Weymouth College is building on its reputation as a springboard for acting talent.

Its LEAP (Local Emerging Artists Platform) theatre project, which began in 2009, aims to encourage alumni from the performing arts department to work on the premises as a company in residence for a year after graduation.

Artists gain rehearsal and office space and equipment, mentoring and a public platform to test out new work, while current students can witness fresh new professional theatre from inception to performance.

This year, Rummage Theatre is using Leap to jump off to other things. Made up of Rhea Soulsby, Lauren Whitehead and Hannah Soulsby, the company’s debut production is Cleansed, about the infamous Magdalene Laundries that existed in Ireland until the late 1990s.

Rummage will perform the show at the Edinburgh Festival and the Compass Festival, which is part of Weymouth’s 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

In Cleansed, elderly Sister Brigid, played by Hannah, sits in her retirement home with her helper May (Lauren).

Their relationship is not all it seems and as the play unfolds, unpleasant truths are uncovered and the past laid to rest.

Between the late 18th and 20th century, Magdalene Laundries were run by the Catholic Church and used as dumping grounds for wayward girls, fallen women and unmarried mothers.

Hannah said: “The story is about how women coped with these traumatic events and how it affected their future lives and that of their families.”

Rhea added: “The research was really shocking. A lot of questions remain unanswered. A lot of girls didn’t understand why they were in the laundries.”

Lauren said: “The women were given a lot of reasons why they were in the laundries. Some were prostitutes and unmarried mothers, others were seen as being promiscuous or were pretty and thought of as a danger to men.”

Cleansed is at the Bay Theatre, Weymouth College on June 20 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £8 plus concessions.

It will also be performed as part of Compass Festival in the Bay Theatre on August 15 at 7.30pm. Call the box office on 01305 208702 for tickets and full details.

To contact Rummage Theatre to help with sponsorship for Edinburgh and beyond, email leap_theatre@weymouth. ac.uk or call 01305 764726.