In His Own Words

Robert Winslow, Artistic Director

Photo by Marlon Hazlewood

October 26th, 2010

I suppose I should wait a day for my weekly blog in order to recover a bit from my three-day tour to the World War I battlefields in France. But I think it's better to write now from the heart before too much of my conscious, orderly mind intervenes.

Walking in the driving rain in a Canadian war cemetery near Courcelette on the Somme Battlefield, attending The Last Post ceremony under the Menin Gate in Ypres, standing before the stunning Vimy Memorial to the missing Canadian soldiers of World War I, walking through a German cemetery containing 44,830 dead, visiting a newly created graveyard for Australian soldiers just identified this year after lying anonymously in a German burial pit near Fromelles for ninety years, being at the little hillside near Ypres where John McCrae wrote 'In Flanders Fields', all these experiences and many more humbled me and moved me greatly. There is no way to describe the scale of loss, pain, fear, bravery, sacrifice endured by those millions of young men who participated in World War I. There were so many stories of heroism, useless death, maiming of soul and body, triumphant victory, hellish battle that I will have to wait till I return to present some of my reflections to my community back home.

And the stories of the millions of civilians dispossessed of their homes, the experiences of the mothers and wives and fathers and daughters and girlfriends and children of the fallen, all these are part of the picture too.

What I have learned and experienced over the last three days has clarified somewhat the context for my new play about the war and its effects. By being in the places where these massive events took place gives a playwright more to work with as the imagination begins to percolate through the historical. I hope I can in a small way honour the memory of this time.

This past week I also visited The National Archives and the Imperial War Museum in London, reading through medical case files for shell-shocked soldiers and listening to many stories of war veterans at the War Museum's sound archive - testimonies given in the 1970s through 1990s by World War I soldiers, medical officers, nurses, ambulance drivers, officers. Again the context for my writing deepens and becomes more and more specific.

I also managed to take in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London last week. Very interesting production that was set in a kind of present-day police state. Apparently, Elizabethan England was a bit of a police state itself with lots of spies and surveillance of citizens and dissidents. The National Theatre's artistic director, Nicholas Hytner directed the production, which has received many accolades.

Well, I'm keeping it rather short this week and will touch base again next Monday after my return from East Anglia where I am visiting a theatre company called Eastern Angles and also learning a bit about the Saxons of what we call The Dark Ages.

Cheers.

Rob

In His Own Words

Robert Winslow, Artistic Director





Photo by Marlon Hazlewood

October 15th, 2010

Well, another week is coming to an end here in Farnham. The time is flying by with so much to do and see and research. I'd like to say it's becoming old hat for me, the London underground system, but every journey throws a new wrinkle at me. The English tube (subway) trains are much smaller than ours in Canada and like everything else over here, promote the maximum use of space. And we are packed in like sardines in rush hour! London is electric though. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe I'm actually walking by Big Ben or Saint Paul's or Tower Bridge. The city has so many different areas, each extremely interesting. I'll never have time to discover them all even if I were here two years instead of two months.

Research on the new play Wounded Soldiers is going well. As I think I said before any time you really dig into a topic, the stereotypes and pre-conceptions you brought to it inevitably go out the windlow - unless of course one is terminally stubborn - and you have to start thinking in new ways about the past. This exploration of course is what gives 4th Line plays their ring of authenticity. I think our audiences expect this of us and can sniff out generalizations and superficiality.

This week on Wednesday I was at the Imperial War Museum in London. Rosanna Wilkinson, a daughter of a cousin of mine from Enniskillen, Ireland, works in the photographic section. They have over 1 million photos from the two World Wars. Only ten thousand of them are digitalized. I was able to browse the collection and find amazing images from particular World War I battles. What a treasure trove! The odd specifics revealed in some of the images are interesting. For example, in one photo from the aftermath of the Battle for Courcelette on the Somme in September 1916, a Canadian soldier is seen holding a black puppy that had been lying on the body of his dead German master, an officer killed in the battle. In another photo you see the dog being presented to a nurse at the Casualty Clearing Station behind the lines by the same soldier and his buddies. Of course there are many photos of the artillery barrages and men going over the top and the dead from both sides on the battlefield. But there are also those everyday moments, like a Canadian soldier cosying up to a young French woman in charge of a railway gate in a village near the Front lines.

Speaking of Canadian soldiers I was at a local history talk the other night in Epsom. There was a large Canadian army camp and convalescent camp called Woodcote Park there during World War I. After the talk I asked the speaker and the local audience if they had any stories about the Park and the Canadian soldiers stationed there. One lady said there was a famous one about the Canadian soldiers storming the local police station and causing quite a ruckus. I am going to follow this anecdote up and find out more about what happened almost 100 years ago!

Next weekend I am traveling to France on a three-day battlefield tour to Ypres, the Somme and Vimy. I am sure I will experience something as a Canadian that I have never felt before.

So cheerio and so long till my next missive! I will report again on October 26! Take care all. I'm missing the autumn colours. They're rather muted over here.

Rob

In His Own Words



Photo by: Marlon Hazlewood

Robert Winslow, Artistic Director

October 8th, 2010

I've had a really busy seven days seeing three plays in London, meeting with the Battersea Arts Centre artistic director at Clapham Junction, and making research trips to Barnardos UK at Barkingside East London and the Surrey History Centre in Woking. The plot thickens as I research the background for my new play Wounded Soldiers. Barnardos set me up in an office looking out onto a beautiful green in the former Barnardos Girls Village and gave me full access to their archives which include many rare historical publications shedding light on my subject of Barnardo's care of children in the early 1900s. In Woking, Archivist Julian Pooley had already pulled several books for me at the Surrey History Centre including Case Books from the Earlswood Asylum in Redhill and the Manor Asylum in Epsom. In fact, Epsom's looking more and more like the setting for my play as there was a very large Canadian convalescent soldier's camp there during World War I - Woodcote Park. Some of these soldiers recovering from wounds and shell-shock were treated at nearby Horton Military Hospital. At this hospital the play Ian McLachlan and I are writing may take place. The thing about any subject is you can research a certain amount on the internet but when you want to get to the nitty gritty and complicated parts to make connections and draw believable scenarios it is necessary to get up and move - in this case to England! - to find out a deeper level for the story you are exploring.

Speaking of exploring, this weekend I am traveling to North Devon. This was where my Winslow ancestors left from in the early 1600s to settle in the Enniskillen area, Ireland. When I researched and wrote The Winslows of Derryvore all those years ago I vowed to find out about the Anglo-Saxon ancestors of 17th century Guy Winslow. So here I go into the unknown again. Maybe a new play will arise - I'm connecting at the end of the month with a company in Ipswich called Eastern Angles. They have done Saxon plays and who knows? Maybe they'll want to work with 4th Line on a play set in the fifth century! The really old Winslows!!

Well, I'm off the see a play tonight here in Farnham about an old vaudeville/music hall entertainer called 'Sid Lester's Big Night'. Next week I'm hoping to go to the Imperial War Museum in Southwark, London. Let me conclude by saying that taking the tube in rush hour and watching the people pour out of Clapham Junction train station now ranks for me as the most people in the smallest space I've ever seen in my life. Millbrook's numbers get turned over every 30 seconds. It's like being carried down a river with a strong current, changing underground trains in London. And while watching Henry IV Parts One and Two in Shakespeare's rebuilt Globe Theatre on the South Bank the 747s pass overhead every two minutes or so. The actors look up a few times but then just forge on. I stood for one of the two plays as a groundling just like in the 17th century. The plays were great - reminded me of watching the shows and weather at 4th Line, since you stand in the open-air. And it didn't rain even though rain was predicted! I wore my lucky rain coat!!

Until the next report... cheers!

Rob

In His Own Words

Robert Winslow, Artistic Director


Photo by: Marlon Hazlewood

October 1st, 2010

Rainy and windy outside as I sit here at my desk at Farnham Maltings Arts Centre. Gavin Stride and the staff here have been wonderful in making me feel at home in this bustling multi-disciplinary centre. Everything from theatre to film to kick-boxing to dance to pottery to bridge to yoga to jazz nights go on here, providing the Farhnam community with a plethora of community spaces for getting together and being creative. Millbrook should have one of these! There are four residenct performance companies here and several other associated companies who develop work for touring and presentation. Farnham has its own productions as well. I'll be going on tour with their Christmas show in November riding around in their van in Wales I hope.

Already I've made some valuable research and theatre contacts. Today I'm hoping to speak with a director in Ipswich who has run a company called Eastern Angles for the past thirty years. That company develops and produces work about its region. Every day there's something new to learn and someone new to meet as this centre is a magnet for the regional arts community. There's even a nice cafe on the floor below this office!

Farnham is a lovely town with many old buildings and a busy high street. I've been thinking I must start taping the accents and put an audio library together!

Tomorrow I'm off to London to see a play at the Young Vic called On Ageing. Children perform monologues, taking on the personae of elderly people (subtley, I am told).

Next week I'm meeting a theatre producer, Louise Blackwell, at the Battersea Arts Centre in London and getting a tour of the facility. And I'll be going to Barnardos Uk archives in Barkingside, East London. Later in the week I'm off to the Surrey History Centre in nearby Woking to look at materials on World War One relating to my new play in development, Wounded Soldiers.

So, that's about it for now. It may not be until next Friday when I can email again. I'm sure there will be lots more to report!

Cheers,

Rob