For their latest project, Fireraisers Theatre Company decided to use a cast consisting entirely of young people and they asked Artemis Studios to provide them with the twenty eight actors, singers and dancers that would be needed to create this epic journey through the mansion and grounds of South Hill Park. Additional tech support was sourced from a local youth theatre group - who helped our student DSM David Lewis with lighting and set moving each night. The show was an immediate hit, and most nights were sold out.

The show, commissioned by South Hill Park, took you on a quest through the wild woods and haunted landscapes of the imagination, in search of Things That Go Bump. Audiences uncovered the dark secrets of South Hill Park; unmasking the hidden lives of past inhabitants and discovered the joys and sorrows steeped within the labyrinth of the building's history.

Artemis students (including director Niki's AMTC students) have been rehearsing intensely to bring to life the lives and deaths of past inhabitants of the mansion. It has been an unusual project for them as one aspect of playing ghosts is that they do not speak – this has required greater focus on the physical skills of acting, in order to convey the stories of the characters without the use of words.

Fireraisers Theatre Company is an innovative performance company founded in 1996, supported by the Arts Council, committed to finding new audiences through accessible and exciting productions. Based in Sussex, we perform nationally. We make imaginative use of new technologies allied to strong new writing to create memorable performances, often presented in unusual settings. In addition to recent co-productions with Soho, Hampstead, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford and Birmingham Rep we have performed in Selfridges window on Oxford Street, recreated the Battle of Waterloo in a nightclub and portrayed Andy Warhol & Edie Sedgwick in the Barbican’s ‘Warhol Style’ exhibition. A performance of The Tempest on an oilrig towed onto Brighton beach – complete with skydivers and jet skiers – attracted a record one night audience of 35,000.

What did Fireraisers think of their young cast?

'FIRERAISERS have found the Artemis students to be unusually talented, disciplined and focus'd and the organisation an invaluable support in our production of THINGS THAT GO BUMP. We hope another opportunity will present itself for us to work together again'.
Paul Jepson & Polly Wiseman (Joint ADs - FIRERAISERS)

Paul is also a director at RADA and was able to give vauable advice to some of our older students who will be moving into full time vocational trianing next year.

To see photos of the show, have a look in the photos link above. Well done cast!

A Students View:By Alex Harvey Brown
'I Started “Things That Go Bump” fairly apprehensively. All I knew was that it was an outdoor show in the grounds of South Hill Park and something about ghosts…
But as soon as I arrived I was lead through what would be happening and I was hugely impressed! Paul Jepson, the director, was great – he brought energy to a show he truly believed in and it rubbed off on all of us.
When it got to performance week we all couldn’t wait to perform. It was such fun and by the end of the fortnight run we were all going to miss the fantastic experience hugely. I’m so glad I did it and hope to work with Fireraisers again'