Creative Cullompton teamed up with the wonderfully talented crew from ACTiv8 Theatre to support ACTiv8 Cullompton’s Youth Theatre to develop brand new show BLAZE! ‘The Great Fire of Cullompton’.

The support offered by Creative Cullompton allowed ACTiv8 Theatre to offer subsidised membership during the development of this production, opening the door for more young people to join the Youth Theatre

BLAZE! is based on the 1839 Great Fire of Cullompton. It follows the people of the town, the events that happened and how the town came together to recover from the tragedy.

The young performers were able to work in collaboration with the vastly experienced ACTiv8 Theatre staff members to create this whole new production from scratch. This offered the opportunity for the children and young people to play a key role in developing the characters, story and songs and to gain experience of the development, production and performance of a show from conception to curtains down.

“We began our devising process by looking at the people involved and through a series of workshops, the cast generated lots of ideas that were then weaved into songs and script by Chris Speyer and Alan Boxer. The piece was then brought to life by the cast through the direction and choreography of Marie Kelsall and Fiona Bartlett. It has been important to us that throughout the process the cast has had the opportunity to share their ideas. One song, ‘I am a Chimney Sweep’ was written by cast member Oscar Kavanagh”

Rehearsals began in March 2022 leading to two live performances in July taking place on stage at the Cullompton Arts Festival 2022.