Into The Woods

Into The Woods | This is not what you think it is

Get tickets to the show!

A theatrical and multi-sensory show performed by Deborah Ward , written and directed by Emily Trott and co-produced by CoResist. Showing for the first time in Hamilton House on the 12th and 13th of November 2016. This story takes you on a journey through sound and light from the concrete city to the vastness of Dartmoor.

We are all filled with a longing to be wild. When we loose touch with nature, our inner wild natures fade. This story asks us to take a moment to remember the importance of connecting to our natural surroundings and the magic of stories, whilst also challenging our understanding of consciousness and reality.

 Emily Trott’s first ever production merges the intimacy of storytelling with the sounds and textures of theatre. She paints our imagination with glowing imagery and sounds taken from various places in the story, helping to transport the audience from their seat to another land entirely.

Meet the team

CoResist are a collective of artists, activists and educators dedicated to producing transformative performance work and inspirational workshops.

"We believe that the arts and nature are vital in creating a paradigm shift towards a better world." - CoResist

Deborah Ward is a passionate storyteller, comic performer, theatre maker & facilitator. Throughout many of her projects themes of nature exploration and the wild, have been central. She is extremely excited by the project Into The Woods, not only because of the potential to tell a story of much needed human reconnection to nature and the unknown. But further a story that invites the audience into spaces of wild feminine expression, through silence, movement, through soundscapes and the magic of the writing. 

Where is the money going?

- Rehearsal and performance time with Deborah Ward.

- Hiring a producer

- Venue hire at Hamilton House.

- Equipment hire such as lighting, projectors and sound equipment.

- Binaural microphones for the making of the Audiobook. (Available as a reward)

- It will also fund the making of the physical book, complete with my lino printed illustrations. (Available as a reward)

If I don't reach my target of £3500, I won't receive any of the funds and the project will have to wait. It's all or nothing!

But the exciting thing is, I can always over fund! So I have set a stretch target of £4000. If I reach my stretch target I will be able to make limited, special editions of the book, presented in a case complete with the audiobook on an mp3player, a torch and card cut-outs to cast shadows with. The book will be illustrated with my lino prints, pop-up pages and fold out maps. This and the original version of the book will be available to buy in the Coexist shop in Hamilton House next year!

The story

Into The Woods is a story about a girl on a quest to reconnect with nature, the outdoors and the things that bring her alive. In her quest, she leaves her life in the city and revisits her childhood where she grew up on Dartmoor. She hopes that here she will find a future that feels more like her past, full of play and magic and woodland. But as she escapes one life in pursuit of another she experiences a kind of dualism, her soul is divided. When her two souls meet in the deepest, darkest realms of the moor she comes face to face with darkness itself. It is here, in this darkness that she experiences life from a limitless perspective,  free from her human body.

"This is a beautiful and dark story of self discovery and exploration into the unknown, our natural surroundings and our inner selves. Dreamlike, it gathers around you like a mist among the trees." - Jack Offord

The story maps out childhood experiences, the things that shape us, make us look at where we are from and who we have become, laced with a little bit of magic and fairy tale. I strongly believe in the power of storytelling, in this case, a gathering of people coming together to be taken on a journey through sound, imagery, darkness and imagination. I want to create an experience for my audience that conjures a feeling of magic and enchantment, and to tell a story that hopes to take you from your physical world to a more dreamlike place. 

The Tank

The accompanying sound-scape was performed by Lewin Hayes and Jakk Tunicliffe, recorded in an underground, unused water reservoir, which, due to its size, material and structure, is pitch black and creates the longest natural reverberation audible to the human ear. 

I stumbled across this phenomenon in 2010 when I was walking through the woods in Cornwall. At first I saw a strange turret jutting out of the ground, upon further investigation I found a small, rusted door in the hill covered in foliage. Behind the door is a narrow passageway with a low ceiling and a damp smell. As I followed the passage round to the left it got darker and darker until I came to a round tunnel just a few feet in diameter. At this point I could hear my movements echoing through the tunnel. I realised that whatever lay beyond the tunnel was enormous. I climbed in, of course. I found myself standing inside this undisturbed, underground chamber in complete darkness listening to the most extraordinary sounds. I could easily have walked straight past it without ever knowing it was there. I have been back several times to record both naturally occurring sounds and what I like to call 'Pillar Music' - sounds made from tapping the metal pillars in the tank.

Ever since my discovery I have been exploring the notions of being alone in the dark, our fear of the unknown, and how we understand our place on this earth through our human senses.

About me

I am a thinker, writer, dreamer and a maker. And like the character in my story I am also on a journey of discovery. Every stormy day, every time I feel wet grass on my feet, smell bonfire smoke, sleep under the stars, get lost in nature; these are the times I feel wild, these are the times I feel alive and this is what the character in my story is searching for.   

I have been an events coordinator for Coexist for the last year and a half, but left my role in order to devote my time and energy to my own project. This is a story that comes back to me at various points in my life, each time for different reasons. I am now ready, (after several years of thinking, writing and dreaming), to share my story with you.

My inspirations

Camping on Dartmoor

'Meeting The Wild' at Ecodharma

Clarissa Pinkola Estés, 'Women Who Run With The Wolves' 

Miroslaw Bala,  'How It Is'

Samuel Beckett, 'How It Is' 

Experiencing sensory deprivation in a floatation tank. 

Binaural recording techniques

Support

CoResist - Co-producers of the show, offering marketing support.

Coexist - Supporting by offering two days of R&D space in kind

Emily Carding - Gave her time in the initial stages of the project, helping to lift my story from the page to the spoken word.