When I Was 10 – A Powerful New Play

Over the last 5 weeks I’ve been working on a brand new piece of verbatim theatre, When I Was 10, ahead of an upcoming tour. When I Was 10 tells the powerful true story of Ryan Dre Sinclair, who found a lifeline in poetry following a devastating childhood trauma. The play is crafted entirely from verbatim interviews with Ryan, conducted and edited by Tom Harding Assinder to shape a moving journey through the tragic events. It interweaves with newly devised spoken word, written and performed by Ryan, alongside an original underscore composed by Akshay Sharma. The themes are evocative but it’s also a piece filled with humour and optimism.

This form of storytelling is one I’ve explored several times before with producers Adam Tulloch and Ella Schwarz – though until now, always through film. It’s an exciting technique where the original interviews are fed live to the actor via an earpiece during the performance. All the imperfections and rawness of unscripted, organic storytelling are available for the actor to channel and create a captivating, naturalistic experience for the audience. It also presents its own challenges, which we’ve enjoyed tackling in rehearsals.

One of the biggest challenges for any actor is getting out of their own head – mastering the ability to actively focus on, listen to and connect with their scene partner or audience. Getting out of your own head is particularly difficult when you literally have your own voice being fed to you live, as Ryan does in our play. It’s also easy to lose those moments of inspiration when the audio is ploughing onwards and we spent time in rehearsals finding ways to ensure the performance remained alive and reactive.

It’s rare to be given the time, space and freedom to experiment and play as we have over the last couple of months, and it’s been a joy to create alongside such talented artists. Starting at Wolverhampton Arts Centre where rehearsals took place, we also travelled to Birmingham to deliver a series of workshops and sharings, testing out sections of the play as well as some of the more unconventional theatrical devices that we’ve been exploring.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and I’m excited for the next phase of the project. When I Was 10 is in the final stages of securing funding and will hopefully tour next year.

Cast & Creative Team
Directed by Kieran Vyas
Performed by Ryan Dre Sinclair
Written by Tom Harding Assinder
Movement Directors – Lucy Glassbrook & Helen Calcutt
Original Music – Akshay Sharma
Producers – Adam Tulloch & Ella Schwarz
Lighting – Louise Gregory
Rehearsal Assistant & BTS – Shimron Levien