YOUNG poets have been replacing ballistics with linguistics as they helped launch a national search for public perceptions of war.
Students at Risedale Sports and Community College spent a day working with a professional theatre company, a poet and analysing the work of First World War poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.
Year 10 pupils at the Hipswell school, Catterick Garrison, were also inspired to write their own powerful prose, many detailing their personal experiences of belonging to Armed Services families.
These were performed to an audience featuring Catterick Garrison Commander Col Stephen Padgett, Feelgood Theatre Production’s artistic director Caroline Clegg, poet Ben Mellor, North Yorkshire County Council archivists Margaret Boustead and Linda Turnbull, Richmondshire Cultural Education Partnership manager Liam Beeton, principals John Kelly and Mick Hill and English teacher Adrienne Pierson.
Col Padgett said: “War is bad but it is sometimes necessary; we have to fight for what we believe in this country. But when you are younger it is very difficult to make sense of it. Poetry and drama are ways to help you understand because they explore feelings.”
The event marked the launch of Feelgood Theatre Production’s national poetry competition, Whispers of War, an initiative to build bridges of understanding between the military and civilian communities on the impact of conflict today using First World War poetry as a springboard.
Feelgood Theatre Productions designed and delivered the creative writing workshops and is bringing its production of the highly acclaimed Stephen MacDonald WWI play, Not About Heroes, to Catterick Garrison Library on September 16, as well as Ripon Cathedral on September 16 and Richmond’s Georgian Theatre Royal on September 17. The company is also touring France and opens in the West End on November 11.
Artistic director Caroline Clegg said: “This is a really human story of the friendship of Sassoon and Owen, about courage, bravery and the questions of war.
“The poetry competition is open to serving military, veterans, civilians and is designed to find links between the forces and the community. It is an honour to be working with Risedale and Catterick Garrison and be part of the Garrison Origins Project.”
English teacher Adrienne Pierson added: “The workshop was incredibly powerful and I was delighted how well our students responded. It was also a real privilege to host the launch of a national poetry competition which we will follow closely.”
Feelgood was commissioned by the Garrison Origins Project which is party of a larger initiative to gather a host of oral and written information on garrison life in the region as part of a Ministry of Defence’s Community Covenant Scheme.
