Two drama groups under the Learning Age Project from the North West will be developing a new film project during Adult Learners Week.

Dont......be my guest is a play about bogus callers which was originally funded by  the community Safety Partnership (Derry City Council) and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The play and tour of the performance has been so successful that the CSP have invited the WEA  to film the play. The two theatre companies involved; Top Women and The Happy Go Luckies have emerged from the Learning Age Project. Both companies now have quite a reportoire of plays and performances under their belt within the last four years of LAP.

The film will be made throughout Adult Learners Week from 14th May and will then be used by CSP with other older people's groups as a tool to help older people protect themselves from unwanted callers at the door.

Members from the two drama groups welcomed this additional opportunity to help further support older people. Over 400 older people had been reached throughout the tour of the play in both rural and urban areas of the Derry City Council area. The drama groups have noted that this project and now film have been "a wonderful way to put our drama skills to good use. We feel we are helping our own peer group with this project."

Feedback from the original production has been so good that the CSP then approached the Learning Age Project with additional funding to film the piece. It will be shot on location at the house of one of the group in order to make the scenarios more realistic.

Don't .....be my guest is made up of four individual scenarios. The first three show a range of methods that bogus callers use to try and gain access into the homes of more vulnerable people e.g. distraction crime. The final scenario shows a step by step approach on the steps that your should take to safe guard yourself at home e.g. using the Quick Check and Doorstep Password schemes. the play was devised with the two drama groups under the direction of WEA tutor Mary Duddy.

for further information about the film or if you would like to join either drama group please contact Sinead Devine, Development Officer LAP on 028 7136 9947.