To celebrate International Human Rights Day and the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, Drum Theatre, Plymouth, will present the winning play of the 2008 Protect the Human playwriting competition.

The performance will take place at Lecture Theatre 2, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth on December 10 at 6.30pm. For free tickets call 01752 585050 or email pen_arts_enqs@plymouth.ac.uk

The winning play will be chosen on December 9, from:

Lullaby
by Dominic Leggett
Beth’s got the house ready for Ray’s return from war. But his arrival brings more than just dirty washing and there are some stains that no amount of scrubbing can remove.
“They keep their cool and look you straight in the eye, then you spot there’s a foot tapping, or a twitch at the side of the mouth - The body betrays them every time.”

After the Accident
by Julian Armitstead
The house was where they - Petra, Jimmy and Charley - were going to be happy, then Leon broke through the security gates taking their happiness with him. Four years later they have the chance to meet face to face, confronting what’s been hidden for so long behind locked doors.
“It’s not all on your side. I’m saying, you’re not the only ones to have suffered for this. You’re not the only ones.”

There’s Loads of Them in Burnley, Thais
by Anna Clarkson
Mae has never eaten a ready meal, been to TK Maxx or tasted mushy peas and Graham Fairclough has only got six weeks to teach her. But with ex-wife and landlady of The Clog and Rocket, Marie, offering up some home truths he might not even have that long.
“Why the ‘ell else ‘as she come to Burnley? It’s not for t’weather is it? And it’s certainly not for ‘im, ‘e’s no oil paintin’ is ‘e?”

Check out Ice and Fire for what this competition’s all about, or Amnesty International.

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Devon Drummers, the winning photo from Upstream

A picture showing the work of the Upstream project in Mid Devon has won a national award for photographs which best depict social enterprises, and what better day to announce it than Social Enterprise Day.

The Upstream project works with communities and health professionals to identify people who have become isolated or are at risk of isolation for all sorts of reasons, including where they live, family and personal reasons, ill-health, disability, community fragmentation, and much more.

The photograph, Devon Drummers, shows three older women participating in an African drumming class at Upstream and is an example of how the project is making a difference to people’s quality of life.

The picture, taken by staff mentor Laura Conyngham, includes a former local teacher, a former pub landlady and a lifelong farmer enjoying each other’s company while trying out African drums for the first time.

The competition, organised by the Social Enterprise Coalition, was intending to highlight social enterprise.

Lucy Findlay, chief executive of RISE (the voice of South West Social Enterprise), said: “We chose Devon Drummers because we thought the photograph really exemplified the best of social enterprise. Three women who were originally excluded from social gatherings and creative stimulation, clearly having a great time trying out a new activitiy. We are thrilled they are now the national winners as well.”

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Work from the Plymouth Senior Citizens Forum pointing out the inequalities between the basic pensions for women in Great Britain (£49.15) and those for men (£82.05) has led to the European Parliament report on women’s pay to include a call for women’s pensions to be equal to men’s.

The amendment was made by South West MEP Graham Watson, who was acting on the call from the Plymouth Senior Citizens Forum that women pensioners should not be at risk of poverty, should enjoy a decent standard of living and share in the well-being of the country.

“It is sad that my constituents from Plymouth had to come looking for help in Europe because they could not get it at home. The British government should be ashamed,” Graham told the PRSD.

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What surprises us about the BNP membership list leak is that they are surprised that former employees are “malevolent and spiteful”, surely that’s a pre-requisite to join the BNP in the first place?

What also surprises us is that there aren’t more BNP members in the Bay area, but that might be our own prejudice coming to the fore.

At least it’s reassuring to know that, according BNP spokesman Simon Darby in the Guardian, “the list contained the names of people who had never been members of the party as well as the names of current and former members”.

That’ll be quite a long list then. Peruse it at your leisure, you never know who will be on it, the Plymouth Herald has spotted the professions of some of those on the list, and we hear tell there’s at least one taxi driver.

Oh, and you can also pop over to the Plymouth Herald to see how the racists try to explain away being racist in a ham fisted attempt to be out and proud. But hiding bigotry behind a national banner is not patriotism, it’s bigotry and weakens what they claim to love.

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It’s all very well rambling through a 20-minute interview in a podcast but what if you want to condense that chat into a five-minute clip? The editing process can be a pretty daunting prospect and it’s easy to get confused. Today we have five tips on chopping audio content, concentrating on general advice rather than the specifics of GarageBand, Audacity, et al.

1. Get an overview of the audio

You’re looking for a good five minutes of content. Obviously there’s a little leeway either way (depending on the quality of the interview) but you really want to be as ruthless as you can. Listen for the interesting or funny bits. Listen for the dull sections you can do without. Assume the listener gets bored reeeeally easily.

2. Tell the story

Once you’ve identified what interests you about the chat, think about the narrative of the clip. Every interview needs a story arc - a ‘through-line’ of logic with each topic leading seamlessly into the next. Keep to the point. Digressions which drag you away from the narrative should be excised. Unless they’re, like, supremely entertaining, of course.

3. Kill your babies

Listen to the whole interview again, this time taking out the bits you won’t be using. Once you’ve removed the dull stuff, there’ll probably be whole sections you really want to keep. Unless they serve the story you’re trying to tell, they need to go.

4. Don’t skip a page

You want to create the impression the interview was conducted seamlessly over five minutes. Remove bits delicately, trying not to make a splash and send ripples out over the whole interview. You may have to consider leaving some of the dull stuff in so it all makes sense, otherwise the listener may feel like she’s missed a crucial bit of information.

5. Fine tuning

By this stage, you should have a more manageable slab of audio. Listen through again, fine tuning the flow as you go. Get rid of long pauses, ums, ahs, coughs, and verbal ticks. A word of caution though - sometimes pauses are used for comic effect or dramatic emphasis. You don’t want to take out all the personality; just make everyone sound more eloquent than they otherwise would.

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What tips would you add, citizens? Has this been instructive? Is there anything you’d like us to cover? Comment below please!

We’re always keen to hear about witty and practical solutions to everyday problems, especially when they demonstrate applied knowledge, which is why Peter Widera’s design and build of a cow-shaped postbox caught our eye. And we’re not the only ones, Peter is up for an Excellent in Exeter award, which takes place tonight [Monday, November 17].

Peter came up with the idea while his family were looking to replace the postbox at their farm near Ottery St Mary. He set about researching, designing and building a brand new box during his IT and Design Technology class at Southbrook College.

When Peter first went to Southbrook he suffered from low self esteem and battled against his leaning difficulties and a visual impairment. Once there, he excelled in IT and Design Technology, gaining a Distinction for his resistant materials project.

Peter undertook considerable research into the design of post boxes by looking at websites in America, where free standing post boxes are a common sight in most neighbourhoods. They have post boxes with flags that indicate if there are any letters inside. Peter decided he could do something similar with his bovine inspired design by using the height of the cow’s tail to show that you have mail.

Originally the post box was going to be made out of metal; however, it was too hard to mould and shape into the design. After additional research a waterproof flexible plastic proved the best option for the post-box and happened to be the perfect brown and white colour neatly replicating the cows seen in Devon pastures.

Back at the farm his family are impressed with their quirky new post box, his mother Kathryn Drake said, ‘It’s brilliant, Peter’s design suits the area as we are a farm and keep cattle. We have a herd of Simmental cows which are brown and white like the post-box, so it’s a perfect reflection of our farm stock.’

Peter is being nominated for his artistic endeavour by Southbrook College along with 12 other students from his college at the Excellent in Exeter award ceremony, which is organised by the University of Exeter and recognises the contributions and success of young people in Exeter in their academic, sporting, and artistic or community endeavours.

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The People’s Republic of South Devon weekly news round up for the winners and losers of the week’s news from the South West.

GOOD WEEK
Musical Youth… Wee uns aged from four months will be able to tap their toes with Devon’s first fully licensed Musical Steps teacher, Caroline Badcott who is offering a free music class in Sidmouth.

Dyson whirlwind… Oreston’s own Lauren Dyson is gearing up to battle it out for the Christmas number one slot with her appearance on Basshunter’s latest tune and video, I Miss You. But it’s only the start. “I have big plans for 2009,” she told Eleanor Radford on What’s on South West. “You’ll have to watch this space.”

Bovey Climate Action… The environmental action group of the town nestled under the east edge of Dartmoor celebrated its second birthday with a birthday bash that included speeches from Tim Smit, of the Eden Project and Rosie Boycott, former editor of the Independent. The bash also started a new campaign to put pressure the government on the take real action at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in November 2009.

BAD WEEK
Bathing water… Heavy summer rainfall has caused a deterioration in the quality of bathing water throughout the South West – 75 per cent of the region’s 191 beaches met the European Commission guideline, as opposed to 78.4 per cent in 2007. “There is a direct link between rainfall and bathing water quality,” said Richard Cresswell, regional director of the Environment Agency.

Exmouth submerged… The South Devon sea front town could find itself under water, warned climate change experts at a meeting of the Exe Estaury Forum. Martin Davies, of the Environment Agency, told the Exmouth Journal: “By 2115 Exmouth could be three metres under water (from flooding) up to Belvedere Road and there is a risk of a longer duration of floods.”

Eden turbine… Protestors concerned about noise, health and scenic issues have flooded the Eden Project with complaints about proposals for a wind turbine on the site. Residents have also blockaded entrances to the project in protest. Eden has delayed the building of the turbine to January 29, 2009.

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At least those South Devon Humanists will get their next talk out of the way before the rest of us start opening our Advent calendars. David Love will be explaining why it is that stories about the birth of Jesus should not be taken entirely seriously, at Birdwood House, Totnes on November 27 at 7.30pm.

“Many New Testament scholars now accept that the birth stories of Jesus are probably entirely legendary, and were added to the Jesus story later,” the Torquay-based astronomer told the PRSD.

“However, though these views are now widely accepted by historians, such information has not been allowed to percolate down to the ordinary churchgoer,” he said.

We’re reliably informed that David will explain a little about how and when the books of the New Testament were written. He will then compare and contrast the two birth stories set out in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, highlighting the contradictions between them, and discussing the oddities within each story. Finally, he will list some of the many people in legend and history who have been born from the union of a god and a mortal woman.

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Roy Wilson, 67, is threatening to glue himself to his Totnes bank after being penalised for an internet banking error.

Roy and his wife Sally, who are both disabled and wheelchair bound, failed to cover £25.50 worth of standing orders when Sally transferred the cash to the wrong account by mistake.

NatWest immediately yanked £114 from the couple’s (now overdrawn) account - plus another £28 for exceeding their overdraft facility.

A furious Roy frothed: “I am prepared to glue myself to the bank as a protest. It would teach them a lesson.”

Oh yeah, and while you’re at it, why not smash your brains out with a hammer in the manager’s office? That’d teach them a lesson, wouldn’t it? Well, wouldn’t it?!

Anyway, a bank spokesman said: “Mr and Mrs Wilson use online banking several times a week and are, therefore, aware that even after the transfer, one can still reverse the payment.

“The bank has already refunded part of the charges as a gesture of goodwill when Mr and Mrs Wilson informed us three days after they made the transfer in error.”

Sounds to us as if the bank is doing all it can to avoid a sticky situation. Ho!

Oh, please yourselves.

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The Stay Up Late campaign aims to give people with learning disabilities more control over how they structure their lives.

It’s championed by Brighton-based punk band Heavy Load, subject of BritDoc winning film Heavy Load by Jerry Rothwell, which will be part of the View From Here film festival on Thursday, December 4 at the Alexandra Cinema, Newton Abbot.

The band started Stay Up Late after years of playing to half-empty halls when people with learning disabilities had to leave early because carers finished their shifts at 10pm.

We caught up with ex care worker Steve Stones, who also happens to be the singer of local combo Arthur Walker, and asked him whether he thinks Heavy Load have a point.

“Usually, if there’s a special occasion, something can be sorted out, but it depends on policies and procedures. As far as I’m aware Homes can work past 10 on special events,” he said.

“I remember when we took someone to see the snooker at the Plymouth Pavilions it went past 10. We arranged it so he could see it.

“I guess it becomes tricky if it’s every week though.”

• We want to hear your views on the Stay Up Late campaign. Is it highlighting a real problem or does the system already allow for some leeway? Post your comments below, please!

For more details of the View From Here celebration of moving image, with runs throughout South Devon from December 1 to December 5, check out D+CFilm.

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