‘What We Feel,’ the brand new mini-series available to view online now!

What We Feel is a brand new mini-series co-produced by 1623 theatre company and D&O Productions. The four part series is based on real-life experiences of trauma and recovery and explores how collective creativity supports the wellbeing of individuals who face prejudice in their everyday lives.

There are five cast members, including deaf performers Bea Webster and Caroline Parker, and each actor shares the same protected characteristic as the character they play.

The series follows the five characters  – all marginalised by society – at their weekly online support group meet which takes place via Zoom. During the first week, Melvin – the group leader – has set up an ambitious task for everyone: to read a speech from a play by Shakespeare and share how it relates to your life right now.

Highlighting issues relating to deaf identity and the appropriate use of interpreters, What We Feel, is a thought-provoking series that uses the Shakespearean speeches in a clever way to reveal, explore and heal those things ‘we feel.’

I was fortunate to to interview the creative team involved in the series. The names and roles of those featured in this article are listed below:

Oliver Alvin-Wilson, director of What We Feel
Ben Spiller, dramaturg of What We Feel
Nikki Disney, drama therapy practitioner
Caroline Parker, Beryl in What We Feel
Niall Costigan, Vince in What We Feel

What inspired you to create ‘What We Feel’ ?

Oliver: After watching friends and loved ones struggling with their mental health, plus being obviously aware of how much it is an issue in our society, I wanted to explore interesting ways to touch upon different mental health issues with a diverse group of protected characteristics. I was also interested in seeing how Shakespeare speeches could help or not in each character’s journey.

How hard/easy was it to pull this all together during a pandemic?

Oliver: It was definitely challenging but working with an amazing team of people and having so many important topics to explore actually made it a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Directing and acting over zoom for the first time for long periods was tough on the eyes and brain but being able to work and be creative during a time where the entire arts industry was shut down was amazing and an honour.

I love that the story involves discussions about Shakespeare but why Shakespeare in this case? What can Shakespearean text do that others cannot? 

Oliver: Questioning whether Shakespeare can still be relevant in today’s society is one of the core themes running through our series. I personally think Shakespeare’s work explores humanity and emotions in a beautifully complex way, but his work is not perfect and has it’s flaws like all of us. Whether you’re a fan of Shakespeare or hate it all I wanted to do is use it as tool to unlock conversations around mental health.

Ben: Yes, and there are so many characters in Shakespeare’s plays who experience mental health issues. It can be reassuring that these experiences have been happening for centuries and we are not alone.

Oli and I chose the speeches as if they were being selected by Melvin, the character that Oli plays. When we shared them with the actors, some found them helpful to explore their characters’ mental health issues and others brought along their own ideas for speeches too.

How were casting decisions made for this mini-series seeing as each actor shares the same protected characteristic as their character?

Oliver: We wanted a cast that had the shared characteristics with who they were playing but we also made sure that there were enough differences between them to avoid the lines being blurred. Remembering that we are still actors telling an important story was key.

It also helped that Ben and I had either worked with or at least met all of the actors we casted because we really wanted to make sure that we had a safe space to tackle sensitive issues whilst also experiencing the effects of the first lockdown.

Ben: It’s so important to make sure that the protected characteristics of characters are shared by the actors who play them – it safeguards integrity, authenticity and representation. There have been some high-profile cases recently where actors don’t share their characters’ protected characteristics and this only brings hurt and upset to people with those characteristics. We wanted to avoid that and make sure that communities are represented truthfully.

How were the actors supported throughout the process?

Oliver: We worked with a drama therapist (Nikki Disney) and therapist (Richard Marshall-Lanes) throughout this project and everyone’s wellbeing was at the heart of everything we did. All of the creative team also had access to financial support if they needed to privately get therapy during and after the project.

And as the director I tried to create an open environment where everyone could voice their opinions and stop the process at anytime, as well as making sure we entered and exited our characters safely.

Nikki: The company offered a bespoke wellbeing plan.  This allowed support for wellbeing to be thought about before the rehearsal period and provisions made for support as the rehearsals moved online.

Half a day of wellbeing support was added to the schedule to allow the the company to think about how they could support themselves and each other within the online environment.  Support included routines and grounding exercise and training in techniques to de-role.  These were helpful due to the connections each actor had with aspects of their character.

The company were able to access a 1:1 support over the course of the rehearsal period if some of the material became unhelpfully intertwined with their own personal experience.

How did everyone find using Zoom for the production?

Caroline: The advantage of filming via Zoom is that you are in one place with a script on a table in front of you, no moving around, which means I don’t have to hold the script whilst signing. Since making this film I’m now better equipped to do a job like this. It’s been a real learning curve.

Niall: Using Zoom was quite a challenge because its so intense.  You feel like you are technically in a rehearsal room but you are totally focused on a screen and then as soon as you stop for a break or the day you are “out” straight away. Oli and Ben were very good at bringing us into the room and taking us out at the start and the end of the day but it took some adjustment to wind down.

Oliver: Working on Zoom definitely has it’s limitations, nothing beats being in the same room with cast and feeling that energy. Though I actually think Zoom was perfect for making this project. Not only was Zoom the platform used by the characters in this story so it felt like an natural transition when we started recording, but it also allowed us to handle these sensitive topics during the first lockdown in a possibly easier way because the cast always had the comfort of being at home.

On the other hand, because of lockdown I was very mindful that we should end each day on a high after exploring these heavy subjects.

I’m curious as to whether any of the actor felt the mini-series was therapeutic in a way for their own needs/issues? Did anyone have any epiphanies or realisations throughout or after filming this?

Niall: I feel that acting is always a form of therapy for me! The subject matter and character on this project gave me scope to delve into some of my own issues but equally the research i did on Soldiers and PTSD was very revealing. Having more understanding of their experience helped me with mine.

Caroline: This really upped my empathy, how the characters found solace in Shakespeare’s words. Also I felt it emphasised the depth of Shakespeare’s writing.

Oliver: I wouldn’t like to speak for anyone else, but for me I found the entire process making this to be profound, educational and life changing. It helped me grow personally and professionally. I’m just very grateful I got a chance to grow bring to life a small idea I had with such an amazing group of people.

I’m particularly interested to see the portrayal of Beryl and how she is brought into the group as an interpreter, even though the character and actress (Caroline Parker) is deaf. Is this something that happens a lot/that the writer or actors have encountered?

Caroline: There have been situations in the past when people booking interpreters have not been aware enough about the protocol or issues of SLIs who are not fully able to do the job. This complicates things and time gets wasted.

However we were focusing on the mindfulness of the series rather than the outcome of communications. There is comedy and tragedy in these situations. This really is a slow process of educating people how this whole ‘booking the correct interpreters’ works.

What do you hope the audience will get from watching the mini-series in full?

Oliver: I’d love audiences to feel more comfortable talking about mental health and to not feel alone if they are quietly suffering. I also hope they learn something new from a different protected characteristic than their own and leave with an increased appreciation of everyones differences and similarities.

Are there any plans to expand this and produce more episodes? If so, what would you like to explore going forwards?

Oliver: There are no concrete plans at the moment but I’m always buzzing with ideas. To be honest, I have come up with a rough idea where the story could go next but thats a secret! I can say that I think the characters and world that we built has a lot more scope to grow. Plus it would really be fun to see what we could do if we could rehearse and film in the same room!

You can watch What We Feel here: https://bit.ly/1623YTWWF

1623 Theatre Company https://www.1623theatre.co.uk/

D&O Productions https://www.dandoproductions.com/projects