Chain Reaction Theatre Company’s life began in 1993. Through a project initiated by Studio 3 Arts and funded by the Barking and Havering Family Services Authority (FHSA), 7 young women from Barking College wrote and performed a piece of theatre aimed at providing young people with accurate information about smoking.
The performance was called “Chain Reaction”.
The original intention was a one-off project touring the show to schools and youth centres in Barking and Dagenham alone. Due to the phenomenal success of the show, the group of actresses began touring the show across other London Boroughs.
In 1994 Sarah Choppen, Nikki Antoniou and Laura Harbourne established Chain Reaction as a community theatre company and set up base within the premises of Studio 3 Arts. This year also saw the development of a drug awareness production called “Know Your Mind”, which was funded by the Barking, Havering and Brentwood Healthcare Trust as part of the European Drug Prevention Week.
Chain Reaction became completely independent of Studio 3 Arts in 1996 when they moved to their own premises and during this year they received funding from London Arts Board to devise ‘Inside Out’ their sexual health awareness show.
Laura and Nikki left Chain Reaction in 1995 and 1997 respectively, but Sarah remained to continue the development of the organisation to its award winning status of today.
