2024 – How was it for you?
End of 2024 – how was it for you? I can’t believe we have reached the end of the year already, but here we are. Thank you for finding the will and wherewithal to work with us for us another incredible year.
Flaming June – well WE were cooking!
A sparky group of children with interesting ideas of how Hermia and Lysander could be together, despite the law of Athens!
You are now official Shakespeare Ambassadors!
“Naming The View was a really special night. Quality writing and performances came together and we were all invested in your every word. We haven’t stopped talking about it.”
Terrific Talent in Tempest Triumph!
Here at FINDING THE WILL, we love helping small voices to get bigger and low confidence to get greater. That happened last week too of course, but what we were less prepared for was the raw talent on show!
If only we could have bottled last week, we would have the ‘Elixir of Performance’ – no matter how small your role, you can still make a huge impression.
Last one of the year!
It’s the Last blog of the year already! I genuinely don’t know where 2023 disappeared to but, personally speaking, I’m not too sorry to see the back of it. How about you?
Encouraging children to find a voice, and then have the confidence to use it, is even more vital in a world where so many voices are lost amidst the clatter of poverty, abuse, self-importance and general hubbub.
Hello Autumn My Old Friend
here we are at the beginning (actually almost in the middle) of the Autumn Term and I’ve only just realised that we’ve not spoken since the end of the Summer term.
Delighted to say we are heading back to a lovely school in Hornchurch in a couple of weeks.
The co-founder, and inspiration for FINDING THE WILL, Richard will be performing CALL ME OZ at The Bridge House Theatre, London in November.
Merry Christmas from the FTW Family!
Merry Christmas! As the temperature outside plummets, I’m sitting here (wearing 4 layers) and hoping that you are all warm, safe and, somehow, surviving. It’s been a funny old year for FINDING THE WILL, We’ve worked in a mixture of old and new schools countrywide. Our performing work has been seen on screens in the UK and Ukraine, and live on stage in Canada and in the South West of England. Whilst the academic year 22/23 has got off to an inevitably slow start, thanks to the cost of living crisis in all walks of life, we remain optimistic for the coming year. We finished 2022 with a cracking morning at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Hornchurch – read about it in our last blog. Now, with the Christmas holidays in touching distance, we are looking forward to the new year. 2023 We’ll be back with a bang in January at one of our old favourites – Great Leighs Primary School, Essex. Nick and I will spend a week with KS2 working on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. In previous years we’ve tackled Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night and Hamlet, so this magical mayhem of a comedy promises to be great fun. And at Great Leighs everyone, even the Kitchen, gets completely involved! Following on we will revisit Whitehall Primary, Bristol for more of THE TEMPEST with Year 3, Castleview Primary, Slough for more of MACBETH and St Catherine of Siena, Lee Bank, Birmingham for both A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and MACBETH. In April, we are thrilled to be part of the Merthyr Tydfil Children’s Literature Festival providing, amidst other things, MACBETH Interactive Workshops in Welsh! Catch us on screen! If you find yourself at a loose end over the Christmas holidays, or just feel like watching something a little different, can I encourage you to go to www.scenesaver.co.uk. Here, you will find all kinds of theatre productions – Christmas shows, children’s shows, drama, dance, comedy – which you can enjoy free of charge. You can make a donation, which will go directly to the production company if you wish, but there is no obligation. Type in NAMING THE VIEW and you will find our Arts Council England funded film which is available also in BSL, Signed or Audio Described versions. Scenesaver is a wonderful resource and, for us, is a direct result of working with ProEnglish Theatre’s ProAct Fest in Ukraine in the summer of 2022. Thanks Huge thanks to Jack, the talented artist who, unbeknownst to him, designed our Christmas card this year! Jack is 9 (maybe 10 now, not sure, sorry Jack!) and worked with us at BARKSTON & SYSTON CE PRIMARY near Grantham in June this year. We’d also like to thank all the Schools, Teachers, Head Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Support Staff, Office Staff, Governors, Parents, Patrons and, of course, Children that we have worked with and been in contact with throughout this year. It’s been tough, it will undoubtedly get tougher, but we cling on and, together, we will get through it! So all that’s left to say is: MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JULES AND THE FINDING THE WILL FAMILY!
Inspiring Summer in Canada and Ukraine!
August has been an inspiring month for FINDING THE WILL and seen us go global! Our intrepid co-founder, Richard, has been in Canada, performing in the Edmonton Fringe Festival and I (Jules) have been streaming our recording of NAMING THE VIEW for Ukraine. Richard in Canada Jules in Ukraine Well of course I’ve not actually been IN Ukraine, but FINDING THE WILL has been part of an extraordinary Theatre Festival – Pro.Act Fest 2022.. Along with theatre companies from Australia, the USA, and Europe, we were invited to show our work online. Thrilling enough you would have thought but then, as well as screening NAMING THE VIEW, I was asked to interview some of the Ukraine team, The result is conversations with the most inspirational Ukrainian artists (who also just happen to be women). Inspiring Ukrainian Women Anabell First of all I was interviewed by Anabell Sotelo Ramirez about FINDING THE WILL, the work we do in schools, our performing work and the shows we have written inspired by Shakespeare. Of course we talked a lot about NAMING THE VIEW which is still available to view online on SceneSaver incidentally until the end of the Festival on 31 Aug (free of charge unless you wish to make a donation to Ukraine). It is also available in BSL, with subtitles and audio-description. I said to Anabell how impressed I was that an International Theatre Festival is being held in Ukraine right now. Her philosophical answer? “Sometimes you just need to do what you have to do. That’s all.” I remain truly humbled. Tanya Next I had the privilege of talking with Tanya Shelepko – a young dynamic Theatre Director, full of life and enthusiasm against all the odds. She talked to me about her show ‘L_UKR_ECE’ (based on Shakespeare’s poem ‘The Rape Of Lucrece’) and the extraordinary ‘New World Order‘, which was rehearsed and performed in a bomb shelter in Kyiv during the early part of the war. When I asked her “How are you?”, her simple heartbreaking answer was “I’m alive.” Natalia Finally I got to speak with Natalia Ponomarova, the President of the Pro.ActFest. She told me a bit about the history of the Festival – This is its 5th year – and about this year’s theme ‘Unbreakable’. If there was ever an unbreakable nation, it’s Ukraine! She also told me about the live element of the Festival in Kyiv itself, where the contingency plans were for bomb alerts ( as opposed to simply bad weather). Her message to the world “From this little thing we can create our victory.” Looking Ahead So with the inspiring words of these fantastic creative women ringing in our ears, we are looking ahead to the Autumn months of 2022. Fresh from his Canadian triumph, Richard will be performing CALL ME OZ as part of the St Ives Festival in Cornwall on the 13th and 20th September. On 19th November I will be performing both THE DUST BEHIND THE DOOR and THE THIRD WITCH FROM THE LEFT as part of the Valley Arts Festival. More about this nearer the time. And Finally…… It was with deep sorrow that we had to say goodbye to our original Patron Bernard Cribbins OBE at the end of last month. Bernard was also inspiring. He was a true champion of children’s theatre and TV and was known to millions across all ages. We were thrilled when he agreed to become our very first Patron in 2010. Having lost two of our Patrons – the wonderful Sue Pritchard exited this stage early in 2021 – we are on the look out for more. Any suggestions or nominations would be gratefully received! For now though there is only one way to end – with the verse that is so special to Richard and me. It is also incredibly pertinent. For Bernard, For Sue, For the people of Ukraine: “If it must be so, let’s not weep or complain. If I have failed, or you, or life turned sullen, we have these things, they do not come again. But the flag still flies and the city has not fallen.” Humbert Wolfe
End Of Term Report!
During the academic year 2021/22 we have worked in 15 Primary Schools and 3 Special Schools with approximately 1450 young people.
A HUGE End of Term Thank You then to all the schools we have worked with this year.
Our wonderful co-founder and director Richard Curnow is heading to the Edmonton Fringe, Canada
Macbeth Joy in Lincolnshire & Cambridgeshire
What joy there was on the afternoon of Friday 10 June when the entire Barkston & Syston Primary School, near Grantham, Lincs came together to perform Macbeth.
Our minds have been buzzing with memories of Turtle soup, paleontologists, olympic gymnasts and small business owners – and that’s just the workshop!
You can now watch NAMING THE VIEW on demand.
Summer is a Coming in!
Special Offer to all Secondary Schools, Sixth Form Colleges and Universities.
There is something heartwarming about a room full of young children giggling and gasping as a story, written 400 years ago, unfolds.
I will also be working with three new practitioners – new (or nearly new) to FINDING THE WILL anyway.