I HEAR that an honoured guest looked in on rehearsals for Willy Russell's Our Day Out, which is to be presented by Nantwich Players Youth Theatre.

The visitor was Margaret Noble, who first brought her company of young talent to the Players Theatre 30 years ago.

Margaret had revived the Lyceum Youth Drama Group in the early 1970s. Without a permanent base, however, the group met at Brine Leas School until Nantwich Players acquired the former Quaker Meeting House which became the Players' Theatre.

Once the conversion project was completed, the young players made the theatre their home and have staged plays there since 1980.

Now Margaret and her husband Keith will be VIP guests at a performance of Our Day Out, which follows a bunch of inner city schoolchildren on a trip to North Wales, causing havoc wherever they go.

Our Day Out is at The Players' Theatre, Nantwich, from March 24 to 27 at 7.45pm. Tel 01270 537359.

A reminder that Crewe Amateur Musical Society are next week presenting Hello Dolly at The Crewe Lyceum. Performances are at 7.30pm nightly from March 16 to 20, with Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Tel 01270 537333.

And Stoke-on-Trent's Rep' production of The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance, the story of the rehabilitation of John Merrick, the Victorian man born with a deformity, opens on Monday. It will be performed from March 15 to 20 at 7.30pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. Tel 01782 209784.