This was the year of the TRASH Opera, inspired and written by Anne Plenderleith, artistic director at the Maltings, Berwick. We were to provide a marching band and music to go with the Pirates Dance and various other dramatic parts of the show' Alan came back to manage the marching band and to work with TRASH'd on the other pieces.  

Not everything was Hamlet bound. This year included an appearance at the Jedburgh Common Riding, West Lothian Fun day, and Loch Lomond Festival. For the third year we held workshops over the three days of the Eyemouth Summer School.

August 2003 was a really hectic period for TRASH. The month was dominated by the completion of the Hamlet Project. Alan Govan’s hard work with the Marching Band came to fruition with their appearance, along with TRASH’d, at Traquair House Fair, in the Scottish Borders, on the 2nd and 3rd. Their tie-dyed suits looked great, thanks to Jenny Miller’s hard work, as they marched through the fair and into the courtyard in front of the house. TRASH’d also definitely made a big impact.

Bill, Finlay, Marianne, Neil and Jenny all worked as part of the Maltings Summer School team at which music, dance, drama and art was produced for the Hamlet Project. The young people were brilliant to work with. Among the artists were music/drama worker Wendy Payn and music/dance worker Joanne Burn and musician Michael Freeman. Hamlet was quite the most ambitious production we’ve been involved in so far, with adults and children, choirs, actors, soloists, dancers, music from tuned and un-tuned percussion, and pre-recorded music, even a piece for Border pipes. Again at the final performance on the 16th the performance groups from TRASH came out well. 

In September TRASH was joined by Finlay, Marianne and Neil as our arts workers.

September was fairly quiet: Two days of workshops and performances in Peebles and, on the same weekend another workshop and more performances in Kelso. The following weekend TRASH’d did the Hawick Jazz Festival, Percy calls us “unplugged”. October included work at Eyemouth, Duns Primary and High schools, and Dumfries.  Finlay, Neil and Marianne re-formed the performance group. November pitched the new trainers into a much more hectic schedule. A special job, part workshops part performance was put on at Youth Scotland’s Annual Youth work conference at the beginning of the month. TRASH scored very highly on the evaluation. The group  worked with the Learning Support Unit at Hawick High on a six-week programme. The new trainers took on perhaps their most ambitious activity so far – a training programme for Fife council’s Ardroy outdoor centre. They also did another school day; with Coldstream Primary. In the same month the Bill took Finlay and Neil to work with the Out–of-school Network leaders. The group did a workshop for the Youth Forum, which went down well.  From September the group at Lanark Lodge was re-started. Bill was involved in this one, having the most experience, but Finlay, Marianne and Neil were also involved.

The year ended with a special performance at Loch Lomand on the 29th December