In 2016 MED Theatre received a grant from Heritage Lottery Fund Young Roots for an exciting 18 month project, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Last Wolf on Dartmoor’. Facilitated by MED Theatre’s creative practitioners, the project enabled young people to learn more about Dartmoor’s local history and ecology through the eyes of a long lost animal, the wolf, last sighted on Dartmoor in 1780, and the legends it provoked.
Dartmoor’s young people had the opportunity to take part in a series of creative projects, including the creation of a radio play, a stage play, part of a community play and a short film, all inspired by wolves, their role in Dartmoor’s past and the myths behind the Victorian dectective story The Hound of the Baskervilles. Research included field trips to Dartmeet and Castle Drogo, the locations of the last two wolf sightings, plus a visit further afield to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust in Berkshire. Trips to Buckfastleigh and Hound Tor gave the participants the chance to experience locations important for the creation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. A variety of workshops accompanied the project, with opportunities for young people to learn new skills in physical theatre, radio, film, music, dance, sculpture and puppetry.