HUNDREDS of people will entertain audiences in a major community project being staged in Thornbury this summer.

The town's leisure centre has been chosen to host performances of The Wigan Girls, which will feature a massive cast as well as musicians and backstage crew.

Barbie Davies, former head of drama at Marlwood School in Alveston, is behind the community play.

But despite the scale of the challenge, she has plenty of experience to call on. She was involved in a large-scale show nine years ago to mark the Millennium, which involved nearly 1,000 people telling the history of Thornbury through a series of short plays.

With fellow members of Arts and Community in Thornbury (ACT) Barbie is hoping to start recruiting the team for The Wigan Girls next week.

They need 300 actors of all ages for the musical, which tells of the battle for work and dignity by the so-called pit brow lasses who sorted coal and carried out a variety of jobs above ground in the mining industry. Their efforts sparked a debate about women's work in the 19th century and their job became a test case for women's outdoor manual employment.

The production will run for four days at the leisure centre from July 7-10, with the first meeting to recruit a company planned for Sunday, January 25, at the Turnberries community building in Rock Street.

ACT is looking for actors, singers, dancers and musicians, as well as a backstage crew to build sets, find costumes and sell tickets.

Barbie said: "The music is a glorious mixture of traditional folk, Victoriana and modern and it needs a large orchestra to accompany the 300-strong cast.

"The production shows the divisions between North and South, rich and poor and men and women in a script and music that are full of grit, humour and poignancy, enhanced by stunning images of the original women and the working conditions of the poor."

The Wigan Girls was originally written as a sixth form production for Marlwood School.

Philip Darley, chairman of ACT, said: "People were very moved and Barbie always wanted to do it again with adults and children involved.

Anyone interested in getting involved should go to Turnberries at 8.15pm.