Our support for the arts goes back many years to our days when we played the lead in a play while attending St Joseph’s Primary School.

It was a critically acclaimed role – one which probably should have been nominated for a Tony, or a Logie or a Dally M or something.

We played a tree. Our arms were the branches and we had to move every now and then making out it was windy. Method acting we think it’s called. 

It was an inspiring performance.

“Whoever played the tree was truly rooted,’’ one critic enthused.

Our passion for the performing arts, live theatre especially, certainly hasn’t dimmed in the decades since. We do concede that we have never appeared in any of the local arts council’s shows. In fact to the best of our knowledge we’ve never even seen one of the shows that the local arts council has put on. And that’s not going to change in the foreseeable future. But that doesn’t mean we're not fully supportive of our local thespians.

Take, for instance, our latest effort to ensure Taree Arts Council’s (TAC) latest extravaganza gets to opening night on time.

For those unaware of such things TAC will this year perform, um, now hold on they did tell us, something to do with France. Um, The Day of the Jackal? The French Connection? The French Letter? Well, something to do with France anyway.

Whatever it is it apparently involves a rowdy drinking session at a taverne (which is French for tavern, for those not multi-lingual).

And that’s how this correspondent came into play.

“Do you have any pewter mugs?’’ colleague Lauren Green perhaps naively asked.

Lauren, you see, is a real TAC stalwart. She’s right to the forefront of the upcoming production, the name of which we can’t recall, but it has something to do with France.

“I’m playing a prostitute,’’ she declared proudly.

Should be some interesting scenes there. Anyway, TAC apparently was in need of some pewters for the aforementioned drinking scene. But the cupboard was (almost) bare.

So naturally for the sake of all things fine art, we were only too willing to assist. For this newspaper gifted us a pewter to mark our 10th anniversary here, then the 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th and so on. We notch four decades in a few months, so we guess we get another one. Imaginative lot, aren’t they. Turns out we’ve misplaced most of them, but we were able to find a couple amid the flotsam and jetsam in the kitchen cupboards at Struggle Street. They’ll be making their stage debut later this year. It’ll be a proud moment.

Shame we won’t be there.