Honey I love you...

Another rehearsal another scene….

Finally had a full cast! Meaning that we managed to get a lot done… after I had begun with a moan about attendance and commitment.

2 scenes are now completed, and need just a bit more tweaking and props etc… so I am happy, happy, and happy!

I feel we are working well together as a group and have come a long way since our first rehearsal. Each week we begin with a warm up activity and a trust activity, although these provide more laughs than anything else! Especially jennies game which made us all tell each other we love one another… however some members of the cast i.e. me and Zoe were not so good at keeping a straight face as Jennie and Frank!

Mark also paid a visit to my rehearsal which I thought was really nice… despite the look of pure shock on my face!! And it meant we got to show him what we had done so far and how far we had come as a group. I am so proud of my cast and what we have achieved so far!

We’ve now come to a kind of creative block and this means I need to go off to the home and collect some more memories for us to be able to develop the piece more…. So I awoke at 7.30am on Tuesday morning left at 9.20am and got to the m25 and ended up sitting on the m25 for 2 hours with my engine off!! There had been an accident and all lanes were closed! So I had to cancel on the home and re arrange to go in another time! Nevertheless this will not stop me! I shall go back and get more memories!!

So all is well again…

Rehearsals...Nag...Smiles!

Rehearsals began just under a month ago and so far we have had four…. I am so stressed out already!!!

The first rehearsal went well, and it was mainly there for us as a group to “ find our feet”, as I have already done so much planning, I pretty much already had the main themes, ideas and scenes planned out they just need lots of devising.

We marked through the first two scenes and used some of the props I had bought from the imperial war museum! Which was a big help, especially when doing reminiscent theatre as it needs to be sensory so lots of props and an elaborate set design (well what ever can be afforded) will aid the performance more as well as help the audience, which will be the elderly residents themselves to really feel as though they are there and to remember what we are portraying more clearly in their own minds.

The second rehearsal saw the creation of two mini scenes, this was fun to create as they are more interactions between actors, using the memories I have collected and it was nice to see other people’s interpretation on these memories rather than just my own.

Rehearsal three involved us developing on what we have created so far, this is the first time I have ever really been a director and I quite enjoyed the role as well as taking everyone else’s input. Within this production I want every member of my cast to have their own say and input. Different ideas and views on things will only help the production more. Especially as we don’t have a script!

We played around with different people doing different roles and then putting another person in place of someone in a scene, and this worked better and so now because of this, roles have not been picked but in fact chosen for us and are now more fitting.

Today was rehearsal four… there were a few less cast members than I would have liked but, nevertheless we still ran through and worked on a scene, played around with dialogue and some movement and found which worked best and made the scene work well.

Without sounding naggy I feel like I can’t tell the cast members that they need to be at a rehearsal as they are helping me out, but I feel that some people are not taking it as seriously as they need to and feel that missing rehearsals isn’t really a big deal but it is as it is holding the production back and it means that we are just going over what we have done. Or rehearsals have to be cut short, but time is running out and rehearsal spaces won’t be available soon.

Otherwise the production is going well and my I’m done nagging so am all smiles again!! 

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.

12 HOUR MUSCIAL!!!

WE DID ITTTTTTT!!!!

For 12 hours we wrote the theme tune sang the theme tune danced the theme tune argued over the theme tune and acted the theme tune! Or should that be musical?!

It was the most amazing, intense, magical, creative, crazy, agitating, happy, annoying, mental experience of my life and I loved every second of it!!

I am on such a buzz from it, it was immense! Some audience members were negative about it all and were like it was sh*t… thanks mate. But some were like wow you did it in 12 hours… I was like I knowwwwww! And to those that were negative I was like ok do better then come tell me what you think. Idiots!

Learning lines, songs, and dances was crazzzzzy! And improvisation slowly became the way forward…but we achieved something that has never been done before at St Mary’s and may have possibly set a record?! So if anyone can do better try otherwise shut up!

Cos we ARE amazing and what we did was amazing!! =)

So so so proud!!! =)

The weekend of the 5th and 6th!

I have not blogged in over a month and a half now….more fool me!
But nevertheless the time has come for me to return to it….

We have now performed and participated in our first weekend at ham house and sadly the only one I will be doing =(

For me it could not have been a bigger success! I loved every moment of it and thought that we all, as a company did really really well!

On the SATURDAY we all arrived at 10 am, well I was ten minutes late as usual. We got straight to work, organising the days activities and the order they would be in, as well as putting on our final bits of costume. We gathered in the “mess room” and waited for 11am to arrive along with the children!
We decided to have a vocal warm up and went into the education room, this helped us become focused and got us all geared up and excited, singing and humming away.

I was due to face paint at 11am, but thank God! There was only one child that needed their face painted at that time so I let Claudia take control as I did not trust myself with a brush, paint and a child’s face!

I found myself on a break and went off to eat my lunch/breakfast! I then was due to start my storytelling in the buttery and so off I went to sit on my perch and read from my BIG book! As children started arriving I grew more and more excited and started to enjoy myself more.

At one point I was telling my story in the day and mark came in and joined me and sat down with the children and their parents and after I had finished everyone looked at me as if they wanted more stories, so mark suggested to me that perhaps we should consider having another story teller upstairs with me. Which I thought was a fabulous idea as at times I was quite lonely.

Enter Briony and her story about the wittles and how they were as poor as poor could be. I felt this idea worked really well and sharing the experience with someone made it more intense and magical.

As they day wore on and my story had been told for the umpteenth time, I had a feeling of satisfaction more than anything else, as I had seen the children’s faces and how much they had enjoyed my story.

I then took a little walk over to the marquee and came across a CUPCAKE stand!!!!! Ahhhhhh!!!! This made my day!!!! I bought 3!! Not all for me! I did share, but they were like heaven and the cupcakes just made my day even better! =)

SUNDAY

By this point I was exhausted already!! I had gone to my uncle’s house for dinner and ended up staying there most of the night! So didn’t get much sleep. Nevertheless I was not going to let the company down and turned up, late again, however I had a valid excuse! Gary was talking to me at the door!

So in I walked to the “mess room” and again began another eventful day!
I was performing for the first hour in the buttery with Briony, however it was so quiet in the house Briony and I ended up rehearsing and then just having a good chat, which I found really nice as I have never really gotten to know her before Sunday and so it was an hour well spent I think!

The house was a lot busier on Sunday than it was on Saturday and I was constantly telling my story. 2 people pulled out so we were all constantly working… again I was lucky enough to escape face painting! However Jayne painted a loverly cupcake on my face!! =)

There was so much going on that it felt really good to be a part of it and to hear some of the feedback we were getting made me feel even better!

My mummy and stepdad came to see me at about half 2 and caught the end of my story which was nice, and then we went for a little wonder around the marquee and shop and orangery. Again I had CUPCAKES!!! My mummy bought me 2! =) ahh the little pleasures in life!!

By the end of the day I was truly exhausted and ready for bed! But we needed to de-brief and to our delight Gary had bought us cupcakes to say thank you however I did not have any as by this point I had had 3 in 24 hours and felt slightly sick!!

Mark decided to tell parents I had had 7! And commenced in telling me that I looked like one in what I was wearing!!

All in all a fabbbbb weekend! I just wish I could do the following two!! =(

=) x x x x