to their hearts.

This commission is part of a successful bid made by Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Chamber of Commerce to the Scottish Government for a wider capital regeneration project for Dumfries. 

Heroes aims to celebrate Dumfries and Galloway’s rich history and cultural heritage through a series of art installations in the middle of town.  The artist is working to create a pride in the town’s past, creating opportunities for him to work with the community to explore and imagine Dumfries’ sense of itself, generating citizenship and community pride.

John Kennedy is creating meaningful and visually exciting artworks, both temporary and permanent, which will display his high quality craftsmanship and imaginative approach to celebrating cultural heritage and placemaking.  Award-winning Scots poet Rab Wilson is contributing text which John will incorporate into his design.

In April Oceanallover’s Tide Machine Show played to around 400 people who stood and sat on the levee by Kingholm Quay, Dumfries, to see a vivid and dramatic performance.  The bright scarlet, blue and gold Tide Machine perched on the side of the dock, with its stage extended out over the brimming high tide.  A boom of deep watery sound from dancers wearing tall organ pipes on their backs, and operating them by means of pale-painted bellows under their arms, announced the start of the performance.

Strange anemone creatures danced and shuffled alongside the dock under a weird wailing roar from the tide-driven organ pipes of the Tide Machine.  A group of exotic, fierce-faced crab-dancers rose each on a single vast claw to stand frozen through the ebb and flow and face-off of further groups of dancers, who wore complex pleats and gills reminiscent of nameless aggressive crustaceans. Musicians floated around the dock in a laden little boat, playing their hearts out.  For thirty strange, absorbing minutes the crowd watched a re-enactment of the pull of the moon and the draw and ebb of the tides and the lives of the creatures of the sea.

The performance was repeated for an audience of 140 at midnight, in a dramatic atmosphere lit by fire.  Public Art Manager for dg arts, Dr Jan Hogarth said, “The eerie booming of the Tide Machine’s organ pipes and the spectacular costumes made for the most amazing experience.  This has been a very challenging and ambitious pilot project but the artists and dancers have made something really special, really unusual.”

The Tide Machine will appear in Glasgow for the Conflux Festival in July, when it will perform on the Clyde, and then its creators hope to attract further funding to allow the project to expand in the future.