Hello and thank you for reading the next chapter in this collaborative story. I’m excited to share this next instalment with you, but before I do, I’d love to set the scene for how our storytellers are meeting this story.
Raveningham is a small village in rural Norfolk, East Anglia; flat lands, large skies, fields stretching for miles and yes, some sheep. Every year, a sculpture trail is held at Raveningham centre, a cluster of barns and buildings selling antiques, vintage fashion, second hand toys, cakes and coffees. Throughout the woodland here, sculptures are thoughtfully created and placed to respond to a theme. This year’s theme is Mythos – the story we tell ourselves.
As a multidisciplinary storyteller with a background in immersive, devised and community theatre I wanted to explore how this community of trail visitors could collaborate on a story together. How would the story develop, what might it say about these turbulent days we are all living in?
76 people contributed to Part 2 which I am going to subtitle ‘in which the sheep take over…’
without any more introduction here you have What Happens Next Part 2:
Along came a pig, along came a pig with a weird looking face. Along came a pig with a weird looking face. And, along came a flower which was talking like all flowers hopefully do. Then with the flower, there was, um some,
An army of hedgehogs with no prickles and they were called The Prickeless Army.
Mynda r Lan y Mor (go by the sea)
We sat and we pondered as the sheep climbed the trees.
One sheep looked at me for too long. It knew my soul and was suspicious.
HELLO SHEEP!! I’m going to name you Gary, who keeps Baaaaing, you Bob and you Jeffery who keeps eating grass.
For some reason, some of the sheep keep ‘baaing’ really LOUD. Some of the sheep have blue tattoos!
They live happily ever after until Spring when their lambs were born, then all were busy and had no time to stare.
They can’t go skiing off a mountain and eating ice-cream.
I lay on my back, hands supporting my head watching the sheep drift slowly around the sky. A peaceful moment in a world of turmoil.
I saw a sheep walking through the field. He saw a lamb who had lost its mother so he brought the lamb to his mother.
Ewe, ewe, it’s all about you Ewe.
What do you do Ewe?
I would do it too.
Sheep, sheep, be careful the wolf
Will creep sheep.
It’ll get you when you sleep sheep
So keep one eye open to peep sheep.
Sheep, big and small sheep.
Resisting the urge to steal a sheep, watch out!
Sheepy sheepy burning bright.
Look out! You’ll set the woods alight!
Did you know sheep can hold their breath for 9 minutes?
I wonder what they think of, plunged into the dark, no escape, to cleanse
their wool.
You may see me, but you do not know me.
Please don’t judge me.
The sheep are white
They’ll be alright
They moan all night.
“Hello World”
The leaves danced on
the summer breeze
as time slipped
Through our fingers.
I am red but you cannot see me. I am blue but you cannot see me.
This is a story about a mermaid who wanted to ride a bike…
Life is made of many journeys. Some good, some bad, you never know what your next chapter will bring.
The tension is like a huge, dark fog, slowly falling down from a great height. We will get through this encounter. But what will be waiting for us on the other side?
On the other side there is a dog waiting for you and he will guide you.
What happens next? I win £121million on Euromillions.
Viewing the sheep, how many more are above?
I LOVE SHEEP!
Some of the sheep have escaped the field. They are on the road. Will somebody help them?
And all became green. Covered in vines with flowers blossoming in a thousand colours. And then the fairies arrived.
But no one noticed their arrival until…
The sheep are happy in the field, the grass is green. Mandy the ewe dreams of more than just grass. She dreamt of singing in the opera before her adoring fans. One day, Mandy’s dream comes true. But not this one.
Her dream was always to be a fairy and she was turning into a fairy. She flew to the enchanted tree in the magical forest.
The branches twisted around each other creating beautiful paths leading into the fairy houses. She found that in door number 12 her long lost sister was living in a cosy house with a rainbow sparkling above.
Hi I’m a sheep. One day I was walking in a field, then I saw a magical rainbow, I climbed up the rainbow to sheep world!
In sheep world I saw giant grass (so yummy!) and the Star King gave me magic horns! They could blast rainbows.
I went back down the rainbow to my field. I showed my friends my new super power! They loved it!
My new super power was making fur balls and I covered the field with fluff!
Together we called the field Fluffton and we could play hide and seek for hours and hours until we got hungry. Then I magically prepared grass flavoured candy floss and dandelion burdock to drink. When we were full we laid down and drifted off to sleep to dream of counting people jumping sheep pens.
They dreamed that they are in a magical world with unicorns that go underwater.
Humans that can fly up in the sky and crouch on the clouds looking below at the green of the tree tops.
As I looked down from the clouds, I saw pink and candyfloss looking sheep. They were eating giant logs made of jam sandwiches. As I watched I felt sleepy; I laid my head on the pillow made of leaves on my fluffy cloud. Just as I was about to drift into dreamland, the sheep below turned blue and fell off the cloud, soaring through the sky – I landed like a soft snowflake on to the wishing chair…
The chair was so comfortable – like it was made for me. I look up slowly, so slowly. I don’t want to wake. What’s that? My mouth falls open like and apple dropping from a tree! It cannot be…here…now…with me…
A Pixie! It has silky wings.
It screamed and flew. Why did it go? I will never know.
But then I hear the flutter of wings and silky pixie breath in my ear, mumbling secrets for me to hear…
The end
Or is it?
Callum was here
Dom was here
And so was I
Evie was here!
To meet you.
The trees towered over her. But what frightened her most was the glassed watcher.
Hello!
Eric was a good and loving gentleman, but suffered desperately as people always pointed out how dog like he is.
Callum wanted to express his inner thoughts but was worried that Dom would judge him. He only had until the next school holidays though. Then he was going to stay with his mad Aunty Moo!
She let him do and say whatever he wanted to.
With her, he could be free. He could not WAIT!!
He finally got to her house and shut the door. ‘No need to take my shoes off! I’m kind of hungry. Ohhhh Waffles! Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom. Eeek! They’re all gone! Scream!’
I ran into mad Aunty Moos bedroom… blood all over the floor, but where was mad Aunty Moo?
‘Oh No!...’
As she sat beneath the trees, ghostly voices began to whisper. Sighing like leaves above her, they tickled her brain. She picked up her pen and began to write. As she wrote the voices took shape around her…
Then as she turned her head to focus on the whispers she became cold and fearful, her eye began to twitch…
A noise in the background disturbed her thoughts, was there someone else here?
Her blood chilled at the thought she was no longer alone.
The rustle of leaves and the sound of footfall confirmed, indeed, she was not alone.
A large brown fury bear with beautiful blue kind eyes slowly crept up behind her. ‘At last’ he said, ‘I’ve found you’.
It was a hot day, and as I sat down to write, voices accompanied me – are they telling my story? Or the missing parts of my story. Deep breath, sheep baa, wind rustles in the trees, here I sit.
On a hot, sunny day, while enjoying the sun as I was laying on my deck chair thinking of the horrifying dream I had just two nights ago…
Delphi, age 10, met Delphi age 7 in her dreams. She remembered the summer holiday she has in Norfolk where she slept in a caravan full of spiders. The spiders were friends with the Twiggles and Boggles she met at Bewilderwood. The spiders, Twiggles and Boggles came in Delphi’s room and filled the webs with Bugs!!
I sit hearing the beat of many drums, my heart choosing the rhythm that carries me forward. Bliss in peacefulness takes me to my next story.
Next story
One day there was a king called JHXXQUSimonT85, they lived in Jaquavia.
Once upon a time there was a cat that sat on a mat and he talked considerably.
The rain fell, the sound in the trees drumming out a beat. She stopped and took a breath. The animal inside feeling a need to be freed. Longing to feel the grass between her toes.
The man and woman barely knew each other. But they quickly established that they had a common interest in clouds; their names and whether they foretold rain, wind or sun. As they began to hold hands, the clouds changed shape. Soon they realised that if they moved faster, the clouds would move faster. It was a strange experience that they barely understood. They seemed to be the master and mistress of the weather.
They found some plasters on the ground, pocket debris accidentally discarded. Would they be missed or appreciated?
I found a rock. I liked it.
The point is not to live happily ever after.
The point is to live.
And living comes in many shapes and sizes and forms and feelings. Adventures are always to be had. When Kavita met Ollie at the beginning of this story they had no idea that they would have all the amazing experiences they had. They are still wandering the universe and are about the meet the person who is going to be so important on their next journey…