TheatreCenter

Yes! Unbelievably, we are half way though the term already and so theatrecenter will be taking a half term break for the next 2 weeks. There will be no sessions on either the 23rd or 30th October but we will be back with a vengeance on Saturday 6th November!
We hope that you have a great break!

Top local funny lady Heather Urqhart brought us a Masterclass in Physicality, Tableaux and Ensemble work this week. The Juniors began with a warm up including ‘Action Detective’ where one member of the group leads the others in a serious of movements and actions; whist another another as to spot who the leader is (a lot trickier than it sounds!!) and ‘Oh Mighty Isis’, where the group, as one entity, has 10 seconds to create an item (eg a beachball) – in total silence!! A great way to hone creative, communication and observation skills! They then went on to look at telling a story through pictures only and produced a 6 image version of Red Riding Hood (every member of the group had to be involved in each ‘snapshot’), which had to be clear enough for an audience to understand the story despite the fact that there was no narrative!! The Seniors continued in a similar vein starting with the ‘Titles’ game where one member of the group sits on a chair and counts down from anywhere between 10 & 4 whilst the rest of the group have to create an interesting Tableaux in that time. The individual group member then has to come up with a creative title for the image – which produces some hilarious results..!! They were then divided into 2 groups and given a series of random photographs from newspapers which they then had to recreate themselves and incorporate into devised pieces of their own! This resulted in 2 very funny pieces entitled ‘The First Aid Exam’ and ‘The Swimming Class’! In the joint session we continued with our series of ‘Random Word Theatre’ and using some of their newly developed Ensemble skills the students created 4 pieces entitled ‘Dark’, ‘Light, ‘Lost’ and ‘Found’.

Our Half Term weeks fall on the 23rd and 30th October. We hope you all have a lovely break and look forward to seeing you back at The Drama Studio, Blatch, on November 6th.

Pip Henderson will be back supervising this week, she can be contacted on the day on her mobile: 07957 641 210

Ben Murray Watson joined us again, continuing his script writing workshop. Ben worked on several exercises emphasising again the importance of how we begin our stories, and how we set our scenes. The Junior group rehearsed their pieces and were directed by Ben. The Senior group explored improvisation techniques before looking again at their scripts. Ben directed and blocked the scenes to demonstrate how to immediately access the audience and create clarity.

Jo Chappell is in charge this week and will be onsite from 12.45pm. If you need to contact her on the day you can do so on: 07979 222 140

Ben Murray-Watson joined us this week for the first of a 2 part session on Playwriting. The Juniors started by looking at leading from different parts of the body and how that that effects characterisation, as well as exploring the art of story-telling; Whereas the Seniors began by creating scenes using ‘unknown’ phrases that had to be incorporated into an on the spot improvisation. Both groups discussed the importance of a play having a beginning, middle and end and the fact that the story must draw the audience in from the very start. They then produced several ‘openings’ including: ‘The Old Hotel’, ‘You’re Next!’ and ‘Flat 3′, the final results of which will be seen next week! In the joint session we continued with this term’s theme of ‘Random Word Theatre’, which this week produced 2 very different pieces: Sound – ‘A Day In The Life…’ and Shape – “The Office”.

Pip Henderson will be back supervising this week, we look forward to having her back and asking her all about her Bootcamp…she can be contacted on the day on her mobile: 07957 641 210

We were joined by the lovely Sheila Datoo, of Earwig Productions fame. By great demand she taught her Bollywood session, complete with full Indian costume for everyone…yes the trousers didn’t quite fit but, to much amusement, added a great comedy moment to our Bollywood wedding scene!

Jo Chappell is still driving this week, and can be contacted on her mobile (07979) 222 140!