A high noon shoot out may be on the cards for two local amateur theatre groups. Holy Family School and Sutton Amateurs are performing the musical, Calamity Jane within a week of each other.

The school's production runs from March 30-April 1 and Sutton Amateurs' (performed at South Craven School) is April 5-8. The venues are just six miles apart.

Sutton's ticket sales could be dented, worries Bryan Blackie, the Amateurs' chairman. He only found out about Holy Family's production two weeks ago. "I feel annoyed with the licence holders (Josef Wei-nberger Ltd) more than anything, because they should have told somebody," he says.

The theatre group booked the rights 15 months ago to avoid such clashes. It cost them £700. But there are also costs of hiring an orchestra, the venue, promotions and other items.

The group needs to sell £2,000's worth of tickets to break even. Losses are normally met by their annual pantomimes - but this year's suffered due to cold weather.

"If we had known this 15 months ago, there would have been a possibility of doing something else," says Mr Blackie. He feels royalty regulations involving professional theatre are more stringent. "You can't do them within a 70-mile radius, and they have to be three months apart."

English teacher, Maggie Myers, running Holy Family's production, says: "Clientele for our shows is really school-based and not many children live in Sutton. We don't even advertise outside the school."

But, she adds: "I am a bit cross that we applied for our rights a long time ago and Sutton was never mentioned. I don't have a problem with them doing it at the same time."

Ian Reader, who works in Josef Weinberger's amateur licensing department, says: "Any licence issued to an amateur group is non-exclusive.

"Any checking of the groups is done by courtesy - it doesn't have to be done. They should contact us."

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