The Highlights Community Touring Scheme has announced its line-up for the months ahead, including performances in Pegswood, Lynemouth and Whalton.

Melvyn Rawlinson, better known as Professor Popup, kicks off the entertainment as he brings his Puppet Theatre to Pegswood next month.

The Festival of The Dragon Moon show, which is suitable for families with children aged five to 11, features puppet acrobats and the hilarious Lion Dance, using Chinese palm puppets and an ornately dressed travelling pagoda theatre to tell the story of T'ang and her quest to save Yip Yok the Yak.

The performance takes place at Pegswood Community Project on Thursday, February 18, at 6pm.

The venue will also host fictional comedy Back To The Land Girls by Bad Apple Theatre, with music by Jez Lowe.

The play is set in 1942 as the Women's Land Army takes to the hills and follows the stories of city girl Buff and country girl Biddy.

It will be staged on Wednesday, April 14, at 7pm.

The third and final offering for the village is contemporary craft tour, Thrift and Thread.

The exhibition showcases the work of former Newcastle College course leader Mandy Pattullo, who recycles old textiles to create modern heirlooms and garments.

She works in printed textiles, embroidery, knit and fabric manipulation, and has exhibited in the UK and Japan.

Pegswood will host the tour from Friday, June 11 to Sunday, June 13.

Lynemouth will get in on the action as it becomes one of the first communities in the country to welcome Canadian duo Jenny and Steve of the Oddville Stage Company.

Their production, A Swell Chaos, combines live music, dancing, juggling, do- it-yourself liposuction, storytelling, improvisation and audience interaction, as well as two-handed simultaneous portraiture.

The show takes place at Lynemouth Resource Centre on Tuesday, March 2, at 6.30pm.

Whalton Village Hall is the venue for Spike Theatre's Top of the World — a dramatic fiction based on the true life events of Edmund Hilary's conquest of Everest.

The performance incorporates projected animation, puppetry and a range of physical theatre techniques to tell the classic adventure tale.

The production takes place at the venue on Saturday, March 27, at 7pm.

The Highlights scheme is subsidised by local arts organisations, councils, Arts Council England and other grant bodies, including the Northern Rock Foundation and LEADER.

Programme Manager Barbara Slack said: "Highlights is all about offering professional, entertaining and exciting events in local communities.

"This is only the third year of Highlights in this area, but we already have a network of local promoters, each one choosing, organising and publicising the events at their venue on a voluntary basis.

"The result is a touring programme with something for almost everyone and taking place in venues that are right on the doorstep of rural communities.