President Jane Narborough welcomed guests from Nantmel, Newbridge, St Harmon, Bwlch-y-Sarnau, Howey, Tremont and Fron.
The guest speaker was Phil Bowen of Shakespeare Link and the Living Willow Theatre on 'The lighter side of Shakespeare'. He apologised for the absence of his wife Sue Best.
Phil started by quoting the 'Seven Stages of Life' by Shakespeare and talked about the way Shakespeare used verse in his plays asking members to 'recite in verse' their date of births.
He then told the story of the Tempest using members to depict characters, which everyone enjoyed. He also talked about the history of Shakespeare and also about his early life and involvement with drama and Shakespeare.
He told of his fascinating experience travelling with Michael Bogdanov to South Africa performing Shakespeare in small villages, shanty towns etc. He also told of the experiences he and Sue had in Japan, which they found quite eye-opening. 
Phil went on to tell told of how he and Sue had become involved in using acting in Shakespeare as a therapy for people with severe mental problems. Later, they used the same methods for family therapy sessions and also to help the hearing impaired by making signing videos to accompany plays.   Everyone enjoyed the evening very much. Liz Lloyd thanked Phil for such an entertaining evening. 
After everyone enjoyed the delicious food provided and when the meeting closed they were able to purchase from the Bring and Buy and book stalls. There were numerous winners of the main raffle and the evening ended with a good social get together.

SUCCESSFUL AUTUMN FASHION SHOW BY RHAYADER WI
Rhayader WI recently held a Fashion Show at Rhayader Leisure Centre with the help of Bon Marche, Newtown, who provided their latest clothes to be modelled by WI members and friends.  The aim of the evening was to raise funds toward celebrating Rhayader WI's 80th Birthday in 2011. 
The audience were entertained during the interval by Rhayader's "Electric Youth" whose lively dance routines were very much enjoyed.

Anita Sparrow, Assistant Manager of Bon March, Newtown and her assistants Denise, Sharon, Sarah and Kirsty brought this season's fashions from their shop. They gave up their own time to do the promotion and organise the models, enabling the WI to benefit from the event.

The show was very well supported by friends and members who came to watch the models 'strut their stuff' on the cat walk. Models were assisted in dressing by helper Jan Newton along with the ladies from the Bon Marche.

Models were Jan Griffin, Ruth Hide, Hazel Jones, Ida Davies, Jenny Fenemer, Valerie Evans, Sandra Betty, Jane Narborough, Ceinwen Nixon, Helen Lee, and Wendy Armistead.

WI members manned a book stall, raffle, refreshments and craft stall with jewellery from Sherbet Moon which was also available for sale.

The staging for the catwalk was kindly provided by 'Voices in Unity' and many thanks to the Rhayader Leisure Centre staff for all their help also.