After this initial knock back from the hospice, i thought about other ways in which i could help out. Their website is full of things to do to help, from donating money, to doing sponsored runs, and fund raising activities. The massive list of things you could do to fund raise included putting on some kind of performance evening.
With this i decided to contact the head of drama at my senior school again, and suggest the possibility of working with the drama club to put on a performance evening. She thought that this would be a great opportunity for the group to perform in front of an audience, and for the school, who have had quite bad publicity recently, to make themselves known in the public eye for doing something good.
I went along on Wednesday to see what the group have already devised, and was pleasently surpirsed at the level of enthusiasm in the group. I played some games with them, and we spoke about scenes which needed development, and scenes which were not devised yet. We also spoke about the date of the performance, and the possibility of other acts which could be performed on the night.
I left feeling so happy, after all this time spent chasing after people, and ideas, i am not only going to be doing something with the school children, but also with their parents and teachers on the evening, to raise as much money as possible for the charity.
I am really looking forward to doing this now, for once!!!
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Hospice
After my knock out by my senior school, i decided to explore another area that i am interested in. I looked around and found the Shooting Star Childrens Hospice, who have a house based in Hampton. I had decided that this was something that i really wanted to do; i would volunteer in the house, perhaps get to speak to some of the families, and ultimately make up a story with the children. I knew that doing workshops would prove to be very difficult, so thought that if i devised a short story with the children, i could direct it and put on a performance for the children and their families.
So great, i thought, i have everything organised, i know what i want to do, and i am sure that volunteers will be very welcome, especially to do some drama therapy work with the children, and make for an entertaining environment.
Then i phoned the house, the man and his assistant who are in charge of the volunteering scheme were both away. I spoke to a repectionist and told her my ideas. After listening, the first thing she said was that they did not allow volunteers to work in the house with children and families, beacuse of the nature of what they do there. OuCh i thought, thats another wound and another massive obsticle to get around.
So great, i thought, i have everything organised, i know what i want to do, and i am sure that volunteers will be very welcome, especially to do some drama therapy work with the children, and make for an entertaining environment.
Then i phoned the house, the man and his assistant who are in charge of the volunteering scheme were both away. I spoke to a repectionist and told her my ideas. After listening, the first thing she said was that they did not allow volunteers to work in the house with children and families, beacuse of the nature of what they do there. OuCh i thought, thats another wound and another massive obsticle to get around.
Monday, 30 March 2009
Girl in need
I really thought i was getting somewhere with my project. I went into my old school last week and advertised to years 9, 10 and 11 about a easter drama project that i would be running. I gave them a week to give their reply slips to reception so that i could return to collect them, and to finalise the dates of the project. When i rang them this morning, to my utter dismay they said that i had no replies.
So now i am stuck. I really have tried to get this up and running. Firstly i asked about going into classes and doing my project there, but due to GCSE's and A levels, i would not be allowed to take the children out for more than their 2 lessons over a fortnight; giving me only 5 hours contact time with them. THIS SUCKS!!!!
I dont understand why it is so difficult. I was so frustrated when Charlene said that she would no longer be working with me, but i managed to sort things out and it looked like i was getting back on track. But i am back to this frustrating stage of not knowing what to do next. Help.
If anyone has any advice that they could give me in my hour of need, i would be very grateful!!!
Yours truly,
Girl in need.
So now i am stuck. I really have tried to get this up and running. Firstly i asked about going into classes and doing my project there, but due to GCSE's and A levels, i would not be allowed to take the children out for more than their 2 lessons over a fortnight; giving me only 5 hours contact time with them. THIS SUCKS!!!!
I dont understand why it is so difficult. I was so frustrated when Charlene said that she would no longer be working with me, but i managed to sort things out and it looked like i was getting back on track. But i am back to this frustrating stage of not knowing what to do next. Help.
If anyone has any advice that they could give me in my hour of need, i would be very grateful!!!
Yours truly,
Girl in need.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Back in action And CandoCo masterclass
Well, its been a long time and i have finally decided to get off my arse and do some work.
I went to a workshop with Candoco on thursday, in the middle of the South Bank centre. The workshop was a dance masterclass focussing on the work of Nigel Charnock and 'Still'.
The day began at 11am, and took place in an open space in the South Bank cente, where people sat around watching as we made fools of ourselves, shouting and dancing about with blindfolds on. When i arrived, i felt vey nervous about what to expect from this 'masterclass', would i look inexperienced or unfit? And how would i be percieved by everyone?
Initially, everyone sat in their own space and began stretching and warming up, nobody spoke to anyone else, and we were all very judgemental of each other and how we perceived one another.
We started the class with some yoga stretches, which i found familiar to the some of the stretches that we do in our lectures. So i felt quite comfortable, knowing what i was meant to do with each of the movements. Then we spent some time warming up our arms, and our legs; learning short mevement phrases and then repeating them to music. We had to do lots of travelling across the space, focussing on the extension of our arms and legs. At this point i became very frustracted with myself, for not being able to do the movements correctly. I began to get upset, but before i could really loose it with myself, one of the members of Candoco came over and offered me some advice. The next time i tried to do the movements, i felt a bit more comfortable. And she once again came over and told me that i had improved a lot since the previous attempt; this gave me the confidence to continue and not shy away.
We then had to move around the room, and upon coming into contact with someone else, we had to join our heads, and step out to form a counter balence. After a few moments, one partner would move away, and the other would have to continue to walk away from the person.
Another trigger when walking around the room, was to place your hand on the lower part of someone else's back guiding them around the room until they build up speed and then let them go.
The final choice of trigger was to hug someone from behind, so they melt into the floor. Then you pulled the person a little way across the floor, and then offered them a hand to stand up.
At this early part of the day we had to come into contact with a lot of strangers, and had to erase our preconceptions about the people we were working with. This also gave me a chance to get to know different people in the room; those who were able bodied and those who were less able bodied.
The next big part of the class involved being blindfolded and doing different thing with partners. The first was for one partner to be blindfolded and be very neutral, while their partner hugs them. Then the blindfolded partner would begin to resist the hugging.
Another task that we had to undertake, was for one partner to be led across the room blindfolded. At first the blindfolded person would want to go with their partner, but then resist and try anything to return to the side that they started from.
The final big task using the blindfold, was for half of the group to enter the space and dance on your own to the music. We could interact with other people in the room if we wanted to, or we could remain dancing on our own with the blindfolds on. We were then given the option of taking our blindfolds off when we were dancing. I became quite uncomfortable at this point because i was thinking too much about who was watching me and whether i was making a fool of myself. I think i scared myself and from that point i could not relax enough to just do anything without wondering who would be watching me.
After our lunch break, we started with some breathing and voice exercises. Firstly warming up the muscles in our throat, and breathing into our stomachs. We spoke aloud all of the vowels to warm up our mouth and lips. And then we had to try saying the words louder and when coming into contact with a surface, we had to push against it, in an attempt to push the sounds out in a higher pitch, without straining the voice.
Then we learnt part of the routine which the company use in their performance of 'Still'. This section was really fun to learn, beacuse it gave me an insight into how they developed their own improvisation and came to their final piece. We also got a sneek prevew of the performance, and i am very much looking forward to seeing it next tuesday at the southbank centre!
I went to a workshop with Candoco on thursday, in the middle of the South Bank centre. The workshop was a dance masterclass focussing on the work of Nigel Charnock and 'Still'.
The day began at 11am, and took place in an open space in the South Bank cente, where people sat around watching as we made fools of ourselves, shouting and dancing about with blindfolds on. When i arrived, i felt vey nervous about what to expect from this 'masterclass', would i look inexperienced or unfit? And how would i be percieved by everyone?
Initially, everyone sat in their own space and began stretching and warming up, nobody spoke to anyone else, and we were all very judgemental of each other and how we perceived one another.
We started the class with some yoga stretches, which i found familiar to the some of the stretches that we do in our lectures. So i felt quite comfortable, knowing what i was meant to do with each of the movements. Then we spent some time warming up our arms, and our legs; learning short mevement phrases and then repeating them to music. We had to do lots of travelling across the space, focussing on the extension of our arms and legs. At this point i became very frustracted with myself, for not being able to do the movements correctly. I began to get upset, but before i could really loose it with myself, one of the members of Candoco came over and offered me some advice. The next time i tried to do the movements, i felt a bit more comfortable. And she once again came over and told me that i had improved a lot since the previous attempt; this gave me the confidence to continue and not shy away.
We then had to move around the room, and upon coming into contact with someone else, we had to join our heads, and step out to form a counter balence. After a few moments, one partner would move away, and the other would have to continue to walk away from the person.
Another trigger when walking around the room, was to place your hand on the lower part of someone else's back guiding them around the room until they build up speed and then let them go.
The final choice of trigger was to hug someone from behind, so they melt into the floor. Then you pulled the person a little way across the floor, and then offered them a hand to stand up.
At this early part of the day we had to come into contact with a lot of strangers, and had to erase our preconceptions about the people we were working with. This also gave me a chance to get to know different people in the room; those who were able bodied and those who were less able bodied.
The next big part of the class involved being blindfolded and doing different thing with partners. The first was for one partner to be blindfolded and be very neutral, while their partner hugs them. Then the blindfolded partner would begin to resist the hugging.
Another task that we had to undertake, was for one partner to be led across the room blindfolded. At first the blindfolded person would want to go with their partner, but then resist and try anything to return to the side that they started from.
The final big task using the blindfold, was for half of the group to enter the space and dance on your own to the music. We could interact with other people in the room if we wanted to, or we could remain dancing on our own with the blindfolds on. We were then given the option of taking our blindfolds off when we were dancing. I became quite uncomfortable at this point because i was thinking too much about who was watching me and whether i was making a fool of myself. I think i scared myself and from that point i could not relax enough to just do anything without wondering who would be watching me.
After our lunch break, we started with some breathing and voice exercises. Firstly warming up the muscles in our throat, and breathing into our stomachs. We spoke aloud all of the vowels to warm up our mouth and lips. And then we had to try saying the words louder and when coming into contact with a surface, we had to push against it, in an attempt to push the sounds out in a higher pitch, without straining the voice.
Then we learnt part of the routine which the company use in their performance of 'Still'. This section was really fun to learn, beacuse it gave me an insight into how they developed their own improvisation and came to their final piece. We also got a sneek prevew of the performance, and i am very much looking forward to seeing it next tuesday at the southbank centre!
Monday, 8 December 2008
Reminiscence cont'd
Are we so different from our elders?
Our guests arrived early, as expected, and helped themselves to tea and biscuits. (Something i think that should be introduced into all lectures, i might add.)
We settled down a while after the initial excitement about the visitors had worn off, and began our task of extracting some of their memories for performance.
What was more interesting of the stories, were the very personal ones, which nobody else would know about. There is something amazing about being about to tell a story that you know would only have been the story of that one person. After we heard their stories, they left for us to put together a 2 minute performance which we could show them upon their return. We had so much material to work from, that it was quite difficult to choose our favourite story, and some of the stories would have been quite difficult to perform without the use of lighting and sound.
Despite this, we did our best, and without boring you with details, succeeded in our task to reproduce a story. Our performeances were all well reiceved: therefore backing up my point from a few entries ago, which noticed that i do not need to be worring about offending people.
Our guests arrived early, as expected, and helped themselves to tea and biscuits. (Something i think that should be introduced into all lectures, i might add.)
We settled down a while after the initial excitement about the visitors had worn off, and began our task of extracting some of their memories for performance.
What was more interesting of the stories, were the very personal ones, which nobody else would know about. There is something amazing about being about to tell a story that you know would only have been the story of that one person. After we heard their stories, they left for us to put together a 2 minute performance which we could show them upon their return. We had so much material to work from, that it was quite difficult to choose our favourite story, and some of the stories would have been quite difficult to perform without the use of lighting and sound.
Despite this, we did our best, and without boring you with details, succeeded in our task to reproduce a story. Our performeances were all well reiceved: therefore backing up my point from a few entries ago, which noticed that i do not need to be worring about offending people.
Reminiscence
Who's memory is it anyway?
How can we decide who's memory is actually their own?
When telling stories about our past, they tend to become more and more distorted and fabricated with each time we tell them. This could be due to the fact that we do actually share our memories with many other people in the world, who ever might have experenced anything the same as you.
When you sit with friends and reminice about 'the good old days', you tend to all chip on with your own flashes of memory. You and up with a story complete with muddled, mismatched memories, which would not actually make sense to anyone who was listening from the outside. You then go away with this adapted 'memory' of an event; so you in fact add other people's memories to your own. This brings me back to who's memory is it anyway?!
Some of our most favourite memories which we love to tell, are the ones about ourselves. The ones where we tend to have done something stupid or embarrassing when we were younger, or drunk. We tell these as our own memories, however, they are in fact made up of other people's memories. They are fragments from what other people tell you about yourself.
I think this could be becasue when we store memories, we only store fragments, images or words. And when we come to retreive these memories, they do not come to the surface of out mind in one linear narrative: but in short segments, which linked would not make any sense. This might be a reason for prefering to tell these stories about ourselves, through our friends memories'.
Just an interesting thought . . .
How can we decide who's memory is actually their own?
When telling stories about our past, they tend to become more and more distorted and fabricated with each time we tell them. This could be due to the fact that we do actually share our memories with many other people in the world, who ever might have experenced anything the same as you.
When you sit with friends and reminice about 'the good old days', you tend to all chip on with your own flashes of memory. You and up with a story complete with muddled, mismatched memories, which would not actually make sense to anyone who was listening from the outside. You then go away with this adapted 'memory' of an event; so you in fact add other people's memories to your own. This brings me back to who's memory is it anyway?!
Some of our most favourite memories which we love to tell, are the ones about ourselves. The ones where we tend to have done something stupid or embarrassing when we were younger, or drunk. We tell these as our own memories, however, they are in fact made up of other people's memories. They are fragments from what other people tell you about yourself.
I think this could be becasue when we store memories, we only store fragments, images or words. And when we come to retreive these memories, they do not come to the surface of out mind in one linear narrative: but in short segments, which linked would not make any sense. This might be a reason for prefering to tell these stories about ourselves, through our friends memories'.
Just an interesting thought . . .
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
DV8 To Be Striaght With You
I must firstly note that i have really enjoyed watching some of DV8's early work; including Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men, Strange Fish, and my favourite The Cost of Living. Each of these films contain some amazing physical theatre, and were the main reason for me choosing to do physical theatre at university. I have not looked back since, and am continuously surprised and pleased at what i see, no matter how many times i have seen them.
It seems that the majority of work produced by DV8 is interested with the exploration of sexuality within society. How it is or is not accepted, and people's feelings about sexuality, including homophobia.
Until now, their work seems only to suggest others' opinions about homosexuality, and does not include any real stories or opinions. To be Straight With You shows actual interviews taken from people about their views on religion, culture and homosexuality; specifically the views from and about homosexuals from Jamaican and Muslim societies. So it uses verbatim theatre throughout, with the only spoken words on stage being taken from interviews.
This was a great performance to watch, becasue it allowed me to see how verbatim can be used in physical theatre. The focus was mainly upon the script, and the words being spoken, but the actions and dances really complimented the words. I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for more, and really didn't want it to end. I felt compelled by how real everything was; not all of the interviews were spoken by the actors, but played as a voice over alongside their actions. This was extermely interesting, and highlighted the fact that all of the words were taken from actual interviews that they had conducted or found from previous recoredings.
The visual imagery was absolutely amazing; timing and precision with regards to the actors interaction with projection was perfect. At times i became so wrapped up in their world that they had created for us, i felt as if i was in some future land, or in fact a computer.
It seems that the majority of work produced by DV8 is interested with the exploration of sexuality within society. How it is or is not accepted, and people's feelings about sexuality, including homophobia.
Until now, their work seems only to suggest others' opinions about homosexuality, and does not include any real stories or opinions. To be Straight With You shows actual interviews taken from people about their views on religion, culture and homosexuality; specifically the views from and about homosexuals from Jamaican and Muslim societies. So it uses verbatim theatre throughout, with the only spoken words on stage being taken from interviews.
This was a great performance to watch, becasue it allowed me to see how verbatim can be used in physical theatre. The focus was mainly upon the script, and the words being spoken, but the actions and dances really complimented the words. I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for more, and really didn't want it to end. I felt compelled by how real everything was; not all of the interviews were spoken by the actors, but played as a voice over alongside their actions. This was extermely interesting, and highlighted the fact that all of the words were taken from actual interviews that they had conducted or found from previous recoredings.
The visual imagery was absolutely amazing; timing and precision with regards to the actors interaction with projection was perfect. At times i became so wrapped up in their world that they had created for us, i felt as if i was in some future land, or in fact a computer.
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