Tech Week

As we have been working more on the Arabian Nights play I have gained more belief in it. The play ranges in different emotions and how you’re on the edge of your chair wondering what will be happening next.

Today we worked on the different ways to interpret trees, markets etc. We put four individual scenes we have worked on together and are putting the finishing touches to the thrilling stories of the play.
Chantell Mason

Phew!! What a tiring week so far! However it is a lot of fun and it’s good to start work on the play. The atmosphere is really good and the casts are really supportive of each other.
Becky Davies and Robbie Taylor Hunt

I am really enjoying rehearsals at the moment. I have been given another scene, to perform to do with superheroes, which will be fun.
Hannah Cade

We are really enjoying the rehearsal process and discovering our characters and learning the etiquette of the time.
We have also had our costume fitting which was fun and have more of an idea what the stage will look like.
We are looking forward to performing the show.
Katie Webster, Daniel Reynolds and Alice Humphreys

Rehearsal is discovery and I have started to unfold my character to find a more complex person that I first thought. Through movement and etiquette sessions I have also become more aware of how life would have been in the time. I have learnt lots.
Andrew Livingstone

So we've just finished our first week of rehearsing "Arabian Nights" and it's going quite well. We're a little behind schedule but what we've done is pretty solid and I'm looking forward to getting our teeth into the second act. This week we've been doing some stuff on relationships between the four storytelling characters, experimenting with physical theatre and putting together a wedding dance which is going to be used a number of times in the play. The other day we saw a photo of the set and I have to say it looks pretty impressive: it'll be exciting to get the play up on that and out of the rehearsal room!-Natalie

Over the past couple of sessions we have been reading through the play “Arabian Nights”, and being cast. I am playing the role of Shaharazad, and I'm very happy with this as I feel there's quite a lot of dimensions to her character.
Nat xx

Blog for session 02/07

Today’s rehearsal was one that stretched imagination to the limit!! As usual, we were expecting the exercise of creating scenes using shapes of our bodies and a bit of creativity. But this week it took us all a bit more brain power as the pictures we were creating were not just your average “funeral”, “ship” or “wedding” but far more detailed depictions such as “a hill full of boulders” or “a shop filled with treasures.” It was quite difficult at first because thinking more outside the box in 30 seconds was hard but by the end of the exercise the groups had come up with some very interesting (and humorous) work!
The main part of the session was splitting into groups and, using a scene from the actual script of “Arabian Nights”, creating the scenery and imagery using our own bodies. Watching the results
of these really showed how everyone had really thought about the task and there were some very fresh takes on how to make a prison, a garden and how to show the relationships between characters using story telling. However, there was one thing that no group had managed to do convincingly which brings me on to the final part of the evening. Babies!
The last few minutes of the session were spent trying to create the birth of a baby on stage whilst keeping it within the style of the story telling in “Arabian Nights.” It concluded with some wonderful humour and wonderful performances from boys and girls alike!
Anna

Blog for session 16/07

This week we looked into how we could stage the number of weddings that happen in the play: using ideas originally put forward by members of CYT2, we worked with Arabian music to develop a sequence in which the bride enters followed by the groom. I played the bride as my role in the play is Shaharazad, and it was a lot of fun! We choreographed a simple Arabian-style dance to enter with, and used big swathes of red cloth to develop some dramatic elements into it. Fantastic! Nat x

today we got cast in our play for Trelawny of the 'Wells'. i'm quite chuffed with my part to be honest - its going to be a blast. :D we did some small performances and me, tasha and becky did a super-hero type scene. i was the heroine, tasha was the villian and becky was the hero. i really enjoyed it :D we finished of the session with some games called 'splatt' and a game that involved us being bunnies but i cant remember what it was called, but it was a laugh :D
Hannah Cade

We started todays session with performing another two minute summary of the "Trelawny of the "Wells", except this time...in Irish! It was a lot of fun to do and watch. We've also worked on another scene from the play in more detail. It's good to have a better look at it.
Robbie Taylor Hunt

I tell you what, I'm warming to the play already! Today we did an abridged version of the play in Irish, which was a laugh. Then we paired off and did a small part of the play, I was with Alice she played Mrs Mossop and I played Ablett; He's a green grocer woop :)
Ryan Metcalfe

First, as always, we started by doing some warm ups. This included a dance based on the 'Arabian Nights' customs. While going around in a circle, you took three steps then touch the floor, another three steps then reached up high. After doing this a few times, we turned to the opposite direction and continued. On this turn, the boys walked into the middle (all girls stood still). The boys had to crouch down low, then jump up into the air landing in a pose. They then returned to the circle so that we could once again follow the dance steps, but this time the girls had to enter into the middle. The only difference with this one was that although there was no jumping or monster-like posing involved, we had to toss our hair. Once the dancing was over, we were given a pile of materials. The idea was to create a story using only the pieces of cloth, but you couldn't wear it or rip it. We split up into groups, and everyone came up with brilliant stories and ideas on how to interpret them. There were stories to do with marriage, mythical creatures, deserts, talking flowers, and a thoroughly depressed caterpillar! After this we were told that now we had to use the cloth to represent a story from 'Arabian Nights'. We were given Es-Sindibad's tale. Still in our four groups, two were given the beginning explaining how Es-Sindibad was very foolish in his youth and out of wisdom decided to travel and make something for himself. The other two groups were given the other half of the tale, about how Es-Sindibad escapes an island using an extraordinary means of transport. It was brilliant! There were so many different ways discovered to show different parts of the story, and amazing ideas for a bird with such different looks even though it was the same creature they're showing. After that we tried to work out different ways of showing size difference between characters and the objects they find in the story, using group work. It was really fun, as we had so many ideas from just using pieces of cloth and certain ways to manipulate or use it! Mercedes Palmer-Higgins

Last week was particularly vibrant. Probably by virtue of the fact that we all knew we were getting ourselves into something new, exciting and FRESH! The atmosphere was an exciting one and everyone enjoyed the session.
We had lots of fun playing around with the concept of men on horseback (Cowboy style). Many people came up with different things and the difference in display of levels, status, sound etc. was interesting. In the second half, as it were, we began to read our play. (Arabian Nights). Parts were distributed out purely for reading purposes and everyone had a chance to read. By the end of the session, the most were beginning to really get a hold on the style and warmth of the play - "This is going to be Fantastic" - someone said.

This week was, in many parts a continuation of the session beforehand.
Focussing on relevant themes of music and style, Rebecca led a physical warm-up which encorporated some, what can only be described as, 'Arabic-style' dance and 'Man-with-recorder-playing-music-for-snake-coming-out-of-a-hat' movement. It was excellent fun and i believe that people really got into it.
Although seemingly random, it was of course apparent by then that these type of themes were relevant to our up-and-coming Production, Arabian Nights.
In the second half, again, as it were, we finished our first reading of the play as a cast. Overall i think everyone is quite taken by the compassion and ritchness of the storytelling. Although i believe that perhaps not all are fully appreciative of the hard work that lies ahead!
Personally, i can't wait - Roll on August!
James Rowley

Today, which was our second week of rehearsals, we have been trying to understand the play "Trelawny of the Wells" which is going to be our play for the festival. It was good and I think everyone now understands the play.
Sam Bailey

Tonight we went over the story of "Trelawny of the Wells" and it made everything clearer. We are all really excited now about getting cast and starting rehearsals.
Gemma Guy

Today's rehearsal was very interesting and amusing. We played a game called Hero's, Heroines and Villians. I had no idea what I had to do but overall, I managed to amuse people. Last week we found out that we are doing the play "Trelawny of the Wells" for the summer festival!!
Natasha Wainaina

We enjoyed this session because it gave us a chance to go over the play and get to grips with the plot. We are hoping the play will be as good as we think it can be, if we commit and work hard we believe we can achieve this.
Katie Webster and Daniel Reynolds

Today was very good and I really enjoyed it. We did a few warm-ups which were fun then did a little explanation in groups of the play in front of everyone else. I now understand the play!!
Marcella Piret

Today's session has been rather amusing. Everyone had to summarise "Trelawny of the Wells" in 2 minutes. The game at the beginning was funny with everyone getting confused with who was chasing who.
Becky Davies

This week we had our first look at our play "Trelawny of the wells". We read through it and it looks like fun! We split into groups and acted out extracts from the play to give us a better idea of how the play would look.
Robbie Taylor Hunt

8 May 2008
This week we had two residential actors run our group with the emphasis on improvisation and focus. The exercises were difficult taking some of us out of our comfort zone but in the end very benefial to the development of ourselves as actors. We ended with a crazy dance in a circle. Which was great fun.

Alice Rowe

7 May 2008
"This week we had a session on groups in society. This could be chav groups, emo groups, just all groups in all shapes and sizes. We worked with actresses from upcoming play “IPH”, that includes a group of girls. The main exercise of the night was to make up our own groups and do an improvisation. The leaders chose the scenes, we chose how to act inside of them. This resulted in some very decent scenes, including a never-ending McDonalds scene: only the Mercury Youth Theatre could you go from ordering a "happy" meal to ending up exiting the building because of a bomb scare!It was a really cool session!
Forest Morgan