Research session at Birmingham Hippodrome continued

 

And finally here we are: the general public responded to our callout and a number of local historians, archivists and family members came and talked to us about their memories and stories linked to WWI.  It was an astonishing day, and we are extremely grateful to all those who came to this session, or who contacted us by email or phone with information.

 

 

 

 

At the end of the session the group sat round to discuss their experiences.  The general consensus was that it had been a huge success and the boys had really enjoyed both interviewing, and finding out so much information about WWI in general, and the soldiers who fought in it. 

 

Research session at Birmingham Hippodrome continued...

A quick break from interviewing and some ideas for the production perhaps?

 

 

 

And time for some final creative scenes before the general public arrive...

 

Research session with Izzy Mohammed - Birmingham Hippodrome - December 2013

 

In December we held a second research session at Birmingham Hippodrome.  We were very lucky to have Izzy Mohammed from Birmingham Central Library with us to discuss oral history and how to gather it.


Here the boys practice their new interview skills which were to become very useful during the session later that day with the general public ...

 

 

 

 

And Janice has a quick talk with them about their character's 'back-story' while there's a break in the action... 

 

Research session - 11 December 2013 - Carpenter Place residential home

 

On the 11th of December we had a wonderful time interviewing the elderly about WWI at Carpenter Place residential home. The participants engaged with these lovely people through discussions, songs and a short moment of rock and roll before we left.

 

 

 

 

While we were singing Christmas songs, resident George surprised us with a beautiful song about his time in the army during WWII.  Have a listen!

Visit to the memorial chapel, Warwick

 

 

We could not leave Warwick without visiting the memorial chapel at Saint Mary's Church and paying our respects to those who had laid down their lives.

 

 

RRF museum visit continued....

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Bennett (curator at the RRF museum) had kindly arranged for re-enactor Paul Thomson to come along to the session.  Paul inspired the boys with his "day in the life of a WWI soldier". He brought in some objects from the period for the boys to handle...

 

 

 

 

....which we think they rather enjoyed!!

At the end of the day we got the boys started on some 'drill', under the watchful eye of actor and support artist Greg Hobbs, an ex-soldier himself.  We see it as a good step towards our production - what do you think?!

Visit to the Royal Regimental Fusiliers (Royal Warwicshire) musem, Warwick - November 2013

 

In November we visited the RRF museum (Royal Warwickshire) in Warwick to learn more about the living conditions of the soldiers fighting in the First World War. The participants were asked to develop emotion graphs which emphasize the feeling of the soldiers during the Great War and to gather data from different media (notebooks, diaries, newspapers, etc) in order to create complete biographies of soldiers. 

 

 

They also got to try on some of the uniforms!

 

 

 

(modelled on the right by our Romanian placement student, Andrada!) 

Inspiration session continued

 

As well as the poem, Chocolate Soldiers All, we also looked with the boys at a couple of original 'letters home', written by soldiers going into battle, incase they should not return.

 

The boys were asked to create a character, a soldier recruited from Birmingham. They then wrote a 'final letter home' as that character to their loved ones, just as the soldiers did when they joined up. Have a look at the selection below that represent their response to two ‘letters home’ written by Birmingham lads and men.  These are likely to become part of the final production in some way.

 

 

 

Inspiration Day session

We met for the first time at the Birmingham Hippodrome.

During our first meeting with the boys, we shared this artefact: the poem ''Chocolate Soldiers All'' written by Richard Louis-Bertrand Moore and published in the ''Birmingham Post'' at the end 1916.

“Chocolate Soldiers All”

THERE were three battalions raised in “Brum”                          

About two years ago,

They dres’t us in blue

And put us on view

And petted us don’t-yer-know.

They put us in billets at Sutton,

Paid 19 and 3d. a head,

Lived on the best,

Thought it a jest,

And the populace were not the least impressed,

For the wiseacres smiled and said:

“They’re only for people to look at,

“That’s what they’ve been raised for;

“They’re only chocolate soldiers,

“They’ll never go to the war”.

Then we were shifted to Wensleydale,

And, after six weeks up there,

They moved us again

Down to the Plain,

And khaki we had to wear.

We’d finished with billets for ever

And laid the blue on one side,

We went thro’ the mill

At Bayonet drill

And divisional schemes which were harder still,

And still the knowalls cried:

“They’re only the City Battalions

“So spick and span and spruce:

“Birmingham’s chocolate soldiers,

“For ornament, not use.”

Then we were shifted from Salisbury Plain,

And, after that, in due course

Bu train and ship

We took a trip

To the jolly old B.E. Force.

An’ ever since then we’ve been scrappin’

Or restin’ (that means fatigues),

And the boys shaped well

‘Mid the shot and shell

And we’re been in places that rivalled hell

And marched for many leagues:

But we often say to each other now

(It’s a joke we can’t forget):

“They said we were ‘Chocolate Soldiers,’

“But we haven’t melted yet.”