Peter Whitley may be playing seven characters in his latest musical -- but the leading role is played by two separate women.

Barbara Boothroyd plays the older Belle looking back on a life spent striving for fame, fortune and social standing.

Meanwhile Katrina Wood portrays that life in a series of light-hearted episodes punctuated by Chicago-style dance routines.

Barbara is well-known to Keighley Amateurs and Keighley Playhouse audiences after numerous panto, musical and light comedy roles. Katrina is known around the whole of West Yorkshire after many leading roles in musicals for several societies. She has appeared in a number of recent Keighley Amateurs productions as well as Carousel and Anything Goes for Guiseley Amateurs.

Little Me is at Victoria Hall, Keighley, from October 17 to 22. Book at Reids bookshop, Cavendish Street, or phone 01535 652547.

n A leading Cornish choir will join Steeton Male Voice Choir when it returns to Keighley Shared Church this month.

The City of Truro Male Voice Choir was invited to the October 29 concert after Steeton's conductor saw them perform.

Also performing will be Christine Quirk, who won the Arthur Wilson Award -- named after a long-serving Steeton member -- at the Wharfedale Festival.

Both choirs will perform popular items from their own repertoires then come together to make a 100-voice choir for some items.

Local groups can raise money for their own funds by buying tickets at £2 and selling them on at £6.

Groups, and individuals wishing to buy tickets should phone Len Wilson on 01274 569870. The concert begins at 7.30pm

n Oxenhope's Emjay and Hebden Bridge's Jette Howard are among four female poets performing in Ilkley next Tuesday.

The event, Voices of the Strong, is part of Ilkley Literature Festival and is at the town's Playhouse from 7.45pm. We'd like to tell you who Emjay is but she this week told us she preferred not to use her real name for her poetry.

She said: "For the rest of the village I would rather just go on being the same person I have been for 30 years." Emjay -- who shares her alias with Spiderman's girlfriend -- came third in the festival's open poetry competition last year.

She said the all-woman performance should reveal poetry with "a certain directness and honesty of emotion".

She added: "I'm no women's libber but I do think there is a noticeable difference between women's poetry and men's poetry."

Admission to the event, which features the women's own poetry and poems that inspired them, is free.

n Touring theatre group Mikron is performing two new mini-musicals -- both based on fact -- around the local area.

Village Voices is a humourous and affectionate look at life in a small community turning from a village into a suburb of Stafford. Elly and Jen take over Doxey's post office, struggling with their new life, trading conditions and resentment from other villagers.

Wheel of Fortune charts the history of the building and restoration of the canals which link Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Wheel of Fortune is at the Auction Mart, Skipton (next Friday, phone 01756 792375); Village Voices is at Bingley Little Theatre (October 15, 01274 589263) and Square Chapel, Halifax, (16, 01422 349422), all at 7.30pm.