HIGHLIGHTS Rural Touring Scheme has announced details of its new spring season.

From March to June the scheme will bring performances by touring companies from across the UK, Canada and Norway in partnership with a network of 13 village halls in County Durham,

From Barningham to Edmundbyers and Stanhope to Whorlton, village promoters are preparing to host a total of 16 shows ranging from theatre and dance to children’s shows, music and poetry.

The theatre programme showcases new writing and Edinburgh Festival hits alongside personal stories, family adventure and classic works with a twist.

An ingenious recreation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey uses two actors, puppets and cardboard props, there's a riotously funny restaging of Greek gods and myths and a revival of Arthur Miller’s double bill of plays, Two-Way Mirror.

Music offers a mix from satirical songs and swing jazz to world, folk and Klezmer music from Eastern Europe.

A performance by fiddle family The Fitzgeralds also features dancing from these Ontario step dance champions.

The scheme's continuing partnership with Contact East enables it to bring some of the best artists from the eastern provinces of North America to County Durham.

These include appearances from The Montreal Guitare Trio and three-times Canadian Grandmaster Fiddle Champions in Everything Fitz. For families and children there’s a retelling of Aesop’s The Boy Who Cried Wolf from award-winning poet, Dommy B.

Dates and venues include:

March 8, The Witham, Barnard Castle, Les Bordéliques, Blind Date, funny and touching performance from two Canadian Cirque De Soleil performers told through dance, mime and music (tickets, 01833 631107); March 10, Scarth Memorial Hall, Staindrop, Dommy B, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, age five and over (01833 660091);

March 10, Edmundbyers Village Hall, Pat McCarthy Quartet, varied programme of jazz and swing ranging from 1930s' classics to modern jazz hits (01207 255608); March 12, Newbiggin in Teesdale, Pat McCarthy Quartet (01833 640608); March 16, Barningham Village Hall, Working Light Theatre, Labels, multiple award-winning Edinburgh smash hit about a boy of mixed-heritage growing up in the 1990s.

April 1, Whorlton Village Hall, Pat McCarthy Quartet (01833 627419); April 8, Boldron Village Hall, Union Jill folk duo with poet and comedian Kate Fox, Letting Off Steam (01833 638210); April 5, St Thomas' Church Hall, Stanhope, Theatre by the Lake On Tour, Two-Way Mirror, revival of two rarely performed one-act plays by American playwright Arthur Miller, Some Kind of Love Story and Elegy for a Lady (01388 528673); April 7, Hamsterley Village Hall, Two Way Mirror (01388 488323); April 20, Upper Weardale Town Hall, Box Tale Soup, Northanger Abbey (01434 345024); April 21, Whorlton Village Hall, Northanger Abbey (01833 627419); April 27, Bowes & Gilmonby Parish Hall, Rabbit Theatre, The Odyssey (Greek Stuff!), heroes, gods and monsters (01833 628357); April 30, St Thomas Church Hall, Stanhope, The Odyssey (Greek Stuff!) (01388 528673).

May 4, Cotherstone Village Hall, Montreal Guitare Trio, Der Prinz, jazz, humour and audience banter (01833 650827); May 13, The Witham, Lost Dog Dance, Paradise Lost (Lies unopened beside me), one-man staging of Milton's epic poem condensed into 75 minutes (01833 631107); June 4, St Cuthbert's Centre, Crook,

Everything Fitz, Canada’s fiddle family trio, The Fitzgeralds, traditional jigs and reels, bluegrass, jazz, Celtic and Ottawa Valley step dancing (01388 765002).

For more information visit www.highlightsnorth.co.uk.