Will Coleman (storyteller)

Will Coleman performing in GogMagog in St Mabyn in 2014

Will Coleman is a Cornish film-maker, author, musician and educational consultant.^[1] Coleman is a former director and musician with Kneehigh Theatre^[2] and founder and director of Golden Tree Productions, an organisation that develops cultural projects that promote Cornwall and its history.

In 2009 Coleman’s Tales from Porth CD-Rom commissioned by the Cornish Language Partnership won a Media Innovation Award for best DVD/CD Design for a CD-Rom which introduces the Cornish language to children.^[3] Coleman won the 2011 Govyn Kernewek film award. “The Govyn Kernewek is an annual £5,000 commission for a short film that uses the Cornish language in an interesting way”.^[4]

Coleman's short film Horn of Plenty won an award in 2012, when MPs were invited to enter a film made by one of their constituents into a ‘Film the House’ competition. Dan Rogerson entered the film and it came second overall.^[5]

Coleman has investigated the Cornish Plen-an-gwary, medieval Cornish amphitheatres and produced a book about them with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council.^[6]

In 2014 Coleman toured Cornwall in GogMagog with Bec Appleby, Jenny Beare and Steven Kelly, a story rooted in Cornish culture.^[7]

In 2016 Coleman and his team created "The Man Engine" in the form of a Cornish miner, at 33 feet high, the largest puppet ever made in Britain.^[8][9] The project was commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape being added to the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites^[10] and was first unveiled in Tavistock on 25 July 2016.^[11] The name references the Man engine a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to aid miners' journeys to and from the working levels.^[12] The giant puppet traveled to each of the ten World Heritage Site mining areas accompanied by Bal maidens and miners who animated the puppet with ropes;^[13] traveling 130 miles ending at the western tip of Cornwall on 6th August.^[14] Coleman said “the figure was designed to be a reminder of thousands of years of mining history in Cornwall and the region’s geology”.^[15]

The Cornish folk song Black and Gold (Cornish Du an Owr) has English lyrics written by Coleman .

Books

• Lutey and the Mermaid illustrated by Jago (Brave Tales Collection) May 2005 ISBN 978-0954965716
• Madgy Figgy's Pig illustrated by Jago (Brave Tales Collection) May 2005 ISBN 978-0954965709
• Tom and the Giant illustrated by Jago (Brave Tales Collection) May 2005 ISBN 978-0954965723
• The Ballad of Gogmagog illustrated by Jago, Hope Education 2105 ISBN 978-1910605059
• Skillywidden illustrated by Jago, Hope Education 2015 ISBN 978-1910605035
• Plen an Gwari: The Playing Places of Cornwall Golden Tree Productions 2015 ISBN 978-0993332203

References