A family friendly community theatre project designed to celebrate the landscape and history of Weardale in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Drama in the Dale started life as an Adult & Community Learning Fund project in 2011 which drew together a diverse range of people who live, work and play in the Dale. The lack of participatory cultural opportunities had been noted by local residents, in particular young people, and a community play project was instigated as a way of crossing generational divides. Approximately 50 people aged 7-70 took part in the initial production, “The Bonny Moorhen, which told the story of an iconic battle in which local leadminers rose up against the landowners to assert their right to hunt, catch and eat the wild game. It was 1818, the Napoleonic wars had ended and the bottom had dropped out of the lead market. Times were hard and the miners and their families were starving. The Battle of Stanhope, as it was known, became a marker in British history, prefiguring the infamous Battle of Peterloo, however the story is largely unknown. The production took place in a temporary theatre space built inside a barn, and was hugely popular, selling out over 3 nights and drawing audiences from hundreds of miles.