Bet you’ve never had a welcome like this!
“Welcome to my office.” These were the words that greeted me when I fell out of a plane at 15000ft!
How you chase your dream (in 1 easy lesson)
Have a listen – I dare you not smile!
Be like Mario and keep chasing your dream..
Do children really enjoy Shakespeare?
“Do children really enjoy Shakespeare?” is a question I am often asked. This month Finding the Will will be working with just over 500 children aged between 4 and 11. Judging by the gasps, laughter and forests of hands shooting up to volunteer to play characters from the 300 children we have worked with so far in June, I’d say the answer is a resounding “Yes”! Joseph Cash Primary, Coventry I began the month visiting this lovely school in Coventry. The motto here is ‘Together We Laugh, Together We Learn’. I love this! Actually, it’s pretty much the ethos of Finding the Will and our approach to Shakespeare. You might think there is little opportunity for laughter in MACBETH but you’d be wrong. When King Duncan’s favourite dish is a Big Mac provided by Macbeth himself, it’s very funny (fair enough, you might have to be there to fully appreciate this). Alongside the laughter, the children came up with some really thoughtful answers. What DOES the witches’ riddle ‘Lesser than Macbeth and greater’ actually mean? How about ‘Lesser in rank but greater in person’? Now that’s clever and one of the best answers I’ve ever heard to this conundrum, And talking of witches, what about ‘Baby’s teeth’ as an extra ingredient in the witches’ brew? Do children really enjoy Shakespeare? You bet! With thanks to Ms Nettey for inviting us in for the first time to work with Y6. Westende Junior, Wokingham Day One The next day, Nick and I set off for Wokingham and our sixth annual visit to Westende Junior. At this busy two form entry school, we work with all four year groups in KS2 (that’s 240 children) and each year does a different play. This time we began with Y6 and MACBETH. Perhaps it was something in the June air but, once again, the witches’ brew threw up some creepy, if not exactly delicious, extra ingredients: ‘3 fingers from a newborn’ and ‘koala’s liver’. No, I wouldn’t want to meet this lot on a blasted heath either…..As it was the last workshop with this particular year group (over the years they’ve done THE TEMPEST, ROMEO & JULIET and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM with us), we spoke about them moving on to secondary school as Shakespeare Ambassadors. What will they say when they meet people who say ‘Shakespeare’s so boring!’? Answer from a Y6 boy near to me “Shakespeare’s cool, not boring”. Next we worked with Y3 on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. This was, of course, their first experience with us and, possibly, the works of Shakespeare. So how did these children enjoy it? Well if I said to you that the wedding outfits for Theseus and Hippolyta are going to be an orange cloak for Theseus and a long red dress for Hippolyta (with orange flowers in her hair), you’ll understand that they soon got really into it. Faced with Hermia’s dilemma of whether to obey or disobey her father and the law of Athens (potentially risking her life), here is one imaginative solution: “I’d become a nun, then run away from the nunnery, kidnap Lysander and poison my father” I mean it’s a whole different play – a rather wonderful spin-off! Day Two Day 2 at Westende was spent in Italy. Starting with Y4 in Verona, we entered the world of ROMEO & JULIET. More life-changing dilemmas for the children to face. Firstly the violence on the streets of Verona – how do you react? A mixture of terror and enjoyment encapsulated by one citizen, “It’s exciting but I want it to stop”. And if you were Friar Laurence, would you risk marrying Romeo to Juliet or is it simply asking for trouble? This is a tricky one. A considered answer was “No I wouldn’t do it, but then he’s my friend, so let me have some time to think about this”. We really should ask children what to do more often. Finally, we made it to Milan with Y5 and THE TEMPEST. These children did ROMEO & JULIET with us last year, so it was interesting to watch them when we asked them to stand for a Caliban versus Prospero argument. The first thing some of them did was to bite their thumbs. I mean if you take nothing else away as a long term memory, you might as well remember a good old Italian insult! Perhaps as a result of last year too, when it came to Ferdinand and Miranda falling for each other, there was far less fuss than usual. At the end, the whole company (including the Royal Table Clearer, the Royal Laundress and the Royal Body Guard) got back on board the Good Ship Bernadette of Wales to sail back to Italy. As Caliban waved goodbye on the cliff, everyone joined in with “This Island’s Mine!” to finish off two lovely days. A huge thank you to Miss Ogilvie for liaising with me to organise such a special couple of days. Conclusion So, do children really enjoy Shakespeare? Oh yeah! Why else would children come up to you after a workshop and ask “Which play are we doing next year?” In the next couple of weeks Nick and I are running solo A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Interactive Workshops in Cheshire and Brighton respectively. Then Richard and I are heading for Lincolnshire to a fabulous school to run a Project Week on THE TEMPEST. This gorgeous little primary school has around 90 pupils and they are all going to be involved. When I say ‘all’ I mean ALL!! Reception and KS1 as well as KS2 children will each have solo lines to say. So I’ll report back on how the Reception children stole the show in a couple of weeks. For now then, lastly, but certainly not least, please welcome our newest Patron, the one and only renowned Children’s Illustrator (Winnie the Witch, Winnie and Wilbur)……kOrky Paul! We are delighted to have him on board!
600 Manchester children love Shakespeare
600 children in Manchester have fallen in love with Shakespeare. And another 170 in Peterborough have also got the bug. What’s going on?
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.
End of the Year – We Made It!
At the end of the year, we’ve worked with approximately 1700 children aged 4-12, in 13 different counties and 1 other country.
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.”
Clowns To The Left Of Me…….
Clowns have certainly been to the Left of me this month, and Jokers to the right too! I’ve had a day of THE TEMPEST, (Trinculo being the Clown); a magnificent array of poems from Year 4 at St Miichael’s Junior, Chelmsford, (favourite line being ‘Tortured Clown In A Crown’), then a delightful Shakespearean evening with my old friend, Tweedy the Clown! Oakmeadow Primary School, Shrewsbury Shropshire is a county that has eluded FINDING THE WILL up to now. However, the day before Shakepeare’s 460th birthday, we cracked it with a visit to Oakmeadow Primary School in Shrewsbury. This is a thoroughly modern, light and bright school which invited us in to be part of a ‘Theatre Day’. All 8 classes in KS2 took part in 4 hour-long Interactive Workshops on THE TEMPEST led by Nick and me. So, 4 times on Monday we boarded The King’s Vessel, bound for Naples, each time seemingly struck by a devastating storm at sea. The 4 vessels in question were named ‘THE DYLOPHOSAURUS’; ‘THE LEVIATHAN’; ‘THE DONUT‘ and ‘THE WATERMELON UNICORN’ by Years 3-6 respectively. In our limited time, we met all the characters including Trinculo the Jester or the clown. Sadly we didn’t have time to gather new material for Trinculo as we often do, so it looks like he’ll be trotting out the Knock Knock jokes for a few more years to come! Vocabulary One thing that really struck both Nick and me was the remarkable vocabulary that some of the children (across all the classes) came out with. Words like ‘Betrayal’ and ‘reneged’ in relation to the breaking of a promise; ‘Distraught’ and ‘vexed’ regarding Caliban’s feelings about his unfair treatment. Equality and Respect are two of the values promoted by Oakmeadow Primary, so it was interesting to present a play that often demonstrates the opposite. Sometimes you only appreciate the true worth of values when they are challenged. Many thanks to Miss Gill for arranging our visit and our first foray into Shropshire! St Michael’s Junior, Chelmsford “A Tortured Clown In A Crown” Title by Hannah – Year 4, St Michael’s Junior, Chelmsford What a thrill to receive a veritable anthology of Lyric Poems from Year 4 at St Michael’s Junior inspired by our recent MACBETH Interactive Workshops. The poems are all amazing and so it was incredibly hard to pick a handful to share with you. To celebrate Shakespeare’s 460th birthday, here goes – I think he would have been impressed! Thank you Mrs Orton for sharing this impressive work with us! Clowns and Shakespeare If you have ever had the joy of watching Tweedy the Clown at work, either in the circus (notably Gifford’s) or in pantomime (Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham in recent years), you will know what a phenomenal talent he is. When I heard he was cast as Bottom in the Everyman Theatre’s production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, it seemed like a match made in heaven. A clown playing a clown! Personally I have performed in The Dream more times than I can remember (playing nearly every character except Helena, the tall one!). I’ve seen some ropy productions and some average ones, but Tweedy playing Bottom the Weaver, now this was intriguing. And he was superb! His comic timing and clowning skills were off the chart, but that wasn’t a surprise. His handling of the original Shakespearean text however…….now that was a revelation! Indeed the whole production was a delight from start to finish – a laugh out loud comedy, just as it was meant to be when it was written, 430 years ago. Tweedy will shortly be touring his own show Tweedy’s Massive Circus throughout the summer. It opens on 24 May at……..drum roll………The Royal Shakespeare Company. Fancy, a Clown at the RSC! It just goes to prove that clowns really can speak truth to power! And Finally….. FINDING THE WILL is thrilled to have two new actors joining our talented pool of practitioners – Izzy Kersley and Karen Payne. I’ll introduce them to you properly next month, suffice to say they are definitely not clowns! ‘Til next time……
January? No, OMAN-UARY!
O Man, what a start to the year! (see what I did there?!)
We’ve always been keen on gender-blind casting here at FINDNG THE WILL,
Now I know you are wondering about the chicken joke, suggested as new material for Trinculo.
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.