It made stars out of ordinary teens – and now the company responsible for Ballet Hoo! is returning for two new theatre productions in the West Midlands.
Ballet Hoo! took youngsters with no acting or dancing experience and put them on the Birmingham Hippodrome stage. The auditions, rehearsals and final production were watched by millions of viewers on Channel 4 last year. Now the Leaps and Bounds project is behind another two unique shows which are to be staged in the region.
Sixty young people from the Wrens Nest and Priory estates in Dudley will appear in a production called Wrosne later this month staged underground in the Black Country’s limestone caverns.
And another show at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Chasing Fate, will turn the spotlight on a different group staging a contemporary musical exploring the relationships, trials and dreams of a group of teenagers.
The project behind both the Dudley and Birmingham shows work with disadvantaged and at-risk young people aged 15 to 19.
Professionals involved in the Leaps and Bounds project include Steve Hill, who co-ordinated Radio One’s Big Weekend, starring Madonna.
He is working on the show in the Singing Cavern hundreds of feet beneath Dudley, called Wrosne – An Underground Experience.
The 43-year-old, who runs Sutton Coldfield-based events company EMO Ltd, has taken up the challenge to build an underground stage and set up lighting and sound for the show, which will see up to 200 people each night taken by narrowboatks along the canal and into the cavern for the show.
He said: “I’ve engineered and managed hundreds of big outdoor events for all the major names in the music business but I’ve not yet done anything in a cavern where the only access is by narrow boat.
“We’ve got a few challenges ahead of us. It will be worth it though.”
The show will take place in the caves beneath Castle Hill. Wrosne is an Anglo Saxon word meaning ‘the link’. There will be two performances each evening on July 20, 21, 23 and 25 and tickets are on sale at Dudley box office on 01384 812812.
Chasing Fate is at Birmingham Hippodrome on October 17 and 18.
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