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……
All Hail Jules and Ange!
Sometimes, at the end of a workshop, we get thanked. Sometimes, we get a cheer. Rarely do we get a full on salutation of gratitude such as this!
Mention must also go to the three awesome witches! Whether it was the Halloween effect or, as I suspect, their genuine delight at having licence to cackle, they were great!
FINDNG THE WILL can actually make the lives of teachers easier too!
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.
Woodpecker or Monkey Brains?
Last week we went from Verona to Athens back to Italy and finally to Scotland!
“Woodpecker seasoned with pepper”. I think there’s a tongue twister in there somewhere!
So, here at FINDING THE WILL, we have a policy of Gender Blind Casting
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!
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