Bare minimum?

So we had a rehearsal yesterday 02/12/09 and maybe half the group turned up, I feel like there should be a much bigger effort seeing as we have three days until our first performance.

The idea of this module is you get out what you put in, and I want to get out a lot. At the moment I feel like I am really just doing what I am told to be doing and that’s really not good enough. A few of us had a meeting with Mark yesterday and a few things were resolved, I feel a lot better for it.

The worry was that we were not going to be able to perform or direct at all in this module and that is something that has been scarce throughout the entire three-year degree.

The 400th Birthday of Ham House is coming up next year and that date has now been confirmed in May so that as a company we can all participate. I think what was confusing people was that we thought we had to steward a big party and that was all we were being assessed on. That isn't the case; we can take this module as far as we, the company, want to.

Mark has to asses us somehow and he can through the work that he has given us, but the more we do the more choice he has, he will mark us on our best performance.

I so wanted to go to Spain and be apart of what Spiral has to offer, and because of money and hand it dates that week I can't. Its really rather irritating as I want to throw myself in but what I aim to do next term is build on getting as much work for us as possible so we all have chance to be involved in new experiences. The Knife Crime for Richmond Police sounds amazing and I most defiantly want to work on making us apart of that.

This Module isn't really an ordinary module, we can write it ourselves, so why are we just taking bare minimum?

Extra Bits and Bobs...

So for my TV Programme on one of my modules in my Media Arts course we did a Blind Date show last wednesday and four people from our company were apart of it. Jennie Davies played the host while Edward Anthony played the leading man. Zoe Munday, Jess Savory and Charlotte Lund played the three lucky ladies.

I really wanted to thank them for their contricution to my show, it really worked out well. It was also i thought quite interesting to see our actros act to camera.

This wednesday coming we have Jess Savory doing her Sotry of 'Santa's Hat's' to the camera aswell.

A little Catch up...

I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I would just do a catch up sesh. We have slowly been getting closer to the weekend performances. I find the Wednesday rehearsals very useful particularly in the build up to the final show, as we have no set leader we are able to interact with each other- I find that Zoe has a way of controlling the silliness and staying on task and her teaching abilities are inspiring. Last week we focused on character building, the exercise Zoe initiated I really enjoyed. It was a series of questions asking who our characters where. Who are you? What do you look like? What does your voice sound like? Etc. I felt like I could really search for the person behind the storey.On Friday the 27th Nov, we had a dress rehearsal, our company costume is- woolly jumper, woolly hat, woolly scarf, braces, fingerless gloves and wellies. This way we stand out from the rest of the crowd. The dress rehearsal went well, I attempted to learn my lines. I am doing 'Twas the night before Christmas' by Clement Clark Moore and 'Christmas Angles' by P.Z. Mann. For 'The Night before Christmas' I am in the dinning room, sitting on a big green comfy chair it over looks the fireplace. And for the 'Christmas Angel's' storey I am in the kitchen, I felt like it suited this story as the storey is based in a kitchen.The feedback I got back from Mark and Patsy, was that in 'The Night before Christmas' I should use the space more, as if the story was written to be told in that room. Use the window and the fireplace. Patsy made a good point of anticipation, using pitch and volume. For my 'Christmas Angel' story the poem has rhythm within it, what Patsy and Mark said was that at time the rhythm didn't work and maybe I could look into changing a few of the lines. Also that I’m sitting in a fireplace, I should be aware that it is hot.

I am struggling with my lines; hopefully I will be able to do them both.

That christmas feeling...

Friday was a very constructive lecture. We started out warming up-playing a few games. A particularly good one was getting into partners, walking into the space- given a scenario e.g. a bank robbery. Each line that was said had to follow the alphabet, what we found was that it was easier to think about the next line before you got to it, that way the scene flowed better. Also what was important was instead of thinking about just the words, act the scene that way it isn't so staged. It really helped me to understand how to create atmosphere rather than obvious gestures and phrases.

The next exercise we did was very interesting; two people went out the room, the rest of the group stayed. We were given a feeling like envy, love, hated. Once the two came back into the room we would create this feeling. Mark advised us not to ask them questions and let them come to us. Being the person coming in was a weird experience. I felt it was very hard to pinpoint what the group was trying to get across. I couldn't help but think is this what happens in day-to-day life? People are so sure that they may have come across in stupid way or in a way that they didn't meant to- but in fact the other person has no idea.

What is important here is that it is so easy to do obvious gestures of love rather than emotional thought out actions.

This idea we should use in our stories.

Ghost tour....

I think what I may have done was completely build myself up, the fact that it was a ghost tour. Also driving up to Ham House by myself on this cold and wintery night didn't help. When I got there all the lights were turned out in the house apart from candlesticks, it added to the atmosphere. 

The tour started and was lead my two elderly men; they were great examples of good storytellers. I think there age may have also added to that. As it suited the surroundings and the stories they were telling. He told us a bit of history about the house, I found that I leant more on this tour than the others probably because of the way they were told. 

 

One of the men led us around the house, with a torch. He told us of Elizabeth and her permiscuism. It was said that her life was really within the house, she died within it, in her bedroom. People have been known to have seen her walk the house, in particular the church which is where her late husband's body lied for six days.

Her dog has also been sited running around the house, his Skelton lies in a gladd box within the house.

 

The other man then took us around the grounds, the one that stuck out at me was a story of a young boy that became besotted with a young girl in the house, and she was attached to another man, which upset the boy greatly. He tried everything to win her over, nothing worked. His final attempt was buying a ring, which she refused. In the end he went to the top of the house, carved his name with the ring and jumped out the window- he is said to walk the grounds. There is another window with the name 'Emily' carved on the glass of a window. I saw this on another tour; maybe the girls name was Emily?

 

What was interesting was the groups that have come into the house trying to sensor ghosts, one in particular that wants to prove that there is a reason behind these lies, they call them. There is a photograph that was taken of a hand coming out of a door, holding a walking stick. The exact one that Elizabeth carried. The company won't realize this image as they still want to prove that there is an exbenation behind it- only the seniors members of The National Trust have seen the image.

 

I enjoyed the tour, as the storytelling was very well done, though I did feel like there were many scenarios that were told about ghosts that were seen and not enough atmospheres built up. Maybe the lights in the house could have been lower. I feel like at the beginning of the tour people should have a walk around the house and see what they feel is the most haunted or what they feel like in the space as once told where the ghosts were specifically sited I found myself trying to look. 

 

This tour has been useful I think for us as students as we have seen areas of the house we hadn't seen before and stories that we hadn't heard. We could defiantly use some of the stories in the future.

Remembrance day

So on the 11/11/09 we had our extra meeting that Zoe very kindly ran, we started off with a few games like cat and mouse. Then we got down to business. Allot of good ideas were thrown about.

Our initial idea of having storytelling as the main source of entertainment was expanded on, not only that but face paints and having a corner of the basement dedicated to children’s books. Children don't always want to get involved or have the confidence to get involved with theatre, this way having books they are able to escape that and could watch from the side lines. 

Coloring is another, just set up a few crayons and some paper and children are good to go, maybe even stenciled outlines of images and they can color them in?

 

Now the most important bit for us is of course the stories, we came to the conclusion that we needed to have loads of material to even start there was no good putting people into groups and going from there. So our task was to each find a few wintery/Christmas if necessary stories and bring them to Fridays lecture. This way even if the story isn't suitable to the individual they may have someone in the company in mind. Also we are all able to put ideas forward and get really creative with the tales.

 

There were a few debates on whether or not the stories should be known stories or perhaps written by us or completely unknown- like for example Ben Abbott's story on the snowman I had never heard of but was absolutely brilliant and would really work at the event.

 

Once we have started to put the stories together Mark suggested that we all know them that way we can just go go go. Also I liked the way in which he suggested that the event should be like a shopping list, each day we pick a handful of stories and go from there. Those ways the days are all different yet are connected all together.

Who knows we may have kids that come up to us and ask for a story that their friend heard last week and I think that is what this event should be like. Everyone is free to tell stories and make the spirit of Christmas come alive.

 

On Friday we are going into the house and using the space to start to rehearse, I think that will be a turning point- getting a real feeling for where we are, and of course what stories will fit where. 

 

When the families enter the house, what would be nice is we had a few people dressed in period costume welcoming people in. That way the children may feel less daunted and more willing to be apart of the festivities. What would be nice is to carry on these characters into the house and have them tell stories about the house or maybe what when on in that particular place at Christmas. I know we are not supposed to focus on the house but to have in encompassed into the day, I think would be nice. It seems such a waste of a beautiful space if we didn't. :)

 

We also spoke of advertising, dress up in period costumes and walk the streets of Kingston handing out flyers, another thought was that on the 26th November it is late night Teddington, which basically means the shops are open till 9pm there is mulled wine and the Christmas lights are turned on. This we thought would be a perfect time to hand out flyers as Teddington is swarming with families. And its also an excuse for an outing :) 

 

I am going to Sweden this weekend and was hoping that I will be able to find some old Swedish stories that we could use, using different cultures and nationalities would be a nice idea as England isn't the only place that celebrates the holiday.

Ham House

In regards to our christmas festivities, we have all been looking at different short stories to tell. All of them i think have something. Jenny and Zoe did a lavish child's story using loads of props, this i thought was great as it would really keep the children engaged. Then Ben did something very different, he sat on a chair and very quietly told a story of a snowman. There was no need for props the sound of his voice brought the story to life. 

After all the stories were shown Mark spoke of his vision. He saw lots of people walking around and two actors would walk into the space and tell a story like Ben's for example children would then come to them, or if they missed it it could be told again. Other stories could be on stage or a man-made stage at least. The idea here is that stories come to life for children and parents, the magic of Christmas and being together i think is important.

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.
The Character of Physical Law (1965)

For my TV program in Media i have asked if any of the actors would be interested in telling their story to a camera, it would work well with the kids show that we are doing. I think that something like Zoe and Jenny's would work best on camera as there is lots of visual equipment. Once the stories are more rehearsed i can look into this further.

Our rehearsals for the 'Family Fun' festivities start next week. Am really excited to go on this journey.