Wonderful Beast is dedicated to bringing the delight, wonder, fear, magic and excitement of these mesmerising stories– be they mighty myths or the simplest of fairy tales - to as wide an audience as possible. Music is at the heart of all its work.

What we do

Wonderful Beast stages productions and storytelling events, and delivers outreach workshops and performances. The company has an established a reputation for high quality interactive educational work with primary age children and is currently extending its outreach to older people in Suffolk. The work is frequently cross cultural drawing on a broad range of art forms, languages and traditions. It has performed in London, nationally and internationally (India) and locally.

Over the last year, Wonderful Beast has been working with Suffolk step dancers and traditional singers who joined the company in the touring production of The Dead Moon – A Smuggler Tale (June/July 2008) link to the community presenting their exceptional skills and beautiful traditions to a wider audience.

Objectives

• to deliver productions, storytelling and musical events, and workshops that are imaginative, inclusive, entertaining and life changing
• to explore different cultures and traditions, highlighting the common roots and themes of stories, by performing tales from around the world
• to recover the sense of wonder, danger and darkness in familiar tales which have all too often been sweetened and sanitised
• to bring together diverse audiences through outreach, touring and performing in more remote and unusual venues
• to form partnerships with regional and national arts organisations and artists

'My approach to theatre arose out of my reluctance to be pigeon holed as a musician, and from my earliest work in education where children did not make the distinction as to whether they were musicians, actors, or dancers but embraced all disciplines as though it were the natural order of things.'

Alys was brought up in Aldeburgh where she studied the piano with Imogen Holst. She continued her music studies at Dartington Arts Centre and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1976 she became a primary school teacher. During the course of her teaching she developed a passion for myths and fairy tales. Having staged many productions in school, often in partnership with visiting companies such as London Contemporary Dance, London Sinfonietta, Lontano, and the Almeida Education Department, she left to freelance as a music workshop leader with Children’s Music Workshop. It was after attending Tim Supple’s miraculous production of Grimm Tales, at the Young Vic in 1994 that she decided to form Wonderful Beast. She gathered a group of like-minded artists and friends around her, and in 1997 produced The Birth of Pleasure (the story of Cupid and Psyche) at The Rosemary Branch, Islington, directed by Penny Cherns, and written by Jehane Markham. Since then she has never stopped producing and directing productions, storytelling events, Research and Development workshops, and outreach.

THE COMPANY

Artistic Director: Alys Kihl
Administrator: Louisa Thorp

Board of Directors
Ann Blaber (Chair)
Mary Allen
Jonathan Franklin
Candida Wingate

Artistic Committee
Ann Blaber
Ruth Paton
Roger Lloyd Pack
Sylvia Millar
Sasha Mitchell

Patrons
Simon Callow
Caryl Churchill
Sir Ian Holm
Gemma Jones
Penelope Wilton
Marina Warner

Recent funders
Britten-Pears Foundation
The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust
The Scarfe Charitable Trust
The Seckford Foundation
Suffolk Artlink Culture Club
Suffolk County Council
Suffolk Coastal District Council
The Triangle Charitable Trust
The Mary Warner Homes
The Lord Belstead Charitable Trust

As well as making the normal fundraising applications, Wonderful Beast puts on fundraising storytelling events in which celebrated artists, including our own patrons perform. These popular Benefits have taken place at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, The Almeida Theatre, and The Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh.

Wonderful Beast's fundraising events