Monday 22 December 2008

Womans Aid

My group (Kat, Bex and myself) have been a little slapdash recently, with so much work we had all put other things before this project thinking we had plenty of time on our hands, it was only this week that really any of us realised that i was Christmas.
As we had this Thursday off we deiced to meet early and get everything sorted, we knew we wanted to work with Woman's Aid but we had several questions to ask ourselves
  • Why do we want to work with them
  • What are we wanting to say
  • Who do we want to say it to
  • What is our venue
  • Where abouts is our venue
  • When are we putting this on
  • What type of theatre will work best

After looking at all the questions, we looked back at Cardboard Citizens, we all felt that in someways we would be preaching to the converted if we were to try and travel round different refuges and also we were not sure about the issues that would come into that, there was a lot of research needed.

We all really like verbatim theatre and all agreed that this is the best way of telling a story that is so personal, and if we wanted to hit home to our audience, we needed really people, real stories and real words!

This is what we have come up with as a starting idea, that personally i think is quite solid, but please feed back on ideas or questions as its very easy to over look things with your personal work.

We are getting in touch with refuges and seeing if there are 3 woman who would be willing to anonymously tell us there stories, and make that a piece of verbatim theatre, then tour with it to different areas. We want to go to places like local WI'S (woman's institutes) in these areas and do a work shop, using forum theatre to see what there solutions are. One thing we did defiantly agree from cardboard citz, you think think there are easier ways out than there actually are. Allot of people say, 'I'd just leave him if he hit me!' That's fine for them to say, but whats about the years of manipulation and don't forget she wouldn't be with him if she didn't love him!

Once we have done this workshop we then invite them to a venue near by, ask them to invite family and friends to listen to the real life story and help support Woman's Aid, charge a small donation and put on a half hour verbatim piece the next night.

We also would like to take it to a male audience, see what there thoughts were. We talked about possibly taking it to a working men's club, however i raised the thought about it not being a controlled environment, what do you think? Instead I'm arranging us to take the workshop to (fingers crossed) The Leicester Tigers Rugby team.

We also said that if this was a company we would also in the future think about bringing in another team that looked at abusive woman, for the men's aid. But for now as we are 3 woman we just wanted 3 woman's stories.

I also have information on statistics, sometimes that can be as shocking to people, even more shocking than the stories themselves, its the knowledge that you don't have, like with how much a hostel costs!

I rang Woman's Aid and they were very nice and seemed very interested in our project. I am now in contact with two people at Head office who are doing allot of ground work for us. We have no split for Xmas and are looking into venues and dates to meet with people, Hoping that we should start touring after half term and finish end of March.

Very excited and feel like i have the buzz back of doing a project.

Thursday 11 December 2008

Personal

I'm going to talk to you now about someone very very close to me that i lost when i was 11. He was the person i shared everything with, and he took himself away, by accident.
When i was 14 i went off the rails, completely. I'm not proud of the things i did, but i did them...it was my way of coping, i don't talk about his person now...not because i don't want to, but because it hurts.

When i was 14 i faced my first time at starting a new school by myself, i had my friends but he wasn't there. I had lost my community!

Nearly 9 years on I've only just found out who i am, through friends, travel and family i have finally found me!

I want to help people who have suffered like me, i didn't have any help at the time and i think that charities that help people who have lost loved ones especially children are fantastic.

I started getting involved with my dads charity CVOC about 2 years ago now and i get so much out of it and i think by helping them, they have helped me. Through working with these children i have realised how small others problems are and just how well children deal with death, some of there stories i couldn't even begin to tell you, they are true hero's to be able to deal with so much at such a young age. The parents stories are just as powerful as the children's and heart breaking...if you want real raw stories they are best told through that persons words and actions...this is why i love Verbatim theatre.

This is also what inspired me to travel as well as my parents love for it, i wanted to help more children around the world, so i taught i Brazil, Cambodia and India as well as having fun and seeing the sights, the greatest thing i learnt was, i can do this by myself and alone...i am still strong.

I am who i am and that's all that i can be

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Utopia

What is Utopia???

Utopia is your idea of perfect!

Each person has there own idea of the perfect world as because we are all different so are our opinion's on what is perfect, in some respects this is why the world works and at the same time it is the reason for many wars and fights.

Hitlers idea of Utopia very nearly happened, who are we to say that he was wrong and we were right, i agree undoubtedly that we were as the pain and suffering that he caused was catastrophic but how do we learn right from wrong and if we do learn the same as everyone else what is it that affects or changes that behaviour and creates 'bad' people like Hitler??

Questions that are asked my society create conflict but without conflict would there be a society?

*What is the right way to bring up children?
*What should the drinking age be?
*When are you ready to have sex?
Questions that are very much part of everyday life...should we not decide when we are ready to do these things...does the fact there are laws mean we see them as rules to abide by or be broken and who is it that actually decides?

On my 16th birthday for example one of my mates brought me a packet of fags and packet of condoms and a lottery ticket?!? What message does this send!

This week the question was posed 'what is your idea of utopia for the drama department in this college?'

Everyone else was talking about having something like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, all i wish for is that we had more rooms and more resources a room where you had all the lighting and sound for atmosphere and a room just for costume and an comfy sofa chill out room to sit and talk through ideas and research, also somewhere that could pick your thoughts out of your head and put them into words as this is general an area i struggle with (you may have noticed)...nothing too exciting just more practical, boring me!

I just think that there are a lot of all doing different things all needing different spaces and sometimes you'll go to a rehearsal and actually all you really need is to mess around with costume or lighting and sound, but you can't cause you need someone else to help you with that!!!

I don't think people realise how looked after we are at uni!

PS I would like a dungeon to put anyone who says drama is a doss subject or asks if i can me a good tree!!!!!!!!!!

Insight to the past!

Fiona and Mary came a couple of weeks ago and i thought it was fantastic , we learnt so much about there past and for me there were some real key moment whilst they were talking that really caught my attention, for different reasons.

I loved it when we talked to them about their first love, to me it was a real insight to just how fantastic times were and they've developed over time. Such as Mary meeting her 1st partner playing tennis and then playing doubles,etc. Seems to be like something i thought they made up for TV and Fiona's husband driving her home drunk and not knowing the way...how crazy is that. I also think that the fact that fashion has changed so dramatically over the years, i feel like were and era that doesn't fit in as our dress code seems so normal for the flower power and the colourfulness of the 60's and 80's, maybe catch up with me in 40 years time, when people are age are looking at our clothes thinking how cool...i just don't see it happening...nothing is as outrageous as it used to be, is what i think I'm getting at. I agree with equal rights 100% but the fight that people like Emily Pankhurst went through seems so brushed aside to me, i know allot of my friends didn't even turn up to vote and how sad is that, woman fought to give us that right and now we can't be bothered to even respect them by turning up. Another thing is woman keeping a career and being sorting out the house...were not wonder woman, Woman used to stay at home and look after children and the house now they try to to do all of that and hold down a full time job...who says they had it hard back then, I'm joking of course...but only to a certain extent!

I'm going to sound like a complete looser when i say this but i was completely envious of them, this maybe strange but doesn't anyone wish that they would have been round for one of the world wars??? I do, i know it was such a devastating time in history and not one that some people like to talk about but i just think personally that we take so much for granted these days. Mary talked about at night when everything would be pitch black and you'd hear the sirens and have to hide and as you looked into the night sky and the lights were beaming into the sky looking for Nazis planes there would all of a sudden see the silhouette of a small plane streaking across the sky, and how scary it was to see this and hear this and just how terrifying that must have been to live through it, but also how amazing it would have been to look back at these memories and share them. I only hope that when I'm Mary's age people will be as interested in my travelling stories, as they don't seem to be these days...why is that??? I find that a lot of my parents friends are unbelievably interested the countries I've been to and things I've done. People my own age however, seem to be less caring.

Maybe it's just me!!!

Homesick


Right, firstly i apologise to my blog once again for the neglect...'I'm sorry Blog but i hate you!'

Homesick is a word that i have never associated with myself, I have lived away from home for nearly 4 years now and last week i had the first signs of homesick, OK so it's not a decease, I'm not at risk but i am upset and feeling odd! (odder than usual)
How is it you can be away from home for a year and only see your parents once for one week and then time when you are living only two and a half hours away I'm homesick!

For the first time in my life in London i can the North/South divide...for the record i am from the midlands! Everything is different down here and i had never even noticed it before maybe because i have been here for so long I'm now looking for things that are different, and that made me miss being at home, there things that would seem so trivial to you but to me, at this moment in time, there huge. I want to go for a walk...where can i go? In Leicester about 10 mins away from my house is a park, it is massive and has old ruins and there was Lady Jane Grey who lived in this house...its beautiful, there are deer and a river running though and it's so peaceful, i go there for picnics with my friends in the summer, my Nana and grandpa used to take me there when i was little, I'd go horse riding there and i used to take my dog there. You can see it from my house and my mum and dads house...Maybe its familiarity that I'm searching for...i wonder how many of us have places like this...even the same place that we share but for different reasons...this just got me thinking about people's communities that are together but separate. In the work we did with Molly on Ritualistic theatre we talked about the uni and different people memories of certain buildings or rooms...i hadn't actually linked any of this until i just sat down and started to type funny how things come to us when we think in detail...everything fits into everything eventually!

Monday 10 November 2008

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

This weekend i went to Birmingham with a friend from home to see Swan Lake, Trock style.
The Trocks are all male ballet dancers who perform ballets such as Swan Lake but in a comedy style. They are fantastic to watch if you are interested in Ballet or not. All of the movements are superbly executed and brilliantly danced.

The whole thing is very panto expression wise but at the same time parts of the dances are done with precision and elegance and you can't help but be captivated by the sheer brilliance of the piece. Everything you have ever dreaded or wanted to do on stage if taken to the the limits...falling over, Being kicked in the face or generally just wanting to wave at your friends.


It's all very professional and non cheesy at all but ultimately very cheesy at the same time...does this make sense???

If you get a chance they really are a must see group!

Thursday 6 November 2008

DV8


We went to see DV8 last night at The National Theatre...Bex's boss got us free tickets so we were sat right near the front for free, right in front of Paul Woodward which was funny! Anyway less bragging about free tickets more about what we saw!
The piece that was performed was Verbatim theatre which was very strange as we'd only just been talking about it and i was thinking that i didn't understand it or really see how it could be used! After seeing the show i understand and not only do i understand i really like it. The technical side of the performance was fantastic not just the use of the 'black board and comic' but also the technical movement of the body and how words and actions were performed onstage.
The stories were so real and acted, in my opinion, to a very high standard. They were real and raw extremely moving. The one that hit home hardest to me was one about a girl in South Africa, I'd not seen that side of the country because of the areas I've been...how weird that even the world can be censored for us.
Myself and two other members of our group have decided to work together for our final piece as we were all interested in the same areas...we have come up with many ideas and made many phone calls and also done a lot of research and seem to be set on an idea now of using several different approaches to our work...today i think we made a break through...i am now very excited about this module and can't wait to get stuck in and start getting out there and showing our own theatre. I hope we can achieve the reality and clarity that DV8 achieved with their performance.

Thursday 30 October 2008

Blah Blah Blah

Last lecture i was confused...for a change!

I thought this year was going to be the same as last but harder...i think I'm probably stressing myself out a lot more than i actually need to be, being away from uni has helped a lot...i seem to feel much more relaxed at home...away from the smogg of London!

I can't say i fully understand Verbatim theatre and i can't say i think i will like, i like the idea of using the stories, real life stories form the horses moth so to speak, isn't this just a branch off from forum theatre? The stories that Cardboard Citz did for us were peoples true stories...I don't know!

I'll tell you what i do know....i know i want a challenge...i worked with Hannah, Char and Kat plus 3 of the lads last year and really enjoyed the challenge of the work. We went into a school in Sheen and it was a real struggle. The class were extremely unruly, and the teacher came with problems of his own...However we all put in a lot of hard work and extra time with the class and I'm happy to say that it really paid off! I enjoyed every minute of working with the group...i enjoy the psychological side of projects like this and the change of behaviour in this group was out standing...However, i have done that now and want a bigger challenge.

I would love to come back to Leicester and do a project or go to Birmingham and sort something out there but travel is expensive...I'd like to work in a small group and with Creative Colab is at the same time as community theatre work wise and rehearsal wise i can't see myself getting anything properly done as I'd spend days and nights in a car or on a train...also finding a group of people who would actually want to come to Leicester could be hard.

Another thought i had was that my dad works and built up a charity through the police called 'Child Victims of Crime' its pretty much what it says on the tin...both my parents take up to 60 kids and family's to Florida every year...its a huge task and its really beneficial to the group...it means they are surrounded by other people who have suffered the same losses as them just maybe in different ways. One girl a couple of years ago talked for the first time since her mother and sister had been murdered...the charity do such wonders for these children. I don't know if there is something i could do with this???

Its very hard, i don't really want to just go back into a main stream school but after doing some calling round it's very difficult to get placement where i would like to be!?!

Anyone have any ideas...

Monday 20 October 2008

The Help


I wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing this production, i can't even sum up why?
I enjoyed forum theatre work that we have done in class and had never seen a live piece of theatre performed in this way, so really i should have been more interested in it than i was. However by the end i was completely captivated by how it was used and what settings it could be used in.

I like forum theatre because i feel that it can be used in so many ways to help show lives and stories of people and make a whole audience think. As a society i know how closed off we are, how judgemental and also how two faced we are. I would love to take a piece of theatre like this to some of the places i have travelled and lived and to people in this country who are so narrow minded to what the world outside there little life/world is like.

After the show Terri did a Q&A session i was amazed that people of my age were so closed off to what it's like to be homeless and how surprised they were to find out about homeless people, such as how much a hostel costs.

I felt very privileged to know what i know and to have seen what i have seen i guess i was the narrow minded person thinking at everyone would know. I haven't been homeless but i have lived in places that have no running water and no electricity and no bed and home comforts and though it was hard it was probably when i felt most free...but then reality kicks in of how much we take for granted.

The piece that Card bored Citz performed was very well structured, each characters story was very sad and very hard to take in. I wish we would have been able to look at all the situations as i felt the reason that the majority of people chose Rowena's story was actually because they thought hers was more interesting...if we would have explored the other two i think we could have seen just how deep they were. I actually felt (maybe because i want to work in a therapy area) that Charlies story would have been interesting as i think people would have thought that story was allot easier to get out of than Rowena's...i wondered how many of the audience felt shocked and upset by his story!

After the show a couple of us stayed and went to the SU with the cast...it was fantastic to talk to all the actors about there own story and get feedback from them, Peoples stores interest me so much and i could listen to people all day talk about there experiences and life stories. I like the rawness and find the truth so refreshing. Myself and Bex got talking to Alix, she is a drama therapist and one of the actors in the show. She was really lovely and very helpful she even took my number and told me she was going to put me in touch with someone she knew at Felthem prison who could help with questions and possibly even a placement for community theatre. I thought this was very nice of her, but there has been so many time's when people have promised to help or contact me and never got back in touch (maybe that's more of a hint to me!) But the next morning she called and gave me a number to call...i haven't had the time yet but certainly will be following the call up.

I think one thing that everyone should learn about people in this world is that not everyone has it easy, you can never judge a book by it's cover and your circumstances are not who you are but what helped you become you!

Gosh that was very deep...all in all i loved 'THE HELP' and learnt allot more than what was on the surface of the show!

feeling bad!!!

I feel very bad that i have neglected my duties as a blogger, personally I'm finding this whole process very hard. I normally (as stupid as it sounds) look forward to letting off steam in my portfolio and getting everything down but this feels loose i worry its all wrong?!? I'm scared about giving my opinion in case someone reads more or less into what i am trying to say.

I am enjoying all the work we are doing and AM going to get round to writing about it all at some point. But i feel this blog thingy is not for me!

I enjoy being artistic and creative with my portfolio and i feel like i should be writing much more structured than i am at the moment and wondering how will this all be put together. I know it's not something that i necessarily need to worried about now but i like to know what i have to do and am going to do...I'm a very organised person.

This blog is turning into a self help clinic for me!!

Tuesday 7 October 2008

Confused!!!!

Help!!!
I have been sat researching ideas for about an hour now, I'm so frustrated as i really have no idea what i want to do....this is more upsetting because this is hopefully going to the type of work i want to do in the future.
Why am i having a thought block and creative disaster????

I think i am going to dare to work on my own...but every time i come up with an idea of the area i want to go with i get this block on what type of work to do with them, what they would enjoy and then start doubting that i can infact do this at all...i think i need some inspiration!

Thursday 2 October 2008

Starting a blog

At first i was happy about writing a blog, i did one when i was travelling and really enjoyed it, However after spending the last 10 minutes trying to find a name for this thing i am now quite board with the whole thing!!!

Anyway i enjoyed today's lecture and am in two minds of what i want to do...Doing a group project could be fun...but will anyone listen to my ideas and will everybody have as much involvement as they would like?????