Script for the drama element of The Gytrash of Goathland

THE GYTRASH OF GOATHLAND

a

A figure dressed in black is standing on the stage. A figure in white is also on stage she is held by the tree guards. The villagers stand up one at a time in the auditorium and say:

Villager 1              Please don’t take her away

Villager 2              Leave her alone

Villager 3              Please don’t do this

Villager 4              She belongs with us

Villager 5              This is the old way

Villager 6              You don’t need to do this

Villager 7              This is the old way

Villager 8              Please let her go

The villagers walk together as a group to the figure on the stage

Julian                     I am the lord and master here. I will have a castle that lasts forever and the

                             old ways demand that a living creature be part of the walls. I have chosen the

                              most beautiful maiden of all, Gytha.

Gytha (crying)      No…please…

Gudrun                My lord, I am Gytha’s father. Please spare her and take me instead.

Julian (laughs)   You will be the one to build the walls.

Group build the castle wall. Gytha weeps throughout.

 Villager 1              And so the castle was built

Villager 2              Stone by stone

Villager 3              And Gytha was placed in the wall

Villager 4              When there were only two stones left…

Julian                     Wait

Villager 5              He gave Gytha a cup of water

Villager 6              And a loaf of bread

Julian                     And your spindle and yarn to keep you busy.

Villager 7              The last stone was put in place

Villager 8              And Gytha cried

Villager 1              And cried

Villager 2              And cried

Villager 3              Until one day she cried no more

Villager 4              Exactly one year later

Villager 5              Julian was in his room

Villager 6              When a terrible wailing was heard

Wailing sounds

Villager 7              It drew closer

Villager 8              and closer

Villager 1              The door of his room

Villager 2              opened with a crash

Everyone claps their hands together

Villager 3              In floated a figure

Villager 4              Wearing the same gown as Gytha

Villager 5              And holding a spindle in her hand

All                           Criss-cross, criss-cross, criss-cross

Villager 6              Invisible threads were woven around his feet and ankles

Villager 7              His feet were numb

Villager 8              All he could do was shuffle

Villager 1              Exactly one year later

Villager 2              It all happened again

Wailing sounds

All                           Criss-cross, criss-cross, criss-cross

Villager 3              Invisible threads were woven around his knees

Villager 4              He was numb from the knees down

Villager 5              Every year for ten years

Villager 6              The spinning maid appeared

Villager 7              Weaving her thread higher

All                           criss-cross

Villager 8              and higher

All                           criss-cross

Villager 1              and higher

All                           criss-cross

Villager 2              Until he could move no more

Villager 3              And his soul departed

Villager 4              In a night of fierce storms

Group forms a storm scene

Villager 5              That night the terrible Gytrash appeared

Group forms the Gytrash

Villager 6              With blazing red eyes

Villager 7              And horns tipped with fire

Villager 8              It’s the evil spirit of Julian

Villager 1              He’s coming for us

Villager 2              Quick, run

Villager 3              No, look now it’s in front of us

Villager 4              And the ghost of Gytha is seeking revenge

Villager 5              She is killing all the young maidens in the village

Villager 6              What shall we do?

Villager 7              How can Goathland be rid of both spirits?

Villager 8              We shall ask advice from the wise woman of Fylingdale

Wise woman        Tain to tither

All                           Tain to tither, tain to tither, tain to tither

Villager 1              But what does it mean?

All                           Bring them together!

High 5s all round

Villager 2              But how?

All scratch their heads   

Villager 8              We shall ask advice from the wise woman of Fylingdale

Wise woman         Lay a trail of honey, salt, and of corn for the Gytrash. Lead him to the graveyard.

Villager 3              What about Gytha?

Witch                    She will find her sworn enemy.

Three villagers nervously lay a trail for the Gytrash. While the others dig a hole. They step back to watch. The Gytrash follows the trail. Gytha draws closer. The villagers huddle closer together. The corn is thrown in to the hole. The Gytrash follows (black out the Gytrash disappears). Gytha moves forward and begins to spin over the place where the Gytrash has fallen. The villagers circle her (black out Gytha disappears). The villagers line up along the front of the stage.

All cast bow.     

Lizi's Brownies. Session 1: Getting to know the story. Some pictures.

Dorcas' practitioner notes - Thought these have a place here, Gabs

Rollercoastival @ Scarborough Literature Festival

Lore Unto Ourselves

Creative Approaches

The idea is that each practitioner has their own unique take on the subject, but is aware that the final ‘showing’ will involve elements from each to produce a ‘whole’ picture, rather than discretely. Equally, there needs to be a sense of each element taking centre stage at times throughout the ‘showing’ so no creative aspect ends up playing more of a supporting role.

When I met with Lizi and Maria, we talked of maximising the dramatic qualities, as the subject matter lends itself to this. Lizi talked of locating speakers in the audience, reading their texts using torches. Lizi plans to explore the character’s perspectives with the children writing in the first person.

Gaby will be working with willow (whom none of us apart from her have met before ;) !!). Rob is considering using voice as the main inspiration for his sound work.

Working together – thank you Rob!!

When Rob and Gaby met with me, we felt the need to find a simple way for us all to communicate was required. With that in mind, Rob has set up a blog to which we can all contribute, so ideas can be shared during the course of the project to help steer the final showing. You can upload pictures, soundfiles, web links etc.

In order to access the blog, you will need the following information:

1.       Go to: www.blogger.com

2.       Sign in with the following info – Email: loreunto@gmail.com, Password: ourselves

3.       You will now be in our Blogger account. You can view the blog by clicking ‘View Blog’, or add a new post by clicking ‘New Post’.

4.       If you are viewing the blog, you can also add a new post by clicking on ‘New Post’ at the top right of the screen.

5.       Everything is pretty self explanatory really. When you click to add a new post, there is a menu bar at the top of the post with options to add links, videos, pictures, etc.

6.       Please put your name in the post title so everyone can see at a glance who has written what.

To look at the blog, the url is: http://loreuntoourselves.blogspot.com/

Practicalities

The Literature Festival has approved a photographer to  document sessions with the children and also of the final event. (I will, of course, check permissions re. photographing the children.) The intention is that the photographs taken during the lead-in workshops will appear in the publication we are producing and that some images from the final showing will be printed up large-scale and displayed on the walls in the library during the festival proper.

I have also asked if Ben Vickers (technician) will be available for the launch to oversee lighting and other technical aspects (awaiting confirmation). I will check with Karen what lighting equipment is available at the library (Gaby, I think you said they had some?).

Schedule/Timeline

Practitioner	Weekdays	March	March	March	March	March	April	April
Lizi	Weds	2nd	9th	16th
Rob	Thurs	3rd	10th	17th
Gaby	Mon		7th	14th	21st
Maria	Mon					28th	4th	11th

I have organised with Karen for the Concert Room and Small Meeting Room to be available on Wednesday 13^th April all day, the intention being that practitioners meet in the morning to plan the final showing and then running through the performance with the children in the afternoon. I will discuss this with the children’s group leaders and confirm.

It is hoped that the Small Meeting Room will be available as a green room during the launch, although it will have been set up as a bookshop for the festival and will be open immediately after the festival launch.

Dorcas' practitioner notes by Gabs

 @ Scarborough Literature Festival

Lore Unto Ourselves

Creative Approaches

The idea is that each practitioner has their own unique take on the subject, but is aware that the final ‘showing’ will involve elements from each to produce a ‘whole’ picture, rather than discretely. Equally, there needs to be a sense of each element taking centre stage at times throughout the ‘showing’ so no creative aspect ends up playing more of a supporting role.

When I met with Lizi and Maria, we talked of maximising the dramatic qualities, as the subject matter lends itself to this. Lizi talked of locating speakers in the audience, reading their texts using torches. Lizi plans to explore the character’s perspectives with the children writing in the first person.

Gaby will be working with willow (whom none of us apart from her have met before ;) !!). Rob is considering using voice as the main inspiration for his sound work.

Working together – thank you Rob!!

When Rob and Gaby met with me, we felt the need to find a simple way for us all to communicate was required. With that in mind, Rob has set up a blog to which we can all contribute, so ideas can be shared during the course of the project to help steer the final showing. You can upload pictures, soundfiles, web links etc.

In order to access the blog, you will need the following information:

1.       Go to: www.blogger.com

2.       Sign in with the following info – Email: loreunto@gmail.com, Password: ourselves

3.       You will now be in our Blogger account. You can view the blog by clicking ‘View Blog’, or add a new post by clicking ‘New Post’.

4.       If you are viewing the blog, you can also add a new post by clicking on ‘New Post’ at the top right of the screen.

5.       Everything is pretty self explanatory really. When you click to add a new post, there is a menu bar at the top of the post with options to add links, videos, pictures, etc.

6.       Please put your name in the post title so everyone can see at a glance who has written what.

To look at the blog, the url is: http://loreuntoourselves.blogspot.com/

Practicalities

The Literature Festival has approved a photographer to  document sessions with the children and also of the final event. (I will, of course, check permissions re. photographing the children.) The intention is that the photographs taken during the lead-in workshops will appear in the publication we are producing and that some images from the final showing will be printed up large-scale and displayed on the walls in the library during the festival proper.

I have also asked if Ben Vickers (technician) will be available for the launch to oversee lighting and other technical aspects (awaiting confirmation). I will check with Karen what lighting equipment is available at the library (Gaby, I think you said they had some?).

Schedule/Timeline

Practitioner	Weekdays	March	March	March	March	March	April	April
Lizi	Weds	2nd	9th	16th
Rob	Thurs	3rd	10th	17th
Gaby	Mon		7th	14th	21st
Maria	Mon					28th	4th	11th

I have organised with Karen for the Concert Room and Small Meeting Room to be available on Wednesday 13^th April all day, the intention being that practitioners meet in the morning to plan the final showing and then running through the performance with the children in the afternoon. I will discuss this with the children’s group leaders and confirm.

It is hoped that the Small Meeting Room will be available as a green room during the launch, although it will have been set up as a bookshop for the festival and will be open immediately after the festival launch.

The Full Story

As I prepare for my first session tomorrow, I am aware that I want to sugar the pill a little. I know we all enjoy a good ghost story from a young age, but I am aware that talking to 7 - 10 year old girls about walling a young virgin girl up in a castle needs gentler language.. perhaps.

Tell me, are you all using the original story and original language? Or are you taking the story as inspiration/a springboard?

Lizi

First post!

Hi all!

Here's the blog...finally!

And here is a link to the story of the Gytrash of Goathland...

http://www.box.net/shared/b9nddch0ki

Rob