Arts Diary: Will Marriott

The stage play, based on the film, based on the real life story of the Rylstone WI members who shed their garments for charity, has now raised a staggering 21m.

That's right. The play, due back out on tour next year with new cast members, including Jennifer Ellison and Danielle Lineker, has taken more at theatre box offices than the sums earned from the original film.

Tim Firth, the writer of the show who learned his craft at Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre, has to be one pretty happy playwright.

Secondary school pupils from Allerton Grange in Leeds experienced the high drama and music spectacle of opera last week when they took part in an interactive workshop led by professional opera singers from Opera North.

The workshops aim to build confidence in teenagers while introducing them to the genre. Pupils spent the day with professional singers and

education officers from the company and learned all

about the history of opera, its music, plots and its iconic characters.

The teenagers then used the techniques learnt in the morning session to re-work and perform a chosen opera to the rest of the school.

Huddersfield's Lawrence Batley Theatre has joined forces with Dewsbury based FellowTravellers to change the way people get to and from performances.

Problems waiting for buses, deciding who has to be designated driver or worrying about parking are set to become a thing of the past.

FellowTravllers' alternative transport system puts control of public transport in the hands of the people who use it – by allowing users to create bus, minibus and shared-taxi routes as they need them.

The idea couldn't be simpler. People need to get to the Lawrence Batley Theatre to see the performance they have booked for: they contact FellowTravllers to let them know where they are travelling from and transport is sorted.

Customers will be picked up at their door and brought to the theatre.

On the way, they might find themselves sharing a mini-bus with other theatre-goers who live further down the road. If it's an area with a lot of pick-ups, it will be a bus, without so many pick-ups – it will be a taxi.

The trial run of the link up is being held alongside The Game, at the theatre next week.