JENNY SCOTT joins the Oswaldtwistle Players in the build-up to their performance of their latest comedy

THE scripts have been put away. The prompt is in place.

This week the Oswaldtwistle Players face their first complete run-through of their latest play - A Night On The Tiles - with no scripts and no stops.

However, director Lesley Jackson is confident all will run smoothly.

"The vast majority have actually learned their lines!" she said.

"There are one or two iffy patches, but overall I think the cast have been superb.

"By the time we're due to stage this, they should be more than ready."

Not everything about the production is running like clockwork, though.

The set still has to be put together and the staging of the show - at Oswaldtwistle's Civic Theatre between October 20 and 23 - clashes with a rather important date in Lesley's diary. She explained: "My daughter Helen has been awarded the drama prize at Westholme.

"The prizegiving clashes with the second night of the play.

"I feel a bit torn. I'll have to see how well things go on the first night and decide whether they'll need me. I can't miss something like that!"

THE Rossendale Players' 69th season opens with Arnold Ridley's classic comedy/thriller The Ghost Train.

First produced in 1925, the paly is set in a remote Cornish railway station when a young man strands a group of passengers by pulling the communication cord.

Despite the old station master's stories of a ghost train, they have no option but to stay overnight.

The play runs at the New Millennium Theatre, Burnley Road East, Waterfoot, from this Saturday to October 2.

For tickets (£5, concessions £4, except October 2) call (01706) 228720.

BLACKBURN Drama Club presents Playhouse Creatures between Wednesday, October 6, and Saturday, October 9, at the Thwaites Empire Theatre.

Tickets, costing £6, are available on 01254 680137.

THE Dorothy Bruce School Of Dance presents Robinson Crusoe on November 18, 19 and 20 at 7.15pm with a Saturday matinee at 2.15pm at the Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre.

A CONCERT of opera and light opera will take place at Revidge Fold United Reformed Church on Shear Brow, Blackburn, on Saturday at 7.30pm.

For tickets (costing £7.50, concessions £5) call 01254 56999 or 01254 54986.

The funeral of an elderly father is not usually an occasion for hilarity.

However, when the family concerned numbers among its members a wellington-clad cook, a man who is convinced his shopping trolley is a dog, and a sister who is a happy inmate of a psychiatric home, the proceedings are bound to be lively. Blackburn Arts Club presents One O' Clock From The House, a scorching comedy of personalities and situations, from Tuesday, September 28, to Saturday, October 2, at 7.30pm at the Club Theatre, Gibraltar Street, Blackburn.

Tickets (£5, concessions £4, Tuesday and Wednesday only) are available on 01254 52024.

Clitheroe's Trinity Methodist Drama Group presents The Curious Savage, by John Patrick, from Thursday, October 14, to Saturday, October 16, at the church hall on Parson Lane, Clitheroe.

For tickets (costing £4.50 adults, £4 concessions) call 01200 425186.