FAQ
Sign Up Process
Nothing! Positive Stories for Negative Times is a completely free project. There are no costs to participate whatsoever.
There is a sign up form here on the website. Once you have filled out the sign up form you will hear from a member of the Wonder Fools Team.
You do need to be able to answer all of the questions on the sign up form before you submit, however, you’ll be able to sign up to the project until 30th June 2025 so there’s no rush if you need a bit more time to talk to your group, there’s also no limit to how many groups can take part in Positive Stories for Negative Times, so take your time.
Yes! We would love as many groups as possible to sign up. You may be part of one school/organisation but have a few different age groups that you would like to be involved and might want to work on different scripts. Go for it! There is an option for this in the sign up process.
It lasts as long as you want it to. Once you sign up you have until 31st August 2025 to work with your script and complete your process. This may take you up to August next year or you may use the script over a number of weeks or months and finish much earlier. This is really lead by you and your group.
The only stipulation is you must have finished by 31st August 2025.
Unfortunately not. As Positive Stories for Negative Times is a free project we can only send full scripts to groups who have signed up and we can only send the play(s) that group has chosen to work on. We do have extracts of each script on the website for you to read before choosing. These extracts will be available soon and will hopefully give you a good sense of what the whole script is like.
Please get in touch with our participation associate Lisa. She will be the one who processes your sign up and will be your point of contact throughout the project. She can always talk you through the other scripts and see whether we can arrange a swap for you.
Absolutely! We’ve had plenty of primary and secondary schools get involved with Positive Stories for Negative Times and we would love that to continue.
In order to be able to give out the plays for free Wonder Fools have agreements with all of the artists – this is called a licence. This is to make sure that their work is being credited in the appropriate way, copyright isn’t broken and that we aren’t making lots of money off the back of their work (we’re not!). As part of the sign up process you’ll be sent a contract which you’ll need to sign to complete your registration. This might look scary but really isn’t, the main points are about crediting the writer and partners correctly and not using the script to create anything outside of the project. If you have any questions please do get in touch with Lisa who will help you out.
Working with the scripts
No! We completely appreciate that every group participating in Positive Stories for Negative Times will be coming to the project from lots of different places and putting together a whole play might not work for everyone. Maybe you just want to do half? Or a few scenes? That’s absolutely fine by us. The most important thing is that you and your groups enjoy taking part and have some fun. All we ask is that you share with us what you end up doing. This might be a film, photographs, drawings, an example or writing – any form of documentation will do
Yes! The first round of Positive Stories for Negative Times taught us that creativity can come in so many different forms. With this in mind we would love you to take the script and approach it however suits your group. Maybe you want to make a short film, a podcast, a photography exhibition, an album or whatever else comes to mind. We would love to see lots of different approaches to the scripts and for them to be used as a stimulus for whatever creative outlet you like.
Yes! We are really excited to have Mammalian Diving Reflex as part of the project this year – they have created a process that is less traditional in its format and more about leading a group through a devising process to create their own work in response to a series of prompts and exercises. Perfect for groups who are not as keen on scripts or perhaps want to try something new!
You can, however, if you use licensed music in your piece there is a chance it would be removed from our website. We would suggest looking for rights free music on youtube (there’s absolutely loads!) or if it’s within your capacity you could have a sound designer or composer work with you to create music. Perhaps you have some musical young people who could create music for you! There will be more information about where to find rights- free music in the handbook given to you when you sign up.
Yes you can charge for tickets. This is the first season of Positive Stories for Negative Times where groups have permission to charge for tickets for a performance. From previous seasons we learned that not being able to make any money back on performances was a potential barrier for some groups and schools. If you decide to charge for tickets it will be your responsibility to liaise with the relevant writers agent to organise a 10% share of any ticket sales to be paid to the writer.
If this is a new process for you then Lisa, our participation associate, will be on hand to support you in organising this or answering any questions you may have related to this.
Yes. Positive Stories for Negative Times is a project for anyone to get involved in. When you sign up you’ll also get a free handbook jam packed full of exercises and top tips for working on a script with your group.
Of course, our participation associate Lisa is always more than happy to chat to any groups who have any questions or need a bit of support.
Yes – we are planning to create a programme of support and creative opportunities for group leaders and older participants to get involved in throughout this season of PSFNT. We will be in touch with all groups who sign up with more information on this.
Completing the project
Once you have completed your process please let us know so we can send you along an evaluation form so you can let us know about your experience of being part of PSFNT. These are invaluable to us, allowing us to learn what has worked and where we can improve for future iterations of the project.
We would also love to see a bit of your process, whatever that may have looked like, It would be great if you could send us some kind of documentation that we can share on our Positive Stories Map. You could send along pictures from a workshop or production, audio or video clips, extracts of writing, testimonials from participants. Anything at all!
If you have access to a camera and would like to submit a recording that would be great. However, we appreciate this isn’t accessible for everyone. Our website is a celebration of all the brilliant work that participating groups have created so whatever you can submit would be welcome. Perhaps this is a few production pictures, a voice note extract of the script, a short video clip recorded on a phone, interviews with the young people during rehearsals. Whatever we can pop up on our website to share is more than welcome.
Unfortunately not, Wonder Fools only have the rights to these scripts for the duration of the project. So once you have finished working on it you can’t repeat the process. However, you could sign up for another of the scripts, just get in touch with Lisa to discuss this.