Playwright Martin Travers on how Cupid, Draw Back you Bow came about
The WAC Ensemble is a theatre company for care experienced young adults aged 18-26. It offers a positive, supportive and empowering creative space where to explore and learn about all aspects of a professional theatre and develop creative talents.
Allan and Chloe from the ensemble transcribed and edited the devised scenes that were all set at a camping trip in Scotland that goes hellishly wrong.
I sat down with a whole lemon loaf and a gallon of tea and stitched the wonderful nastiness together.
Sound Designer Rikki Traynor then brought the sounds of rust, lost souls and ripped sonic drones to the party.
We rehearsed over Zoom and then met with Rikki to record the scenes on different days in the Rose Garden in the Gorbals, Ruchill Park and Cathkin Park (don’t remind us about the grass cutting tractor).
We hope you enjoy listening to Cupid, Draw Back Your Bow as much as we enjoyed pushing the boundaries of how dark we could make it. Don’t listen at night. Do not listen alone. Do have a listen by candlelight when you and your fellow campers are carving your pumpkins!
For their latest project, the group have created their own horror story for radio, Cupid Draw Back Your Bow. Here, Playwright Martin Travers tells us more about how this project began:
The WAC Ensemble were meeting weekly over Zoom from April with me and director Colin White this year and we started to talk about films we have watched recently. We quite quickly started to discuss horror movies. What we liked about them. What worked. What didn’t work. What made a story scary and gripping?
Everyone was getting quite excited about the horror genre, so we decided as a company to try to make our own horror story for radio. We chose a style because the ongoing COVID 19 restrictions meant that a traditional play format wasn’t possible. I am so glad we did choose to work with human voices alone. It opened up a dark and brutal world that just wouldn’t work on stage.
Each of the ensemble created their own characters. We then devised scenes where the characters came into conflict.
Allan had created an animation of a skull on fire that he shared with us and this became part of the story. It is so cool and scary and haunting that we had to use it! (Check out the animation below.)
The WAC Ensemble were meeting weekly over Zoom from April with me and director Colin White this year and we started to talk about films we have watched recently. We quite quickly started to discuss horror movies. What we liked about them. What worked. What didn’t work. What made a story scary and gripping?
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| The group have continued to meet regularly online. |
Everyone was getting quite excited about the horror genre, so we decided as a company to try to make our own horror story for radio. We chose a style because the ongoing COVID 19 restrictions meant that a traditional play format wasn’t possible. I am so glad we did choose to work with human voices alone. It opened up a dark and brutal world that just wouldn’t work on stage.
Each of the ensemble created their own characters. We then devised scenes where the characters came into conflict.
Allan had created an animation of a skull on fire that he shared with us and this became part of the story. It is so cool and scary and haunting that we had to use it! (Check out the animation below.)
Allan and Chloe from the ensemble transcribed and edited the devised scenes that were all set at a camping trip in Scotland that goes hellishly wrong.
I sat down with a whole lemon loaf and a gallon of tea and stitched the wonderful nastiness together.
Sound Designer Rikki Traynor then brought the sounds of rust, lost souls and ripped sonic drones to the party.
We rehearsed over Zoom and then met with Rikki to record the scenes on different days in the Rose Garden in the Gorbals, Ruchill Park and Cathkin Park (don’t remind us about the grass cutting tractor).
 |
| The group recorded the play outside |
We hope you enjoy listening to Cupid, Draw Back Your Bow as much as we enjoyed pushing the boundaries of how dark we could make it. Don’t listen at night. Do not listen alone. Do have a listen by candlelight when you and your fellow campers are carving your pumpkins!
Visit our website to listen now - if you dare! Cupid Draw Back Your Bow is recommended for ages 15+. It contains scenes of violence, drug references and strong language throughout.
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