THE STORY

I Hear the Fire follows the story of 15-year-old Jerome.

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A girl at Jerome’s school is dead. He didn’t know her, except he sat next to her in art class. And yet everything he does now seems to come back to her. As his increasingly erratic behaviour baffles his friends, family and teachers, Jerome struggles to express his feelings, especially as everyone is expecting him get over it, man-up, be strong, until his actions lead him up to the moment when he tries to burn down his art classroom. We witness his story as it flashes through his mind; conflicting voices, snatches of memory, violent visions and imagined zombie battles, as the world around him burns. This is Jerome from his perspective.

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THE PROJECT

We will be working for three weeks at Jacksons Lane in North London with Writer Louisa Ashton and Director Shelley Knowles – Dixon to explore character, text and sound. There will be a work in progress showing at the end of these three weeks. Sorry, no puppets this time!

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THE CASTING

We are looking for three strong actors who are interested in story development and the devising of new writing. We are looking for performers who will be excited to work with us to create material for the text, working in detail on multiple characters and to throw themselves into exploring a powerful visual and sonic style for the piece.

 

Desirable qualities include performers who enjoy working closely in an ensemble, who are interested in exploring movement and enjoy playful devising. Performers will also need to be comfortable with intensive textual work and character analysis.

 

We need one female and two male actors/devisers and we are specifically seeking a multi-cultural ensemble to reflect the characters who are mainly pupils and teachers of an inner London state school. This casting is open to both BAME and non-BAME actors.

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CHARACTERS

This part of the process will involve multi rolling and exploring a range of characters of different ages and backgrounds. To give an idea, here are some of the characters we will explore:

 

JEROME: 15-year-old boy.

MRS RICHARDSON: Deputy head teacher at Jerome's school.

MISS TINDER: Art teach at Jerome's School

CARL: Jerome's friend at school.

BOZ: Jerome's friend at school.

DAD: Jerome's dad.

CLAIRE: School counsellor.

ALISON GREGGORS: A dead girl who was in Jerome’s Art class.

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DATES AND FEES

The R&D will consist of 3 full time weeks in April 2019 at Jackson's Lane Theatre in London, 10am-6pm. Cast must be available for all of these dates. The dates include:

 

Monday 8th – Friday 12th April

Monday 15th – Thursday 18th April

Tuesday 23rd – Friday 26th April

 

Fees are at Equity rates of £471 / week, totalling £1,413. Dates will also include a work-in-progress showing at the Bunker Theatre in Southwark towards the end of April or beginning of May, date TBC. Due to time of over Easter weekend, this will be included in the above fee.

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AUDITIONS

Auditions are being held at the events space in Blighty Workspace, South Tottenham.  

 

DATES: Thursday 28th, Friday 29th and Sunday 31st of March 9am – 6pm.

 

We may call auditionees back for a workshop audition on Sunday the 31st.

 When applying to us, please outline which of these dates you would prefer to audition on.

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APPLYING

Please send us your CV, head shot and cover letter to sparkleanddark@sparkleanddark.com. In your cover letter, please tell us about why you are interested in this particular project, why you want to work with Sparkle and Dark and any relevant experience you have. You do not need to talk about puppetry experience, as this show is unlikely to be using puppetry. Make sure you also tell us which audition date you can attend.

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Deadline for submissions: THURSDAY 21st MARCH 2019