Cast of life-changing teenage play reunites after 25 years

When a group of boys who were excluded from mainstream education were invited to create and perform a play, they had no idea how it would transform their lives.

In 2001, seven pupils at the former Penwithen School in Dorchester worked with Bournemouth community arts charity Vita Nova on a production they performed in schools and universities, and even at a European arts festival in Latvia.

Years later, project leader Sharon Coyne was trying to find out what had become of the boys when one of the cast, Dan Stanaway, arrived at her door to fit her new oven.

Stanaway is one of four original participants who have since reunited and says the play had been a pivotal moment.

“I was a naughty child,” said Stanaway, standing in front of what was Penwithen School on the outskirts of the town.

“I got excluded from pretty much every school in the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch area so they sent me here.”

Penwithen closed in 2005, but when Stanaway stayed here it was a residential special school for children with behavioural difficulties.