We made it! The end of another academic year – the 17th year for FINDING THE WILL – and the end of year report is in!

July School Visits

Before ‘breaking up’ for the summer, I managed to squeeze in two more schools in Wiltshire and East Sussex.

Firstly, Rowde CofE Academy, I spent a morning with Y6 discovering A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. There are a lot of characters in The Dream and so, for once, every child had a role to play. In fact, Egeus doubled as Puck, and both Theseus and Titania stepped in for Peter Quince when s(he) had to go to a piano exam! In addition, at this time of year, there is the added benefit of working with children who are gearing up for their End of Year plays, so lots of extra top tips to impart!

“The class loved it and said it was brilliant – they loved the story, but also said that it helped them in their Robin Hood rehearsals, too.”

Head Teacher, Rowde Academy

Thank you Rowde Academy – I hope to work with you again in the future.

The last day in school for this academic year was at Moulsecoomb Primary, Brighton. Here I worked with Yrs 4&5 on MACBETH. There was an array of lovely performances in both year groups and, as so often happens, the children sprung some surprises for the teachers. There were also some ‘surprising’ additions to King Duncan’s Banqueting table – “a handmade and slaughtered turkey” (and why not?), tea and coffee, champagne, an awful lot of pork and the King’s favourite dish – shrimps!

Many thanks to Mrs Fisher for arranging this visit, I hope it won’t be the last!

Final stats for 2023/24

This year was FINDING THE WILL’s 17th birthday and, purely by chance, we’ve visited 17 schools. Oh and The Royal Opera House, Muscat! We’ve led 45 Interactive Workshops and 4 Project Weeks in 13 different counties (Essex, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, hampshire, Sussex, Wiltshire, Birmingham, Bristol, London) and 1 other country (Oman).

The main characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Children at the ROHM dressed in their workshop costumes with Richard and Jules and teachers.
The cast of one of The Dream Interactive Workshops at
The Royal Opera House, Muscat

In total we’ve worked with approximately 1700 children this year aged between 4 and 12. Topping the popularity poll is MACBETH, followed by A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, THE TEMPEST and ROMEO & JULIET respectively.

In Other News……

The FINDING THE WILL family has expanded. Alongside our fabulous regular Associate Practitioners of Nick, Ffion, Fay and Angie, we’ve recently welcomed Izzy and Karen as new practitioners. We look forward to getting them up and running with us as soon as possible. We’ve also got a new FTW mascot in the form of Richard’s beautiful dog FLASH! Well, don’t get too excited, only schools and performance spaces in Cornwall might potentially meet him, but he’s always by Richard’s side when he’s writing scenes for FINDING THE WILL Project Weeks, so Flash is definitely part of the team. He is simply heaven!

Flash – Aaah, he’s the Wonder Dog!

So that just about wraps up Year 2023/24. It started slowly in the Autumn term and then revved up in the Spring and went full pelt in the Summer! To all the wonderful children and staff we’ve worked with throughout the year – THANK YOU! And if you’re in Year 6, remember you are now Shakespeare Ambassadors! Travel safely on with Will in your pocket forever.

Have a lovely Summer everyone and we hope to see many of you again in person in 2024/25.

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