BLACKBURN Drama Club is planning ahead with a series of play readings to help its productions next season.

All readings will be held in the drama club's rehearsal rooms at the Capita Performing Arts Centre next to the Thwaites Empire Theatre at Ewood.

The first read through is tonight when Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis will be cast. Five women are needed for this play.

On Thursday, there will be try outs for the Ray Cooney farce, Caught in the Net with a cast of four men, three women and two teenagers required.

Next Tuesday 10 men and four women will be cast in Anthony Minghella's Two Planks and A Passion with the final read through being next Thursday when Peter Nichol's So Long Life will be cast. This will require four females and two males. All read throughs will be held at 7.30pm.

Young players making a splash

IT may be the middle of summer, but auditions are being held for Burnley Youth Theatre's Christmas production - which promises to make a bigger "splash" than ever before.

The youth arts organisation has chosen The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley forthis year's show.

Auditions for the show, which will be staged at the Burnley Mechanics in December, are being held at Burnley Youth Theatre's Queens Park Road site on June 11 from 7pm to 9pm (10 to 12 years old) and June 18 from 7pm to 9pm (13 years and over). For details, call (01282) 427767.

Stage Whispers. . .

AUDITIONS for Oswaldtwistle Players' next production, Night on the Tiles by Frank Vickery will be held on Monday July 19 at 7pm, venue to be confirmed.

Anyone interested should contact Gayle Knight on (01254) 387851 in advance for a copy of the book to read through.

A FULL house revelled in Rossendale Players' performance of Nobody's Perfect in which the takings were donated through Rossendale Rotary to Reach Puppets.

The puppet company, a Rossendale-based group, works in churches and schools in the community and is raising funds for a trip to Chicago in July. The evening raised a total of £500.

HEAR the A Cappella Singers perform A Lover And His Lass at Sacred Heart Church Hall, Preston New Road, Blackburn, on Saturday, June 26.

Songs include Shakespearean sonnets and Five Childhood Lyrics by John Rutter, plus English folk song arrangements. For details (£5 adults, £4 concessions) call (01254) 240818.