Wild Workshops

Over the last 3 months my peers and myself from Launch Cornwall College Acting have been lucky enough to complete 6 eye-opening workshops that are completely unique to anything that I have ever done before. From exploring how to use our voices (by embracing the sounds of nature whilst creating ear-chilling music too), to learning how to safely use fire within a performance (through sculptures, pathways, lanterns), and so much more!

Working closely with some of the team, being shown pictures of past shows, and hearing where those stories came from really was a game-changer for me. I am aspiring to be a theatre director and I never considered working with site specific performances but after working with Wildworks I feel extremely passionate about it. The amount of emotion, love & history that goes into these performances is just astonishing. I have always loved how theatre brings people together, but I have never known it to this scale. Communities are brought together like never before to hear true stories from their past. It’s just beautiful, and it’s what makes theatre one of the best things in the world for me.

One workshop that has taught me the most was when we were asked to complete an automatic writing task which included going into a room completely on your own and writing down whatever came to your mind. I struggled with this at first and I couldn’t see the point. However once we had finished and I said mine aloud and I found that the way I said it was engaging and you could find meaning within it, which instantly blew my mind! At that time, we were working on our directing pieces as second years. My piece was a physical theatre-based piece based on my dad’s journey through cancer; my journey through his death and a John Lewis advert that represented us in our minds. I wanted to write a poem to go with it, but I was completely clueless in where to start. After that workshop I went straight home and I thought of things that needed to be linked such as my dad, a bear (character from the advert), and pictures of winter & autumn scenes (seasons in the advert & my dad’s illness). One at a time I mind mapped everything that came to mind when I saw/ thought of these things. I considered emotion, colour, physical touch, smell, and sound. After having loads of random words and sentences, I started putting two and two together. I would change certain words if I needed something to fit, and just tried to make it work until it sounded right.

My piece represents journeys so I needed my poem to do this as well. Therefore I started with the words that represented the start of my journey through my dad’s cancer, all the way through to the end. I would never have been able to write this piece without that workshop. My mind was blank before, but it really opened a whole new world of thoughts and ideas so I’m extremely grateful to be lucky enough to have such inspiring advice from people I’m aspiring to be like.

Working with Wildworks truly has been an unforgettable experience. I have made countless memories in a short amount of time that I will never forget. I cannot wait until we’re reunited and the excitement continues.

Carlotta ~ Rose Sopher

Acting Student at St Austell College

You don’t feel the cold until the Autumn, 

when the bitter twinge of air hits your nose, 

then you can really feel it.

Walking through the forest, you can smell Autumn,

And steam carries smells through the streets,

You don’t smell cold food in the summer,

It only hits you in Autumn.

Leaves falling, once fresh and full of life now crumble, the fall of the tree, 

Skin turns wrinkly with age like people, 

Rigid , sagacious, defenceless 

They fall and die. 

The Dead of things buried under the living leaves, those leaves that were once “alive” are losing their spirit, losing their colour, the excitement for next season, the crunchiness, excitement for new life and new beginnings and new chapters. but that one chapter, that one I didn’t want to venture into. A chapter that I wasn’t ready to read, leaves turned like pages of a story. The aging of the leaf moved quickly, but time moved quicker. Pine tree musk, bonfires burning, toes turning numb. Winter was coming.

Burnt orange. Red. Fire. Build up of rage. Breathe. Holding in the fire, 

I was young and I was angry,

Angry that this was happening, to him, to me, to my family,

I was angry that he was going, falling like the leaves and that he was okay with falling.

Crunching past windows, inhaling the steam of the bubbling stew,

Bubbling like I was,

Bubbling up and over like hot roast dinners that didn’t happen anymore.

The last leaf had fallen and so had he.

I walk the paths of the present whilst he patiently awaits in the past.

Now I’ll always remember how he was my bear and I was his hare. 

I am him and he lives on in me

Carlotta ~ Rose Sopher

Acting Student at St Austell College