A bit of a catch up
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
This is the second time that I have attempted to write this post, as some inconsiderate person logged me off my account when I was doing something else. So, apologies if this is slightly more abridged that it would have been.. blame that person.
So, it's been over a month since I last posted, but I do have an excuse - I have been incredibly busy, rehearsing for assessments and shows, writing 2500 word assignments, etc... But now that I am at home, waiting patiently for some agency... ANY agency to give me some work, I seem to have all the time in the world to come and update you with what I have been up to in the last month. So...
After coming back from a flying visit to Norwich to see family and Chicago at the Theatre Royal after my birthday, I returned to Bretton to rehearse with vigour for my practical assessment for my POP2 module, which we had three days to devise and rehearse for. Although we were given the briefest of briefs ("create a piece of Documentary Theatre using any of the methods we explored over the last four weeks"), we finally decided to create our piece from a selection of articles that I collected for a previous piece of work, all linked under the theme of sex in society. The process was slight;y rocky, but we eventually came up with a series of experiments into how you can present a piece of Documentary Theatre, in the guise of a Music Hall type piece. We created a programme that was to be given to every audience member, with the acts listed as follows:
1) "St George's School Boys' Choir" (a short song about a man who was training to be a magistrate who was found in possession of child pornography - taken from a news article - sung to the tune of "If", by cast members holding soft porn magazines as chour sheets.
2) A News Report (a Verbatim Theatre piece constructed from interviews with several girls who slept with their teacher, a man who was convisted recently for sleeping with three underage pupils)
3) A Forecast (a ditzy weather-girl style report of abortion rates in Europe - simple, but worrying when the whole audience laughed as they were told that half of all pregnancies in Eastern Europe are terminated...)
4) "A Girl's Night Out" (a movement piece depicting how a girl who supposedly provoked her attackers into rape by the way she dressed and acted on a night out - disturbing, lots of loud music, but effective)
5) "Me and a Gun" (a song by Tori Amos about when she was raped, sung acapella by a cast member during a still from a previous scene - so, so effective... scarily so)
6) "The Jemima Kayle Show" (a take on the classic programme "The Jeremy Kyle Show", with the show focusing on teen pregancy)
7) "Two Men and a Lift" (a short sketch where two businessmen meet in a lift and go on to discuss how their businesses are going - the catch being that the inner thoughts of the men are revealed to the audience and they realise that their businesses are in child traffcing, and that the children they bring in are sold and used as sex slaves - more of a problem in the UK than you'd think)
8) "Find the Paedophile" (a game show where the audience have to guess which of 4 contestants are most likely to be paedophiles.. the catch being that all of them are and that the audience should come to understand that there isn't a stereotypical type of person who could be one)
9) And to finish, an audience participation type thing where everyone in the audience and the cast had to open an envelope that was paperclipped into the programmes - each envelope contained a statistic that was in proportion to everyone in that room about the rates of women who are raped - 50,000 a year in the UK - and of those who actually manage to get their rapist convicted - 1% of the 25% of women who actually report their rape)
We think it went quite well, but we haven't got our grades for it yet, so I guess we'll see after Easter. But anyway, the teacher (our lovely PHd student) and the dreaded George (leader of the Theatre and Performance course, notorious for being incredibly harsh with marking and so hard to please) seemed to enjoy it, so yay for that at least.
Speaking of grades, I got a rather brief (what IS it with tutors here???) email from my seminar tutor from last term saying
"Just to let you know that you obtained a 63% in your Performance Perspectives exam"
So, there you go. Several months after it, I finally get the grade for my exam that I took in January. This means that, overall, I got a 2:1 for this module :D
After the intensive week of arghing and stressing over the POP2 practical piece, I had a week left to write my written assignment for my Cultures of Performance module. Again, this was all rather brief, but I chose to use the model question of "Explore any two of the models you have encountered in the first five weeks of lectures". I decided to focus on Goffman's model of Front and Saussure's theory of Semiology - if you don't understand either of these, email me and ask to see the essay, it will explain all. Never one for making things overly complicated without necessity, my essay was eventually titled "An exploration of Goffman's model of Front and Saussure's theory of Semiology". Short and sweet. I worked in this solidly for a week, making sure that it was finished in time for Saturday so that I had the weekend free to go shopping for Mothers' Day, and the Sunday free for an all-day rehearsal for Midummers. Armed with a printed copy of my essay on the Sunday night, ready to be handed in on the Monday morning, I suddenly get a loud knock on my door from Isa, who has come to tell me that everyone has been given an extention... an extra day. Slightly annoyed, but glad that I got mine out of the way, I still went to hand it in on the Monday while everyone else was talking about going to write those last 1000 words... (of a 2500 word essay :s) Of course, no grade yet - in all fairness that would be too much to ask- so I should know how I did when I get back after Easter.
Just a quick idea of what we've all been up to in Collab (yet another module) recently:
Me looking rather artistic in the front of the picture there... in a lovely new top, courtesy of Topshop and Mum-Leeds-Birthday-Shopping-Trip :)
No, you're not supposed to be able to fit three people in this cupboard, but, in the name of theatre, we did!
So anyway, now to Midsummers.
Last week was Production Week for A Midsummer Night's Dream. For those who don't know what Production Week entails, in this week you have to bring all of the set into the theatre you're performing in, set up all of the lighting (this alone took three days), conduct a full technical rehearsal (even more technical for us because out whole production relied heavily on computerised thingamigiggies) and a full dress. In short, this meant being at Bretton for 10-14 hour days.Oh how I slept well last week.
Those of you who were paying attention (or have good memories) will remember that ORIGINALLY I was DSMing for the show. However, it was decided that a first year would not be able to handle it (pffft I say to that), and it was handed over to Michelle. I was then allocated the role of Admin Stage Manager. This then changed again because I couldn't be at a lot of the rehearsals (fair enough) and I became a backstage person. THEN I became a Stage Manager again because the people named Stage Managers weren't backstage and needed to be to perform Health and Safety checks. THEN I volunteered to be what Isa and I termed "Fly Girls", which basically meant being around 20 odd feet above the stage dropping gauzes in and taking them out at the right moment. Eventually, I think I was called an Assistant Stage Manager. I would have been happy with Fly Girl, but you can't have everything...
SO - for half of the time, we were sitting about in the auditorium watching the actors because there wasn't a great need to gauze shifting, which was fun, but eventually we went up and down the vertical ladders so many times that my hands started to blister... and I now have slight callouses (sp?) where my hands were put to use. Of course, we were helpful in other ways, such as making the props table, shifting props around, taping things up and the like, but the days were a bit long and only didn't drag because the show was so entertaining.
On Wednesday, we had a presenter and camera man from BBCs Look North come and do a little bit of filming of the show for their feature on Bretton in their "A to Z of Yorkshire" series. The link is here:
YAY LINKAGE!!
...Ok, so the link was SUPPOSED to be there.. but it isn't. Go to the BBC home page and do a search for "Look North, A to Z of Yorkshire reaches B", and you should be able to find it. Sorry :(
The VIP show on Thursday and the performances on Friday and Saturday all went without hitches (as far as we know, anyway) and the audiences seemed to enjoy themselves, so I think we can say the show was a success. Unfortunately I haven't got any pictures, but somebody was taking some so maybe I'll be able to gte hold of a copy of one of those...
Well, I think that brings you up to date.
I'm off to get ready to go out as I have to go register with an agency (yay for OSR who didn't turn me down before they read my CV) and film Phil inflitrating the Norfolk Library System.
Before I go, a couple of photos of what I (not personally, mind, I'm a tidy person) left behind at The Lodge when I came home:
The horror....
THE HORROR
So, it's been over a month since I last posted, but I do have an excuse - I have been incredibly busy, rehearsing for assessments and shows, writing 2500 word assignments, etc... But now that I am at home, waiting patiently for some agency... ANY agency to give me some work, I seem to have all the time in the world to come and update you with what I have been up to in the last month. So...
After coming back from a flying visit to Norwich to see family and Chicago at the Theatre Royal after my birthday, I returned to Bretton to rehearse with vigour for my practical assessment for my POP2 module, which we had three days to devise and rehearse for. Although we were given the briefest of briefs ("create a piece of Documentary Theatre using any of the methods we explored over the last four weeks"), we finally decided to create our piece from a selection of articles that I collected for a previous piece of work, all linked under the theme of sex in society. The process was slight;y rocky, but we eventually came up with a series of experiments into how you can present a piece of Documentary Theatre, in the guise of a Music Hall type piece. We created a programme that was to be given to every audience member, with the acts listed as follows:
1) "St George's School Boys' Choir" (a short song about a man who was training to be a magistrate who was found in possession of child pornography - taken from a news article - sung to the tune of "If", by cast members holding soft porn magazines as chour sheets.
2) A News Report (a Verbatim Theatre piece constructed from interviews with several girls who slept with their teacher, a man who was convisted recently for sleeping with three underage pupils)
3) A Forecast (a ditzy weather-girl style report of abortion rates in Europe - simple, but worrying when the whole audience laughed as they were told that half of all pregnancies in Eastern Europe are terminated...)
4) "A Girl's Night Out" (a movement piece depicting how a girl who supposedly provoked her attackers into rape by the way she dressed and acted on a night out - disturbing, lots of loud music, but effective)
5) "Me and a Gun" (a song by Tori Amos about when she was raped, sung acapella by a cast member during a still from a previous scene - so, so effective... scarily so)
6) "The Jemima Kayle Show" (a take on the classic programme "The Jeremy Kyle Show", with the show focusing on teen pregancy)
7) "Two Men and a Lift" (a short sketch where two businessmen meet in a lift and go on to discuss how their businesses are going - the catch being that the inner thoughts of the men are revealed to the audience and they realise that their businesses are in child traffcing, and that the children they bring in are sold and used as sex slaves - more of a problem in the UK than you'd think)
8) "Find the Paedophile" (a game show where the audience have to guess which of 4 contestants are most likely to be paedophiles.. the catch being that all of them are and that the audience should come to understand that there isn't a stereotypical type of person who could be one)
9) And to finish, an audience participation type thing where everyone in the audience and the cast had to open an envelope that was paperclipped into the programmes - each envelope contained a statistic that was in proportion to everyone in that room about the rates of women who are raped - 50,000 a year in the UK - and of those who actually manage to get their rapist convicted - 1% of the 25% of women who actually report their rape)
We think it went quite well, but we haven't got our grades for it yet, so I guess we'll see after Easter. But anyway, the teacher (our lovely PHd student) and the dreaded George (leader of the Theatre and Performance course, notorious for being incredibly harsh with marking and so hard to please) seemed to enjoy it, so yay for that at least.
Speaking of grades, I got a rather brief (what IS it with tutors here???) email from my seminar tutor from last term saying
"Just to let you know that you obtained a 63% in your Performance Perspectives exam"
So, there you go. Several months after it, I finally get the grade for my exam that I took in January. This means that, overall, I got a 2:1 for this module :D
After the intensive week of arghing and stressing over the POP2 practical piece, I had a week left to write my written assignment for my Cultures of Performance module. Again, this was all rather brief, but I chose to use the model question of "Explore any two of the models you have encountered in the first five weeks of lectures". I decided to focus on Goffman's model of Front and Saussure's theory of Semiology - if you don't understand either of these, email me and ask to see the essay, it will explain all. Never one for making things overly complicated without necessity, my essay was eventually titled "An exploration of Goffman's model of Front and Saussure's theory of Semiology". Short and sweet. I worked in this solidly for a week, making sure that it was finished in time for Saturday so that I had the weekend free to go shopping for Mothers' Day, and the Sunday free for an all-day rehearsal for Midummers. Armed with a printed copy of my essay on the Sunday night, ready to be handed in on the Monday morning, I suddenly get a loud knock on my door from Isa, who has come to tell me that everyone has been given an extention... an extra day. Slightly annoyed, but glad that I got mine out of the way, I still went to hand it in on the Monday while everyone else was talking about going to write those last 1000 words... (of a 2500 word essay :s) Of course, no grade yet - in all fairness that would be too much to ask- so I should know how I did when I get back after Easter.
Just a quick idea of what we've all been up to in Collab (yet another module) recently:
Me looking rather artistic in the front of the picture there... in a lovely new top, courtesy of Topshop and Mum-Leeds-Birthday-Shopping-Trip :)
No, you're not supposed to be able to fit three people in this cupboard, but, in the name of theatre, we did!So anyway, now to Midsummers.
Last week was Production Week for A Midsummer Night's Dream. For those who don't know what Production Week entails, in this week you have to bring all of the set into the theatre you're performing in, set up all of the lighting (this alone took three days), conduct a full technical rehearsal (even more technical for us because out whole production relied heavily on computerised thingamigiggies) and a full dress. In short, this meant being at Bretton for 10-14 hour days.Oh how I slept well last week.
Those of you who were paying attention (or have good memories) will remember that ORIGINALLY I was DSMing for the show. However, it was decided that a first year would not be able to handle it (pffft I say to that), and it was handed over to Michelle. I was then allocated the role of Admin Stage Manager. This then changed again because I couldn't be at a lot of the rehearsals (fair enough) and I became a backstage person. THEN I became a Stage Manager again because the people named Stage Managers weren't backstage and needed to be to perform Health and Safety checks. THEN I volunteered to be what Isa and I termed "Fly Girls", which basically meant being around 20 odd feet above the stage dropping gauzes in and taking them out at the right moment. Eventually, I think I was called an Assistant Stage Manager. I would have been happy with Fly Girl, but you can't have everything...
SO - for half of the time, we were sitting about in the auditorium watching the actors because there wasn't a great need to gauze shifting, which was fun, but eventually we went up and down the vertical ladders so many times that my hands started to blister... and I now have slight callouses (sp?) where my hands were put to use. Of course, we were helpful in other ways, such as making the props table, shifting props around, taping things up and the like, but the days were a bit long and only didn't drag because the show was so entertaining.
On Wednesday, we had a presenter and camera man from BBCs Look North come and do a little bit of filming of the show for their feature on Bretton in their "A to Z of Yorkshire" series. The link is here:
YAY LINKAGE!!
...Ok, so the link was SUPPOSED to be there.. but it isn't. Go to the BBC home page and do a search for "Look North, A to Z of Yorkshire reaches B", and you should be able to find it. Sorry :(
The VIP show on Thursday and the performances on Friday and Saturday all went without hitches (as far as we know, anyway) and the audiences seemed to enjoy themselves, so I think we can say the show was a success. Unfortunately I haven't got any pictures, but somebody was taking some so maybe I'll be able to gte hold of a copy of one of those...
Well, I think that brings you up to date.
I'm off to get ready to go out as I have to go register with an agency (yay for OSR who didn't turn me down before they read my CV) and film Phil inflitrating the Norfolk Library System.
Before I go, a couple of photos of what I (not personally, mind, I'm a tidy person) left behind at The Lodge when I came home:
The horror....
THE HORROR
