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!
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.
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!
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.
The Tempest – a play for our time.
During March we have visited 4 schools, introduced over 500 children and young people to either The Tempest or A Midsummer Night’s Dream and covered almost 1500 miles.
Is it just the climate we are living in? Or is it that young people nationwide are genuinely giving us hope for a better future?
February on Film!
As we draw to the end of February, I have much to report regarding the film of NAMING THE VIEW. The good news is that we are on track for the scheduled screenings next month (hooray!) but it’s been a massive learning curve so far. When I started this whole project back in the second lockdown (November 2020), it seemed like it would be a relatively simple thing to do. A play with a theme of coercive control would attract funding surely, especially if we could involve Television Production students and make it accessible to all communities into the bargain. Not so! Arts Council applications are renowned for being complicated and now I know why! The first attempt failed but I was so sure that this was a project with legs, that I was determined not to give up. I sought more guidance, did more research, drummed up more support and in July 2021 I succeeded! I managed to obtain a full Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant on the second attempt and was over the moon! Surely now it would all be plain sailing! So far, at least 25 people have been involved in the production in a hands on manner, one way or another. Considering that when we perform the show live, it is normally just Richard and myself, you can see why this whole experience has been so challenging! Within the 25+ personnel there are camera operators, boom operators, sound engineers, a vision mixer, a dubbing mixer, a floor manager, a script editor, a data wrangler (a what?), an editor, Signers, interpreters, an audio-describer, a caterer, a director and, last but not least, a couple of actors. Being able to give people paid work, invaluable hands-on experience and another credit on the CV does give me a fuzzy feeling inside though, especially after the last couple of Covid years. When the 5 event screenings are over, we will make the film available to all domestic abuse charities and services free of charge upon request. The play itself reflects on the subtleties of coercive control, and its long-term effects plus offering some hope that things can change. “Naming the View is a simple two-hander with a rather multifaceted premise. This keenly observed piece offers emotive and affecting insight into how people can become trapped in abusive relationships. It’s about surviving and moving beyond that abuse. Naming the View is riven with humour and hope.” Stage Talk Magazine ★★★★ Event Screenings There are 5 opportunities over the next 6 weeks to watch this Studio Drama. The World Premiere screening of NAMING THE VIEW is at The Pound Arts Centre, Corsham at 7.30pm on Thursday 10 March. At 7.30pm on the following 4 Thursday evenings you can catch the film (which lasts just over an hour) online from the comfort of your own sofa! The hosts for these screenings are as follows: RNID (signed) – 17 March; Tortive Theatre – 24 March; intoBodmin – 31 March; Tortive Theatre – 7 April. Please contact jules@findingthewill.com to find out more details. In other news…. So, as the editing and captioning process in Falmouth continued, February saw me back in school. Specifically Whitehall Primary School in Bristol. I spent the day with Year 3 working on The Tempest. In the morning we were sailing from Africa back to Italy aboard The Good Ship Dawn Treader. In the afternoon we were all aboard The Good Ship Rose. Inevitably both ships were wrecked in the tempest (or were they? No spoiler alerts here!) and we all finished up on a desert island awash with magic and mayhem! This February visit to the island was the first of many to come. In March, we will be returning to Prospero’s island via London, Chelmsford and Peterborough. We’ll be stopping off in the magical wood outside Athens via North Tyneside and Bicester on the way. As we say goodbye to February then, there is a lot riding on March! Please do join us for one of the screenings of NAMING THE VIEW if you possibly can and, in the meantime, stay safe. As we say in a play I know very well…. “The flag still flies and the city has not fallen.” We stand in support of the people of Ukraine.