THE Priory Players are back in Colchester’s Castle Park next week with A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

After their punk version of Richard III last year, the group are being directed by Sally Bowles, who was a familiar fixture with the Players up until 2000.

Formed in 1969, originally to raise funds for the then proposed Mercury Theatre, for many years the troupe performed in the open air at the Priory, hence their name.

Sally joined the Priory Players in 1982, after taking a course at the Colchester Institute.

She says: “The much loved and sorely missed George Young was our teacher on the course. The Players were his thing, really.

“He talked about a play he was putting on and I asked whether I could come along and see what was going on.

“What I really wanted was to act and I thought if I hung around for long enough they might give me a part.”

That was the Winter's Tale, one of the last productions the group would do at the Priory before moving to the gardens of the Tymperleys Clock Museum in the early Eighties.

Sally says: “I remember Tymperleys very well because we did the Merchant of Venice and I played Portia, which was one of the most wonderful parts I have ever done. I really liked that venue.”

After a few years there the Priory Players moved a few doors down Trinity Street to the gardens of nearby solicitors Marshall Sutton.

There, Sally and George directed a production of As You Like It before she directed her own show, Julius Caesar in 1995.

Sally, who now lives in Brightlingsea, directed her last show in 2000 before leaving the Players to concentrate on her teaching.

She says: “It took a lot of doing along with my full-time teaching, so I gave it up.”

Until now.

She explains: “I just happened to be at the Headgate just before Christmas and bumped into someone I knew from my old acting days.

“He told me the Players had been having a bit of a difficult time lately and wondered whether I would be interested in directing again. I had a good think about it and then thought I would give it a go. I had been away for such a long time there were not many of the old Priory stalwarts still about. “We had an open audition, which meant seeing lots of different people, and that’s one of the lovely things about this cast. “We have people who have performed with the Colchester Theatre Group, the Manifest, the Orpen Players, and the Dedham Players.”

Sally has also managed to “mine” Brightlingsea Junior Drama Group for a number of children, between eight and 11, to play the fairies. She adds: “I’m really pleased with the cast and I think my production of the play is really suited to the setting. We still have a way to go, but it’s looking good at the moment.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Bowls Green,Castle Park, Colchester. July 22 to 27. Gates open at 7pm, show starts at 8pm.£10 and £8 concessions. 01206 282920.
www.visit.colchester.com