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