Associate & Resident Companies of South Hill Park
South Hill Park Arts Centre prides itself on nurturing upcoming artists and companies that specialise in both drama and dance. You can find out more about them on this page.
Resident Companies
Blackeyed Theatre
Blackeyed Theatre is one of the UK’s leading mid-scale touring theatre companies. Since 2004 we have been creating exciting opportunities for artists and audiences by producing theatre that’s audacious, accessible and memorable.
Blackeyed Theatre has two principal objectives through the work it produces; to provide audiences and artists with fresh, challenging work; and to make that work sustainable by reaching as wide and diverse an audience as possible.
Over the past few years, Blackeyed Theatre has balanced these artistic and business objectives by creating new, exciting versions of established classics in unique ways and by identifying relevance with today’s audiences. Recent examples of this include the 2015 production of The Great Gatsby, whose cast of seven doubled up as a 1920s jazz band, and the 2012 production of Brecht’s Mother Courage And her Children, set in a post-apocalyptic world, designed to establish relevance with 21st century world events. Recent new commissions include The Valley of Fear, Jane Eyre, The Sign Of Four and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and Frankenstein, as well as The Great Gatsby, which was published by Methuen. Other touring productions include Not About Heroes (Stephen MacDonald), Teechers and Teechers Leavers ‘22 (John Godber), The Trial and the world premiere of Oedipus (Steven Berkoff), Oh What A Lovely War (Theatre Workshop), Alfie (Bill Naughton), The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov), The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and her Children and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Bertolt Brecht).
Blackeyed Theatre takes top quality theatre to more than fifty UK towns and cities each year and recently expanded its tours to include The Netherlands and China. We believe regional theatre audiences deserve choice in the same way London audiences do. And as a company that receives no funding, we believe we’re a great example of sustainable theatre production.
We make our work sustainable by producing theatre that audiences want to see in ways that challenge their expectations, by bringing together artists with a genuine passion for the work they produce, and through an appreciation that titles of work with a wide appeal can still be performed in ways that push artistic boundaries. In short, it’s about following audiences but also leading them, being affordable and responsive to demand while innovating and challenging expectations.
Artemis College
Artemis College is a leading vocational Performing Arts college, offering completely FREE full time vocational training sixth form, summer intensives and gap year courses to aspiring young performers, between the ages of 16 and 19.
It is the sister school of Artemis Studios (founded in 2007) which offers evening and weekend training from 4 years to adult.
Our free full time and summer courses are all held in the mansion at South Hill Park – allowing students to immerse themselves in a performing and visual arts environment. With ‘real’ dance studios, rehearsal rooms, two theatres, an amphitheatre, free car park, cafe on site and walking distance to local shops and the brand new Lexicon shopping centre in town – it is a perfect place to study!
- Full time two year Btec Extended Diploma with LAMDA and Trinity Grades
- One year Btec Producing with Performing Diploma (plus grades)
- One year RSL Actor Musician Diploma (plus grades)
- One year RSL Musical Theatre Diploma (plus grades)
- 3 Week summer intensive with community show, and a graded qualification.
All our tutors are qualified, and practicing industry specialists (actors, producers, directors, choreographers, writers and technical specialists).
Our work experience is outstanding – with partner theatre and events companies to gain experience on and off stage. Students appear in a minimum of two shows each year – but can audition for up to 6 more!
We have guest workshop leaders (recent guests include West End Producer Paul Taylor Mills, and cast from Hamilton, SIX, 42nd Street) – and throughout the year the full time students visit a West End show, and another live performance, and where possible have a workshop or Q&A with a performer or creative associated with the shows.
We have an excellent track record of students joining high profile drama and dance schools and universities at the end of their course with us!
As well as the main college day (10-6 Tuesday – Friday) and public performances, full time students can join any of Artemis’ Medusa Young Company or Dance/Cheerleading company classes – appearing in even more shows and at competitions and giving them an additional 2-10 hours a week training. There is also an annual trip (by audition, and fees apply) to perform at Walt Disney World in Florida – an adventure Artemis students have been enjoying since 2014.
All our courses have a maximum of 20 places available (in some cases 10) – so apply soon to get a place on the course that will get you to the next level in your career!
Previous Associate Companies
Theatre Re
Established in 2009, Theatre Re is an international ensemble creating direct, vibrant and emotional work on the edge of mime and theatre.
Mime because corporeal mime is at the base of all our creative work and Theatre Re is fascinated by the idea of making “visible the invisible”. Theatre because they are telling stories.
The company has toured work in France (Avignon Off Festival, Lyon, Paris), Ireland (Dublin Fringe Festival) and the UK (Edinburgh, London).
Theatre Re has received support from Arts Council England, Arts Council Ireland, the French Institute in London, the city of Paris, the city of Lyon and Haringey Council (North London) to create international projects.
The company is currently based in London and since 2014 is an associate company of South Hill Park Arts Centre.
Studio Theatre Company
Formed in 2011 by Luke Burton, under the remit of producing a season of in-house shows for the Studio Theatre Company to breathe new life into the venue and offer opportunities to the community.
The Company actively seeks out new talent and encourages the community to get involved to try out something they may never have done before – be it acting, directing or working in one of the many backstage roles. The Company has welcomed so many new faces to South Hill Park and given them that opportunity to shine.
The results have been a resounding success and have received sell out shows and rave reviews.
Please contact luke.burton@nullsouthhillpark.org.uk for more information.
Berkshire County Dance Company Youth (BCDCY)
Berkshire County Dance Company Youth (BCDCY) (www.bcdcy.org.uk) is an auditioned group of dancers aged 13-21 from in and around the county. The company was formed in Spring 2011 to provide opportunity for talented young dancers to make the transition from school to vocational dance training. They work with a range of dance professionals and have the opportunity to train with and perform alongside professional dance companies. Although they study a range of dance styles, the main discipline is contemporary dance.
Based at South Hill Park, the company meet on Sundays during term times and hold half term residencies in the Autumn and Spring term to have new works created on them by dance artists who will be performing at South Hill Park. The company strive to support and develop each dancer’s strengths whether it be as choreographer, performer, group organiser or spokesperson and will undertake recognition for these achievements through the Arts Award scheme.
Peer Productions
Award winning Surrey based theatre arts charity specialising in combining high quality arts practice with peer education. We also offer a free year long actor training course to gap year students aged 17 – 23 years old.
Peer Productions’ vision is to use theatre to genuinely change young people’s lives.
Founded in 2006, Peer Productions is an award winning youth arts charity specialising in combining high quality arts practice with peer education. Each year we reach 10,000 young people across the South East of England, enabling them to change the way they think and to make positive life choices. Our work is made with, by and for young people and focuses on three interlinked strands of Identity, Crime Prevention and Health.
We have developed a unique approach whereby young people are at the centre of every stage of the creative process. We use peer education and theatre to empower three separate groups of beneficiaries: young peer educators, disadvantaged project participants and young audience members.
Peer Productions work with young people and community groups in a number of ways:
- We offer a one year free actor development programme for young people (aged 17 – 23 years) to train as actors and peer educators. We empower them to deliver high quality arts projects in the community and forge a career in the arts industry. 90% of our graduates move on HE/related work within 12 months of completion.
- We create and tour original educational plays to schools and youth settings which tackle the issues that matter most to young people. To date, these have included eating disorders, homophobia, alcohol misuse, sex and relationships, and mental health issues. We have excellent relationships with a large number of schools, with many booking our work every year as an integral part of their programme. Feedback includes “I did want to be a teenage mum but watching this play has made me think differently.” – Year 10 student.
- We deliver drama outreach projects for disadvantaged young people, using creativity as a tool to enable them to achieve their full potential and make positive life choices. Groups we have worked with include young carers, young parents, learning disabled young people, adults with mental health issues, and homeless young people.
Website: www.peerproductions.co.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/peerproductions
Facebook: www.facebook.com/PeerProductions
Instagram: www.instagram.com/peerproductions/
Hit The Mark Theatre
Hit The Mark Theatre strive to create high-quality, entertaining theatre that is accessible to all.
Diversity is embedded in Hit The Mark Theatre’s DNA, from the work they produce to the actors they work with and the audiences they present to. Creating inclusive, theatrical experiences for everyone is the ethos of this theatre production company.
Hit The Mark Theatre has just completed a sell-out run of SHOUT! and are looking forward to working on three productions in 2017, including: The Haunting, R&D of a new children’s musical called AnimAlphabet and Jerusalem. They will also be working with South Hill Park in 2017 on some exciting projects involving Virtual Reality!
Website: www.hitthemarktheatre.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/hitthemarkuk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HitTheMarkTheatre
Instagram: www.instagram.com/hitthemark
Single Shoe Productions
Founded in 2011, London-based Single Shoe Productions combines theatre, clown, dance and film to tell stories that are intercultural, inventive and playful.
The company’s first collaboration was the short film BROKEN ENCOUNTER, and their theatre piece CRAZY GLUE premiered to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival.
Single Shoe has toured in the UK, Germany and the USA, with future tours including Bulgaria, Sweden and Scotland.
The company has received support from the Arts Council England, British Council and Creative Scotland to tour their current work and develop new work with international collaborators.
Website: www.singleshoeproductions.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/single_shoe
Facebook: www.facebook.com/singleshoeproductions
Instagram: www.instagram.com/single_shoe/
Luke Brown
Luke Brown is a dance artist, choreographer and teacher, based in the UK. Since 2014, Luke has been in the process of developing his own creative practice. At the heart of his work is a fascination with how humans socially interact through the subtleties of physical contact, body language and spoken word. His work is theatrically evocative and emotionally charged. His choreographic language is delicate, intricate and effortless.
With the support of South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, Luke co-produced an evening of work entitled “Humanity” in April 2014. He choreographed two works for this production: the intimate, autobiographical solo “11:11” and the quirky, disturbing quartet “Second Self”. Both works have taken on second lives through subsequent performances, including at C-12 Dance Theatre’s Emerge Festival, at Hidden Door Festival in Edinburgh and as part of the Dancing Economies conference held at Royal Holloway, University of London.
More recently, Luke launched his company, Luke Brown Dance. His current Double Bill features “Second Self” and “Princess”, a tongue in cheek look at fairy-tale romance. The latter was developed with the support of Arts Council England.
Luke has a wealth of experience facilitating rewarding and engaging education work with youth dance companies and in schools, vocational colleges and higher education. Luke Brown Dance is committed to the sustainability of contemporary dance, working closely with a multitude of communities to engage new and existing audiences, not only with his work, but with the art form as a whole.
Luke is supported by two National Portfolio Organisations: Swindon Dance and The Point where he is also an associate dance artist. Luke is also an associate at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, which helped to kick-start Luke’s choreographic career in January 2014.
As a performer, Luke has worked with internationally acclaimed choreographer Ben Wright, including on English National Opera’s production of Phillip Glass’s “The Perfect American”, directed by Phelim McDermot. He has also performed with Irish company Junk Ensemble in Megan Kennedy’s site specific work “Marble and Bread” and with GlassHouse, Adaire to Dance and Zoie Logic.
In 2015, Luke co-produced Pitch. a choreographic platform for emerging dance artists, in collaboration with Ashley Hind and Ellie James of 80collective. 80collective was formed in January 2014 with a vision to provide a firm foundation for emerging choreographers to experiment with dance in a safe, comfortable and supportive environment.
Part of Luke’s ethos is to provide opportunities for dance artists to share work in a supportive, encouraging and safe environment, fundamental for the growth of today’s dance ecology. Pitch. 2015 provided five companies with a platform to present their work. The first ever Pitch. event was created in conjunction with Lift Off Dance Festival at South Hill Park Arts Centre.
Website: www.lukebrowndance.com
A rapidly growing, individual new voice in dance.
Squint
Squint/skwint: verb, to incline or have a tendency toward a given direction.
Founded in 2009, Squint create bold, ensemble-driven theatre with a contemporaneous flavour. Lead by Artistic Director Andrew Whyment, Squint unite the most auspicious theatrical talent with a rich and relevant artistic programme. Squint’s trademark cocktail of truthful drama, live music and panoramic ensemble work creates a fresh, energetic and wholly relevant theatrical experience.
Squint create exhilarating and provocative new stories. Squint’s theatre asks questions of the world we live in through storytelling that is visual, visceral and ensemble-driven.
In 2011, Squint premiered A Festival Guide at Park Life Festival, South Hill Park, a devised, musical, outdoor piece about the battle of the music genres at British music festivals. 2011 also saw Squint revive their acclaimed production of Simon Stephen’s Bluebird for a UK tour, which included South Hill Park, The Courtyard Theatre and a sell-out run at the Bedlam Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Squint kick-started 2012 by launching its unique, new writing event, Scratchbook, with the first instalment, Scratchbook: Love Thy Neighbour, playing to a full house at The Cockpit. In April, Squint will stage its first full-length new piece, Broken News, at the New Wimbledon Studio, followed by a tour in the south of England. This year will also see the return of A Festival Guide for the summer festival season.
As an associate company at South Hill Park, Squint are looking to develop new work in a professional environment, reach new audiences and develop their relationships with other regional venues. Squint also offer a broad range of workshops for children of aged five to 18 years that focus on both the practice of theatre making and educating through theatre. With the support of South Hill Park, Squint hope to be able to programme workshops at local schools in connection with their performances.
HookHitch Theatre
HookHitch Theatre became an associate company of South Hill Park in March 2015.
HookHitch Theatre’s mission is to create work that allows audiences to discover something new, or to be reminded of something forgotten. The company’s style is rooted in the traditions of storytelling and folk music and often draws inspiration from literature, poetry and folklore.
HookHitch Theatre was founded in 2012 by Artistic Directors Casey Jay Andrews and Laura Trundle. The company’s music infused storytelling style secured their position as “Edinburgh Fringe Festival Favourites” (The Stage) and they continue to create original work for Edinburgh and beyond. Casey Jay Andrews is a Writer and Actor, and Laura Trundle an Actor and Composer; together they develop HookHitch’s new writing and music, keeping the aim to be accessible and inclusive at the company’s core (we firmly believe that art is for everyone!). HookHitch also have a crack team of collaborators who bring invaluable ingredients to the projects they work on with the company: Dominic Sewell (Composer), Nathan Foad (Writer), Steve McCourt (Director), Leonie Marzecki (Director), George Jennings (Composer), Laura Hannawin (founding member).
Notable work includes five star sell-out folk musical “This was the World and I was King” ***** (ThreeWeeks) ***** (The Saint) and award winning short film “Session Squared” (The 2013 London 48 Hour Film Project: Audience Award).
Web: www.hookhitch.co.uk
Twitter: @HookHitch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HookHitch
London Contemporary Theatre
London Contemporary Theatre are committed to creating exciting, fast-paced Theatre and Radio Theatre. Using live original music, they strive to bring classical theatre to a contemporary audience.
London Contemporary Theatre Ltd was established in 2012 by Philip Ryder & Jonathan Ashby-Rock as a not for profit organisation, and became an associate company of South Hill Park in 2014. London Contemporary produce radio and theatre drama to cater for a wide genre of ages and tastes and produce a lot of their work in aid of charities and Performing Arts trust funds.
Scene Productions
Scene Productions is a physical theatre company based in Wokingham and founded in 2004 by Artistic Directors Katharine Hurst and Kelly Taylor-Smith. The company creates vibrant, fast-paced and immersive adaptations of classical texts as well as their own devised work. Their unique physical style combines mask, puppetry, movement, sound, text and tightly choreographed movement sequences.
The company became the associate company of Redbridge Drama Centre in 2010 and the associate company of South Hill Park in 2013. They have worked extensively in over 400 schools, arts centres and theatres throughout the UK, Ireland and Belgium.
Among their achievements, in 2009 they performed a three week run of The Other Side, a devised physical theatre piece based on true stories from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, at The Gilded Balloon during the Edinburgh Fringe, in collaboration with company Gavin Robertson.
Their work includes a strong focus on learning and the company lead a variety of workshops offering students and adults the chance to re-discover theatre in fresh, bold and imaginative ways. The company also offer work experience to students and participate in workshops with other theatre companies to continually learn and progress themselves.
The company worked with South Hill Park on a community production of Oh! What A Lovely War, in association with Bracknell Forest Council, in summer 2014.
The Original Theatre Company
Now in its tenth year, The Original Theatre Company was founded in 2004 with the aim of bringing high quality touring theatre to the length and breadth of The British Isles.
The company has always trod a line between tradition and innovation forged in the mould of the great actor-manager companies of old and inspired by the barnstorming theatre troupes who took big plays to eccentric places. They work hard and play harder.
Original’s inaugural production in 2005 of Twelfth Night played over 20 venues indoors and outdoors ranging from The Lyric Hammersmith to a Welsh Cliff Top in St. Davids to the Edinburgh Festival.
The next three years were spent touring Shakespeare to a range of outdoor venues, The Taming of the Shrew in 2006 set at the end of the second world war and told by a group of ENSA entertainers got audiences swinging with a live jazz band before actor/director Knight Mantell helmed the 2007 summer production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
2008 saw the company become an associate company at South Hill Park Arts Centre where they collaborated to stage Joe Calarco’s acclaimed adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s R&J. Starting it’s life outdoors, the production had a three week run on the main stage at The Southwark Playhouse before setting off on national tour around the country.
The company aims have not changed in its ten years touring the country, it does its best to work with brilliant people on brilliant plays, telling stories that they hope will excite, entertain and provoke. In an era of funding cuts and recession, Original Theatre has defied all the odds not just to survive but somehow to thrive.
Icarus Theatre Collective
Icarus is unique as a mid-scale theatre company in that it functions as a collective.
A team of artists and managers run the company under the artistic direction of company founder Max Lewendel. Many team members collaborate on varied tasks and responsibilities, broadening their skill sets with each project they work on. In this way artists and managers can learn many skills simultaneously and the company maintains a clear, strong artistic vision.
Each artist can also pitch their own major project. This can be a play, a tour, a major education project, a devised piece, virtually anything which develops our Artistic Policy and is approved by the Collective. Such projects are supported by a team made up of the other artists and managers in the Collective, with clearly defined roles for each project.
Jean Abreu Dance
Jean Abreu (Choreographer/Performer). Born in Brazil, Jean choreographed his first work in 2003 and later that year was honoured with the Jerwood Choreography Award. Since then, his work has toured throughout the UK, Europe and Brazil including performances for London Dance Umbrella, the Royal Opera House and the Southbank Centre.
His work in theatre includes choreography for the Young Vic’s Amazonia and The Red Room’s Oikos and Protozoa productions. He also collaborated with the Mavron String Quartet to create Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Jean has been an Associate Artist at The Place, Swindon Dance, South Hill Park and the Hat Factory and an Artist-in-Residence at Dance East.
James Wilton Dance
Cornwall born and raised, James began his choreographic career whilst a student at London Contemporary Dance School. Graduating in 2010, James was commissioned to re-work his seminal show, Drift for Scottish Dance Theatre for touring throughout 2010 – 2014. Since then, he has toured nationally and internationally, receiving many commissions, awards and recognition for his distinctive style.