Arts BAD

I have recently become a little theatre addict and have been going at least once a week!! Last night myself, Zoe, Charlotte, Briony and Christina went off to Tara Studios to see Othello...Now I am one that will never, ever say a performance was bad, rubbish, boring, or a waste of my time. As I feel that if it got funding to be performed to the public it must have some good points........

The play was all of the above...minus the good points... Thank goodness the tickets were free...

It was un-rehearsed, the play is Shakespearean and lines were lost or mumbled and not pronounced clearly enough. Costume was I assume meant to be all blacks and it just looked messy and unfinished. The best part of the play was when Othello halfway through, began to carry a book constantly on stage... SO HE COULD READ HIS LINES OUT OF IT!! I'm sorry but it truly was appaling, and at least I know now what not to do when making theatre!

Other than that i did really enjoy my evening and it was nice to spend it with the girlies! And the pub afterwards was mosgt definately the highlight!!

x x x

Starting out on my own.....

Where do I begin…I guess at the beginning…hmmm…

The start of semester two began and as everyone grew excited for the Ham House project, I felt that it wasn’t for me. So I asked Mark if I could possibly have my own project, something I could develop and grow within.

I was given Reminiscent Theatre, each week I go to Acorn Court Home in Redhill, Surrey, and I sit and I talk with the residents there. The homes is over three floors the ground floor has the residents that are more able, the first has those that need just a little bit of extra help, and the second has those suffering from dementia.

On my first week I spoke to a few residents, and without giving too much away, I decided to base my piece on the four seasons, Spring – Summer – Autumn – Winter, however after talking to several residents I realised most of them had one thing in common (apart from their dislike of pasta!) they had all been around during World War II. With that in mind I started to ask them more about the war and so far have gathered the most amazing memories.

I worked with the residents that suffer from dementia too, this was a real challenge, so I decided to take in a load of different sensory stimulating things, like marionettes, plastacine, cascanettes, maracas, and a little woodpecker on a metal pole that slides down it… much to mine and the residents delight they loved it all! I even had one lady trying to steal a cascanette and when I spotted it I said you can keep it, she was extremely happy at this news!

I have been busy, busy, busy now with my project well underway and my ideas just flowing like water, I think the problem now is putting it all together and knowing what to use and what not!

I went off to the Imperial War Museum on Saturday to do some research into WWII and ended up spending a fortune on all these little things that will aid my piece! So it was worth it!

Right well I must be off…I have more planning and scheming to do!!! =)

It's been a while....let me break it down....

Christmas holidays…

I flew out to India to stay with my father over Christmas; it was a completely different experience for me and definitely a new way to spend Christmas!

I was working in a children’s home out there for street children, these children’s mothers were either prostitutes, street dwellers, worked on the railway or were handicapped (as they call it in India).

It was an amazing experience and each day in India brought something new and exciting, I saw real poverty when I visited the railway station at night and saw people just sleeping on the street and in the station, not even in corners just there in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. There are so many people in India it is unreal, the city I was in, Pune, is constantly busy there are people everywhere you look, everywhere you go it’s incredible and to think this is just one city!

We flew to Agra where I visited the Taj Mahal whilst I was there, well there are no words to describe how incredible it is and how you feel when you step through the massive archway and see the Taj right there in front of you, and it looks exactly like it did in all the pictures. It is breathtaking. The queues however were not! 3 hours after entering the grounds of the Taj I finally got inside it and got to look around; well I was definitely not disappointed. It is just the most magnificent thing I have ever seen.

I also visited the red fort, where the army where based during the Mugal times, again the architecture here is amazing and so impressive at a time when they didn’t have machinery they still managed to create these buildings that are just truly magnificent.

India was an amazing experience and truly opened my eyes to a lot of things, I can’t wait to go back and am so grateful I had the opportunity to see such extraordinary and beautiful as well as heart breaking things.