WONDERFUL BEAST THEATRE COMPANY
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  • Lockdown Tales
    • Lockdown Tales: Folktales
    • Lockdown Tales: Verse
    • Lockdown Tales: Modern Stories
    • Lockdown Tales: Musical Tales
  • About Us
  • Work
    • Bubble Wrap
    • Lockdown Tales >
      • Lockdown Tales Readers
      • The Quangle Wangle's Hat Competition >
        • Competition Gallery
    • Shows >
      • The Last Woodwose
      • Return of the Wildman
      • Strange Fish
      • YES: The Adrian Mitchell Show
      • The Dead Moon
      • Maps of Desire
      • Tatterhood
      • The Wolf Road
      • Birth of Pleasure
    • Schools >
      • I Am a Woodwose
      • Abiyoyo & the Musicians of Bremen
      • The Coat of Umpteen Pockets
      • Little Red Chunni
    • Community >
      • The Nightingale
      • The Six Swans
      • Now and Then
      • Behind the Scenes at Mary Warner's
      • Memories of Suffolk
    • Family Shows >
      • Orla Tour
      • Orla's Moon
      • Orla and the Sun
      • The Swineherd and The Princess & The Pea
    • Festivals >
      • How Night Came from the Sea
      • Storm of Stories 2016
      • Storm of Stories 2014
      • Storm of Stories 2012
    • Events >
      • Bottom's Dream
      • Almeida Theatre Benefits
    • Podcast: Stories from the Archives
  • WB Singers
  • Whispers
  • Contact
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YOUR CART

​'IN WATER, I SANG WITH WHALES, CHATTERED WITH DOLPHINS, WHISPERED WITH FISH...'
                                                                                                                                      FROM RETURN OF THE WILDMAN

23/12/2020 0 Comments

WISHING YOU A COSY CHRISTMAS AND A HOPEFUL NEW YEAR

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2020...many of us will be glad to see the back of it. But there have been good times and bad, and for the team at Wonderful Beast, the challenges presented by this year have led to some unexpected and great things (Lockdown Tales, in particular), and some fabulous new connections. To see some of the highlights, and to find out about what we've got lined up for next year, take a look at our Annual Report in brief, which you can find here.

Hoping you all have the best Christmas possible, and here's to a much, much better 2021. See you in the New Year.

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3/12/2020 0 Comments

wonderful beast at first light festival: winter solstice

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A digital celebration of the winter solstice and festive season, streamed into your living room on 20th December!

First Light Festival presents ‘Winter Solstice’: an invitation to stay in good heart and look to the new year.  As the year turns, the winter solstice heralds the restarting cycle of the seasons, reminding us that winter is not forever and life continues.  Although it marks the shortest day, the solstice is also a time for renewal.  The First Light community will be reunited virtually, as we enjoy storytelling, music and dance as we dream of being together on the beach next summer.

Wonderful Beast is bringing  its own special contribution to the festival with a filmed storytelling performance from Hilary Greatorex, with music by Sylvia Hallett. Find out How Night Came From the Sea with the help of a Sea Serpent, in  this beautiful Brazilian folktale.

​You'll be able to watch the event live here via Facebook (you won't need an account as it's a public event).
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1/12/2020 0 Comments

The Cattle Are Lowing

A little bit of musical relief for you all. After months of Zoom singing, and before the second Lockdown, members of the Wonderful Beast Singers thankfully gather in a Suffolk cowshed as darkness falls, to sing together whilst a fire crackles, bats swoop and circle, and Rob Gildon coaxes the group into a more musical rendition of ‘Steal Away’.

Coming up on December 18th, a socially distanced  outdoor Christmas Sing in the same cowshed at 3.00pm. For more details contact info@wonderfulbeast.co.uk . Newcomers welcome. 
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15/9/2020 0 Comments

Alice with her book!

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When our Quangle Wangle's Hat Competition Winner Alice Reeves was unable to come to Aldeburgh Bookshop to collect her prize, we posted it off to her in a jiffy (in more senses than one), and her lovely Mummy sent us a photograph of her when it arrived.

Here is Alice, looking very proud - as she should! - brandishing her copy of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse, ed. Louise Guinness. Congratulations once again Alice! You can also see her to the right with the original artwork, which we hope is now framed on her wall!
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11/9/2020 0 Comments

New recruits for the wonderful beast singers?

The Wonderful Beast Singers have been rehearsing in a garden with an audience of neighbouring cows - and it looks like they approve. Have a listen below...
Wonderful Beast · Wonderful Beast Singers, September 4th 2020
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10/9/2020 0 Comments

And a couple more...

Inspired by all the brilliant children's entries, our Quangle Wangle's Hat reader and competition judge Julia Blackburn couldn't resist getting her paintbox out too - and even her (grown-up!) son Martin has put forward his own artistic interpretation. Here are their paintings. There's something rather William Blake-esque about Martin's - would be right at home in the Book of Urizen!
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Julia's Quangle Wangle's Hat
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Martin's Quangle Wangle's Hat
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7/9/2020 0 Comments

congratulations alice!

We had so many fantastic entries to our Quangle Wangle's Hat Competition - all of which you'll be able to see on our upcoming gallery page, so watch this space, and a huge thank you to everyone who entered. After much careful deliberation from our lovely judge, author Julia Blackburn (who also read The Quangle Wangle's Hat poem for Lockdown Tales), we're delighted to announce the winner as Alice Reeves, aged 8, with her 'Ogglegog'. Isn't he marvellous? Alice wins a lovely hardback copy of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse, kindly awarded by The Aldeburgh Bookshop. Thanks to Julia, John & Mary James at the bookshop and of course, all our fabulous entrants!
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25/8/2020 0 Comments

Forty+ stories and counting!

Since our last entry about Lockdown Tales we have reached over forty stories and poems! They include the Indian tale 'A Drum' told by Anusha Subramanyam, with fabulous drumming by Prathap Ramachandra, and there's more music from opera singer Rob Gildon in the Yiddish story, 'Two Tunes for Three Hundred Rubles', in which he sings the haunting folk melodies that were the undoing of the protagonist.  Montserrat Roig de Puig delights us with a story she heard from her grandmother, 'The Vain Little Mouse', whose reprise 'I don't know, I don't know!' has become a Wonderful Beast household catchphrase, while  Martina Schwarz can be heard singing like a bee in the lesser-known but enlightening tale by the Brothers Grimm, 'The Queen Bee'. On Thursday, Morven Macbeth tells Switch on the Night, a story of a child conquering their fear of the dark.
 
There are only a few days to go before the closing date of The Quangle Wangle Competition on 31 August. Don’t let a young family member or friend miss out! Their art work will be displayed in an online gallery on our website and first prize is a gorgeous hardback copy of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse, awarded by the Aldeburgh Bookshop.

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14/7/2020 0 Comments

COMPETITION TIME!

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Inspired by Julia Blackburn’s rendition of The Quangle Wangle’s Hat, here is an exciting opportunity for children to create an image of that crazy Edward Lear hat, and to add an even crazier animal or creature inspired by the famous poem.

We want as many children to take part as possible so share far and wide with everyone you know between the ages of 5 and 11!

First prize is a gorgeous hardback copy of The Everyman Book of Nonsense Verse (ed. Louise Guinness) will be awarded by the Aldeburgh Bookshop. For more details and to find out how to enter, CLICK HERE!

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2/7/2020 0 Comments

our 30th lockdown tale!


​HURRAH!
 We have now reached our 30th podcast episode, and it comes in the form of local actor Ann Bryson giving her brilliantly funny version of The Swineherd by Hans Christian Andersen. This marks an amazing three hours of continuous storytelling now accumulated, and Ann's reading has been preceded over the last two months by a fantastic variety of stories, which continue to increase twice a week, with new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We're looking forward to sharing more with you over the coming months, with many more performers lined up to record Spanish, German, Yiddish, Scottish and Indian tales as Lockdown Tales becomes increasingly international. We found out just the other day that we have over 200 listeners in Hong Kong!

We welcome you all and would love to hear from listeners anytime, either by using the hashtag #LockdownTales on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, or by getting in touch with us directly. 
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    Author

    Alys Kihl, Founder and Artistic Director of Wonderful Beast.

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