Some people spend their whole year dreaming about their next summer holiday. For Sheila Carter and Mark Stratton it’s more a case of spending a year planning for the extraordinary three weeks of hard work in August that is their Esk Valley Theatre’s offering to the world.

There are sponsors to be won over, rights to be secured, production and design meetings. It’s best to be physically in shape as well, for when the scaffolding arrives for the surprisingly comfortable bank of tiered seating for the audience. And then there’s the weather. Sheila recalls: ‘Each summer we've had some days when the weather has been so wet and windy that the stage manager has called me from his mobile whilst holding onto the ouside gazebo which was about to fly off across the valley.’

As she adds, it’s not exactly Mary Poppins. But they never thought it was going to be easy, either. As far as can be discovered, Esk Valley Theatre is the first company in the country to even attempt to run a professional season in a village hall. The hall in question the Robinson Institute, Glaisdale’s modest but pleasantly detailed meeting place, built just in time to celebrate the coronation of George V in 1911. Among the attractions is being able to stand on the grass outside sipping a summery glass of wine and listening to the sheep bleating.

It’s been a roaring success since the start in 2005, with John Godber’s September in the Rain. Last year’s play, Vacuum, was a hugely engaging, superbly acted tour de force complete with an original music score. Which is doubtless why the Arts Council decided not to fund the theatre for this year.

Sheila admits this year has been ‘a challenge’ with extra fundraising events needed to plug the gap. ‘A huge amount of time is spent on funding applications, which are not always successful, and raising sponsorship,’ she says.

But now it’s all coming together once more, thanks to local businesses and other sponsors, and an enthusiastic group of front of house volunteers. This year the company is returning to John Godber with April in Paris, starring Fiona Wass and Eamonn Fleming. It’s a romance of rekindled love, which is definitely what you will feel for theatre-going if you take the trip to Glaisdale this summer.

April in Paris runs from 7 to 29 August, tickets £9/£8. Box office 01947 897587, www.eskvalleytheatre.co.uk