What a Frightful Night!

Freaky and frightful- that describes the River Teens' contribution to ‘Freaky Friday’ an event at Lullingstone Visitor centre on Halloween night!

We were asked by staff at Lullingstone to assist and the River Teens rose to the challenge. The story was created by the group during workshop sessions led by Jo Groves and Shirley Hillier and development sessions with Jan Stanyon. The result was a sad and frightening tale of lost children which was acted out on the night. As with all productions a dress rehearsal was needed so members of the River Tiddlers and Tweenies duly turned up with their parents on the preceding Wednesday to be the ‘guinea pigs’. Members of the youth groups also carved pumpkins which were used as props and were one of many highlights of the evening.

If you are thinking as you read that all this sounds like a lot of work for a one off event you would be right! It wouldn’t have happened at all but for the industry of Jo Groves and Shirley Hillier who spent a great deal on time and effort to make it a night to remember for everyone and thanks must go to them.

There were supposed to be 130 tickets sold but 160 people turned up so we actually performed our story six times and succeeded in frightening all the little children as well as a few of the more delicate big ones!

We were also assisted by some ‘adult’ (in age but not necessarily mentality) members of the group who gave up a cosy evening in the pub to be part of our event. Thanks guys. Pauline and all the staff at Lullingstone are very grateful for our help with ‘Freaky Friday’ and have received very positive feed back from the public.

Those involved were:

The Storytellers:

Gustav- Rory Gordon

Stanislaus- Clive Stanyon

Lucinda- Maddy Smedley

Anyanka- Shirley Hillier

Lukas- Craig Bennett

The Actors:

Ghost child- Fergus Gordon

Lizzie- Josie Moore

Witch 1- Grace Reddy

Witch 2- Charlotte Benson

Warlock- Elvis Fenlon

The Effects Crew: