Creative Writing, Superheroes & The Mystery of Lightbulb Man

In this episode of Dis-labled, we meet drama and creative writing tutor Ben Wilson to talk about theatre, storytelling, teaching and the creative process behind developing original ideas and characters. 

We also hear Yvonne's imaginative tale of Lightbulb Man, a superhero on a mission to defeat darkness and recover a missing silver duck. Along the way we discuss drama, writing, creativity and the power of storytelling.

00:01:20 - Intro
00:02:11 - What's going on?
00:06:08 - 45 Nowhere Street
00:08:59 - Interview with tutor and project manager, Ben Wilson
00:23:15 - Talking Tales: Lightbulb Man
00:27:43 - Final Thoughts

Project Managers: Andrea Rai & Phil Powell.

Editor: Phil Powell

Project Managers: Andrea Rai & Phil Powell
Editor: Phil Powell

Huge thanks to the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund for supporting our Dis-labled podcast. Learn more about their amazing work: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

All enquiries: podcast@communityfocus.co.uk
Website: https://www.communityfocus.co.uk/

Theme Music: Rastko Rasic & the students of Community FocusOther Music: Jazzy Frenchy by ⁠⁠⁠Benjamin Tissot

Transcript

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Phillip R 0:11

We're here for you. With me and you. I'm here.

Speaker 7 0:22

At five dogs. Yes, we've done it.

Speaker 5 0:29

A weekend with you. We're here for you. Yes. Hooray. Hooray!

Gila 0:47

Community Focus is an art centre for children and adults with disabilities. We are fighting for Power Funage Love London and offer a platinum of creative and well-being activities for all ages.

Speaker 7 1:05

In the room we have Jonathan.

Gila 1:10

Harold Taylor.

Speaker 12 1:13

Bye bye. And Amelia.

Intro

Gila 1:20

In this episode we catch up on how everyone's been doing and chat with Ben Wilson, a creative writing and dramaturger. Ben also happens to be the mastermind behind our biggest top offer 45 Noah Street. And finally we bring you Lightboardman, an offer of our talk entitled this time written by Yvonne. But who is Lightbookman? Tune in to find out.

Speaker 16 1:56

What have you been up to this week?

Phillip R 2:00

Well I I've I had a good time on Tuesday because my team won and that is Arsenal. Yeah! On Wednesday I went out. I went

What's going on?

Phillip R 2:11

I went to a co uh uh a comedy evening and then we went I went to pub first and then the comedy evening as well. It was very nice it was.

Phil P 2:20

What did you do this week?

Amir 2:22

I went off for walking walking myself. Very strange in my area. Where did you walk in strangely? Look around the shop, I guess.

Jonathan 2:35

Mr. Alian. What did you do this week? LOTNA is my nerd club that I go to. We we just chat about things and stuff, you know, then we do a quiz. The quiz questions are very again generalized, you know. Sometimes you know they can be very plain and simple, sometimes they can be a bit of a pain. Depends on because we change the um person doing the quiz, you know, one day it'll be this person, next time it'll be another person. They try to switch things up. You know. No, but I have been considering in the back of my mind doing one, but I don't think I have the confidence to do it. I'm not I'm too nervous to even float the possibility of me doing that.

Speaker 12 3:25

What do you think?

Carol 3:27

So uh last week I went to Australia and I decided to go swimming with sharks. I was in this cage and the sharks were surrounding me, and suddenly they all started talking to me, saying, Hey, how are you doing? And I started having a nice conversation with them, and um I wanted to like take pictures of them, so I like pick selfies of them, and that we were posing. Um and then they came out of the water and they they started like dressing up in these fancy clothes, and they had like a fashion a fashion show with these people, and everyone was like, um, it made it to the news and be like saying the first history of sharks coming out of the water and posing as models, and there was so many like it was so all over the internet and people were going crazy over it, and people wanted to like sign their signature, and there was like so many pictures of it. So yeah, my my um my holiday was amazing.

Babak 4:49

Um Carol, what what made you s what made you soon be the sharks?

Carol 4:55

You know, um I've always like thought as thought sharks are scary, but then I realized they're actually interesting creatures. So I wanted to like face my fears by swimming with them. And yeah, I'm not scared of them anymore.

Gila 5:19

This week I have been to my normal routine. So Monday I I was using for Hogan and I accidentally bumped my thumb and my index finger. It never happened before I bumped myself so that was a bit silly of me. Um First Day I went I went to Rock and I saw went to um an ensemble. I'm in an ensemble. An ensemble is where you sing um where you sing songs and you basically have a lot of fun.

45 Nowhere Street

Phillip R 6:08

Busy week. 45 Nowhere Street is a spying of Pinkin soap opera written and performed by the drama students at Community Focus. Listen now or the fog will get you.

Speaker 4 7:06

It's too spooky. I want to go home. You want to go home? Yes. We're looking for Margaret. Margaret's our friend. What sort of friend she was running away to? Is it? Is it? It isn't. Is it? It isn't. Is it? Is it not? Stand the light, don't look in the eyes.

Speaker 2 7:27

Oh, who said that? Stand the light, don't look in the eyes.

Speaker 3 7:31

I want to get them. Who said that? Who said that?

Speaker 2 7:34

Stand the light, don't look in the eyes. Who said that? Stand the light, don't look in the eyes. What's it behind you? What's it behind you?

Speaker 3 7:43

I want to get them.

Speaker 5 7:47

I'm feeling cold. I don't wanna be him. I'll follow you in my friend.

Phillip R 8:08

No you mama.

Speaker 5 8:27

Mama, mama, mama.

Speaker 14 8:38

Forty-five in the street stars Phil, Corey, Nadine, and Carol.

Interview with tutor and project manager, Ben Wilson

Andrea 8:59

And today we've got Ben, and he's our drama and creative writing tutor, and we're here to interview, and he's our special guest. Woo! So, Ben, he's in the hot seat, so let's go. Hello. Who wants to go first? And we've got Baback.

Babak 9:15

Ben, how long have you been a teacher for English and drama?

Ben 9:19

I've been a teacher at Community Focus for almost two years now. I started summer term 2023 and I've been doing it a few years beforehand elsewhere. But I've been of Community Focus um three years. I first worked uh with Vicky Martin on her book at Oak Lodge, uh Everything Starts with a Dot, which Carol was a big part of as well.

Babak 9:47

Ben, what what is Oak Lodge? What does that do? Is it like a c show?

Ben 9:52

Oh, it's a s it's uh school in Barnet.

Carol 9:55

Who are your three favourite celebrity actors?

Ben 9:59

I like I like Sir Sharon. Do you know Sir Sharon?

unknown 10:03

Yeah.

Ben 10:03

From Little Women and Ladybird. Oh yeah, and Brooklyn. She's this Irish actress. I think she's really great. I like Coleman Domingo.

unknown 10:14

Yes.

Ben 10:14

Yeah, you a big fan. He is in this film Sing Sing, which is all about um prisoners, um, and they put on drama, like a drama production of Shakespeare, and he's a really great actor. And then I also I really like Judy Garland, but every time I um would think of her as a kid, I got really sad because um I realized that she died when she was really young, but for some reason I could only picture her as like Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz. And so I was every time we'd watched The Wizard of Oz, I was like, we have to go back in time and we have to save her.

Carol 10:49

Oh, that's my favourite film. Yeah. What inspired you to become an actor?

Ben 10:56

Um, when I was really little, I think I used to run around the house a lot and just be different characters, and so my parents one day jokingly said, You should do drama, and I thought, that's right, I should do drama. And then, like a month later, there was a drama club at my school, and so I just started when I was seven or eight and kept on doing that. And then when I was around 18-19, I decided I'd rather be like writing and directing and doing more kind of behind the scenes stuff. So I switched into that, and then a few years after that, I decided to go into what's called facilitation. So that's a little mix mix between directing and teaching, but you're working with groups of people and you're making things together. So it's a bit like what we do here, and I do that at a lot of other companies as well.

Speaker 12 11:47

What college are you in before?

Ben 11:50

So I went to the Central School of Speech and Drama, which is in um it's near Bell Size Park, and that's where I studied applied theatre. And that means that it's all about using drama and theatre with people. So making shows with community groups and young people, but also using drama as a tool for like helping people like with well-being or other kind of social problems. And so some of the other companies that I've taught drama at, there's one that I do a lot at called Unique Community. There I work with young people, and we're making a show right now about families and choices, but I also work a lot with them and Ukrainian refugees, and they're making a show all about their experiences.

Andrea 12:38

Wow, that sounds amazing.

Phillip R 12:41

Yeah, Ben, do you have a do you have much time by yourself?

Ben 12:45

For myself? Yeah. No, not really. I have the occasional evening and some weekends, but I like to I like to keep busy because I think otherwise you just get bored, you know, and there's so much to do that I'd rather be out and doing things than sitting at home.

Phillip R 13:04

But can I just say something to you, Ben? Yeah. You've got to take times by yourself sometimes. Yeah, that's what I'm gonna find.

Ben 13:10

That's a good that's a good thing. We were talking actually in creative writing yesterday about um changes we can make, and that's what we were talking about is taking time to relax. That's really important.

Speaker 10 13:21

Yeah.

Speaker 16 13:22

Ben, how do you become a teacher? How do you how do you get a job being the teacher?

Ben 13:26

That's a great question. So a lot of people will go to university and they'll do a degree, and then they'll do something called a PGCE, which I think means postgraduate certificate of education, and that means you can be a teacher, that's a teaching qualification, or you can do through other or other ways. Um, but that means you teach in schools, and I don't really want to be a school teacher because they have to be at school for 8 30 every day, and I don't want to do that. So I went in a different route and started volunteering with different charities and organizations, and then teaching adults and people outside of school. So there's a lot of different ways if you don't want to be a school teacher.

Gila 14:09

Have you met anyone famous in your drama teaching life?

Ben 14:16

So I've not taught anyone famous, yeah, because they you they probably wouldn't have a class with me, they're too busy being famous. But I have met or bumped into famous people, I'll say. Um Kenneth Branner. Really? I used to work, he's a big Shakespearean actor, and he's directed a lot of films, and I used to work at a theatre, and his sister had directed a play there. Wow. And so he came in and everyone's like, Kenneth Branners here, Kenneth Branner, everyone really excited. And I was standing by the door where he was um gonna come in and out. So at the end, I like really made myself look really smart, and I had to hand out flyers, and I was gonna hand one to him, and he just looked at me and was like, I'm okay. I was like, oh no. I felt so silly. Yeah. And have I met anyone else famous? I met Julian Clary, who is an old like comedian. Yeah. I once had to ask him what name his seat was under. And he looked at me and he said, It's Clary.

Speaker 10 15:18

Yeah. Obviously.

Ben 15:21

That's my bad.

Babak 15:23

Having been any any you love teaching or do you love any sports at all?

Ben 15:28

Do I like teaching or sports? I like teaching, it's why I still do it. Um sports, I don't like team sports because I don't like the pressure of other people. But I do like to go, I do like to go to the gym. I like to do I like to do weights because I'm very small, I'm five foot six. So I was always quite small, so I quite like to go and like pick up my body weight, which is quite fun to do. Yeah.

Speaker 16 15:53

Was that helpful you or was it? Yeah, it's not easy, is it? No, I mean what did you go for that? Just monocopter or different swimming things?

Ben 16:01

Different places, yeah.

Carol 16:02

If you could swap bodies with a celebrity for a day, who would it be?

Ben 16:07

Oh, do I also have all their knowledge?

Speaker 10 16:12

No. Okay.

Ben 16:14

I think I'd swap bodies with Taylor Swift because she's a billionaire. And if I'm Taylor Swift for a day, I can just give all my money to me.

Speaker 10 16:23

Yeah.

Ben 16:24

I can transfer all her money to my bank account. And then I'd give that money out because I'm very kind.

Carol 16:34

Say you were casted in a movie, what would it be?

Ben 16:40

I'd like to be in a movie directed by Wes Anderson. Do you know Wes Anderson? He's the His movie. Have you ever seen Fantastic Mr. Fox? So he's the director who did Fantastic Mr. Fox, and all his movies are very stylized and they're very kind of magical feeling. So I'd like to be in one of those and wear like a 1950s outfit and say very awkward lines. That'd be really fun.

Gila 17:10

Have you done any restaurant or pub work?

Ben 17:16

I have, yes. Well, I've as most people who've worked in the arts, I've worked in several restaurants and cafes throughout my life. Is there a story that I told you that you want me to bring up? No. Yeah. Yeah, so I've worked actually the last place that I worked at, like the worst, um, not the worst. The last that's a slip. The last like cafe place I worked at was actually in the Barbican. So it was very busy all the time. And I was very glad to not have to work there anymore because of the busyness. Yes.

Carol 17:51

Have you taken part in any movies or like um short stories? Kind of like acting.

Ben 18:01

I've not acted in anything sort of professional, but I once was an extra in an opera. Oh yeah, so uh the it was a Russian company, and they came to my hometown and they needed extras, and I was like, sure, why not? I'll do that. And then I turn up and they're doing it's Carmen, which is set in Spain. And so they made me be a fruit seller in the first scene. But they looked at me and I said, I have glasses, and they and uh character was like too modern. So they made me take my glasses off, but I can't really see very well without my glasses, so I have to stumble on stage with a basket of plastic fruits. But it's really important because I need to give one of the actors a real apple for him to bite into uh at the end of his song. But I was really scared that I wouldn't be able to find the real apple without my glasses on, and I give him a plastic one and he'd break his teeth. Then at the end, I have to go off and they put us in his outfits and look in the mirror, I'm like a little matador to a little bullfighter, and I'm about 16 here, so I'm even smaller than I am now, dressed up as a as a bullfighter, going on stage.

Andrea 19:11

It's really funny, but you've got to be photographed.

Ben 19:15

Thankfully, no.

Speaker 16 19:19

Uh do you like any Shakespearean poems?

Ben 19:22

Yeah, I I mean I quite like Shakespeare. I like um my favourite Shakespeare is called Titus Andronicus, and I like that one the most because it's really, really um bloody. So there's a lot of murder and death in that, and I quite enjoy that. It's quite fun. They bake people into pies.

Speaker 16 19:40

Wow.

Ben 19:41

Yeah, they do.

Speaker 16 19:42

Is there something to do with uh Hamlet?

Ben 19:44

Hamlet, oh Hamlet is a very you like Hamlet or not? Hamlet's good, it's quite long. Um and again, Hamlet's quite bloody, so most people in Hamlet die.

Carol 19:55

Um back in school, what players did you take part in?

Ben 19:59

I was my favourite play that I did when I was in school was we did a production of the Canterbury Tales by Jeffrey Chaucer. Do you know what that is? So the Canterbury Tales are from like hundreds and hundreds of years ago, like the medieval times, and it's one of the first like first English poems. And it's all about these different people who go to Canterbury on a pilgrimage, and they'd all tell different stories. And so I played the Pardoner, and a pardoner is a person who in the olden days, if someone had sinned and like done something bad, you could just go to them and give them a lot of money, and they'd be like, You're fine, and so I was that character, and I had to tell a whole story about how lots of people tried to cheat deaf and died.

Gila 20:45

Wow. If you could take one item what on a Dutch in island, what would it be? One item.

Ben 20:57

Does it have does a island have electricity? Like a plug? No, okay. Because I'd say I'll bring my laptop. Can't do that. Can't bring my vinyl player. Ooh, that's a really good one. Um everything's electric, isn't it? That's so bad. You know, I bring I bring a book, like a notebook so I can start writing. Because I feel like I never have enough time to write. But if I'm stuck on an island, then maybe I would do, because there's nothing else to do.

unknown 21:25

Okay.

Phil P 21:27

Uh what sorts of food do you like?

Ben 21:32

Great question, thank you, Jonathan. Um I like a lot of food. Um my favourite kind of food, I like Japanese food. Because I like sushi and I like ramen and like katsu curries. You like that as well, Mia? What's your favourite kind of food?

Speaker 10 21:47

I like Chinese.

Ben 21:48

Yeah, like a lot of East Asian food's really nice because it's quite light. Yeah.

Speaker 4 21:54

That's a question about that.

Speaker 16 21:56

Do you do like history in school? You used to do history on videos on you.

Ben 21:59

Do I do? Do I do history? Like history class. Yeah, I love history. I love learning about history. All kinds. I like what's called social history, so it's about the history of like real people in different countries. Oh, I did it at school, but I still like watch documentaries and movies about historical figures and different times. And uh also history from across the world, not just England. Because it's really important to learn about other countries. I did history and I did acting and I did English and French.

Carol 22:35

Last question nine What kind of kid were you back in school?

Ben 22:40

I was really nerdy. I was really awkward and like very serious about school. And if I was like late to school, I'd be really worried. Even if I was like two minutes late, so I'd get all my homework done in time, and I like really respect the teachers. Which is what you should be. Yeah.

Andrea 23:01

Well, well, don't fan. We got you in the hot seat. Woo.

Talking Tales: Lightbulb Man

Andrea 23:16

Talking Tales is a group of creative storytelling students from community focused, sharing their monologues, poems, stories, songs, and characters. And today in Talk Entails, we got Yvonne, who talks about a character called Light Bullman, and he's a superhero that brings bright light into the world of darkness.

Yvonne 24:04

Once upon a time there was the light bulb man. He is the ultimate force of light, sent to fight evil and retrieve stolen goods from the villains whilst finding people in times of trouble. Light bulb man is everywhere there is light. The force of darkness and evil forces them to not to perform the good deeds or find the silver duck as well. The darkness is pushing down on him as he goes about. He is trying to rescue it for Clara. There is the overlord of darkness, master of evil, Mr. Murder and the Money Laundry Crook, the Feaster Kona and the Sausage Thief. Light Bullman is a hyperactive, humble, cheerful, caring, and adventurous on his quest to find the silver duck for Clara. Clara is a woman who was gifted the silver duck as an heirloom. The light bowlman is determined to find which of his nemesis had the silver duck. First he shot over to confront the Overlord of Darkness. The Overlord of Darkness spoke in his usual negative tone and said, Ha ha no, I got worse things to do. The light bulb man was concerned but knew he would have to deal with him later. Next the light bulb man sipped over to the Master of Evil who spent most of his time spilling eyes to the light bulb man, but it was clear the Master of Evil did not have the silver duck. When the light bulb man went to see Mr. Murder, he had blood on his hands. So the light bulb man tied him to the tree whilst he continued to find the silver duck. Next the light bulb man kept searching for Kona, a money laundering thief, who was being very evasive. Every time Lightbulb Man thought he had found Kona, Kona had disappeared. Eventually he blinded Kona to retrieve the silver duck and give the silver duck back to Clara. How did you come up with light bulb? I mean, who was the inspiration for light bulb man? Richard came up with the idea of light bulb man, I kind of just got more creative with it. Um he came up I said to him a couple years ago, why do you draw light bulb man? What does he look like? He's got to have a job, isn't it? So his job is to save the world basically. Clara's a character I created at school um and a family. So um obviously uh 20-30 years ago now, so um growing up I've got the long now or something.

Ben 26:40

Can you tell us a bit about your object that you were given to inspire your story? The dog.

Yvonne 26:47

Uh well it look it looks rich and it looks like it would have been probably worth a lot maybe in an antique shop. Um the silver duck is um it looks like it could be made of silver and it's got a light in the middle, so it could be a lot like it's a gift as an heirloom to someone. Perhaps the cap the car Clara would have liked it. But as well could be a personal thing that had some sentimental value as well from the gift uh the gift bearer to the uh gift.

Andrea 27:19

I think there's just a lot of characters in there.

Phillip R 27:21

There's a little character in there, yeah.

Andrea 27:23

Well what interesting she said the character Clara was somebody that she thought of 30 years ago.

Phillip R 27:29

Oh my gosh.

Andrea 27:31

I think the positive thing is she you brought light to darkness.

Phillip R 27:36

But that isn't that supposed to be like a metaphorical thing, but but

Final Thoughts

Phillip R 27:43

I would like to say goodbye to to all our listeners and thank you all for listening to us.

Speaker 12 27:49

Bye.

Phil P 27:50

Bye-bye. Bye.

Speaker 16 27:54

Enjoy yourself um listen more of their podcast. Thank you very much. And share it with everybody on the web or on Spotify.

Carol 28:03

Make sure to share it with your friends and family and anyone you know, and just stay in tune.

Phillip R 28:23

Community focused, we're here for you with me and you on the hour Our point of view At five o'clock, your book London The podcast for a weekend with you.

Speaker 5 28:46

We're here for you, yeah, hooray! Is it hooray?

unknown 28:53

Good.