Hello dear readers,
So, since RADA, I've had a couple of weeks meeting relatives I've never seen before in my life, eating lots of food and having a few beers..but, it's back to business for my last two weeks in London.
Well, really, I went to Edinburgh, where I hung out with High Tide Theatre Company who focus mostly on new work by English and American playwrights. I met Steven Atkinson, the Artistic Director back at the beginning of 2010 for the National Play Wrighting Festival held in Brisbane. I had a talk with him about the work they do and when I was planning my RADA course, I thought, who else can I contact while in London? And High Tide seemed lie a wonderful idea! I've been very lucky that they took me on to see what their company does.
To read more about High Tide, go to www.hightide.org.uk
You can even click on the Blog Link to August 19th and you will find a blog from me!
At the moment, I am back in London, and doing a short internship with theatre company ' Only Connect' it's very different to High Tide, which is great, because it's giving me another perspective.
'Only Connect' only work with ex-prisoners and offenders and is very community based. Although full stage, music and film productions happen within the company, all involves ex-prisoners and rehabilitation experiences. The ex-prisoners go meet 'Only Connect' while in Prison, doing workshops. If they like it, they can choose to join 'Only Connect' after prison and complete in a one week course. Here they can go into Youth teaching and helping prevent crime of other young people, or they can go on to be in 'Only Connect' productions. They are then selected to become private members, with 'Only Connect' being a place of support even after there time finished with them.
There's proof that the programs have lowered the rate of offenders returning to prison from 60% to 20% which I think is quite remarkable and shows that if people in these positions are offered a sense of community and an opportunity to show and use their talents, it really does give them a sense of purpose in life and diversion to not turn back to what they were doing before prison. It's amazing the power of theatre can change lives this way.
To find more about Only connect, there website is www.onlyconnectuk.org
That's me for now. I will write more on my return to Australia- next week!!
I am learning so much, and meeting so many people. Form the biggest Arts event in the world, Edinburgh, to meeting ex-prisoners who have found the power Theatre has to them, to meeting some of the top producers and directors and teachers in London, I feel immensely grateful for this experience. Thankyou once again to the Queensland Goverment through Arts Queensland's Career Development fund and The Ian Potter Foundation, Cultural Trust for this opportunity.
Claire :)
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Monday, 1 August 2011
Week eight- I'm going to cry...now
I think this will be the shortest blog because there are simply no words that feel like they can discribe the feelings I have felt in the last 5 days of the RADA 'Acting Shakespeare' course! I think I have actually, possibly felt every emotion there is possible and feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have experienced what I have.
This was the last, and the most challenging. Monday we did tech for 'Love's Labour's Lost' . Although we had been rehearsing on the weekend and now lines were firmly down (there was a moment when the pgrase 'Love's lines lost ' was the perfect description for how things were going. But after a group study session slog and no sleep, lines were down. Exceptm when tech happened- costumes, props, letters and costume changed well, change everything and a lot of what had jsut started to flow well in the show was lost again because of these new elements. But, we got through. Nick, our director kept encouraging us..that this could be just an ok show, or it could be a great showm and we wanted it to be the latter!
Wednesday and Thursday were our first two performances for the 4 week Shakespeare course that has just began. The first was great- we got many moments we wanted, stil trying to get specifics, but the energy was up and a new smoothness to the show was discovered, not without problems, but the show was there. The second day, Thursday, we ...lost it again. Energy was low.Lines were lots left, right, and centre. Perhaps the second night blues? Can you have this in a 3 day season? There's no excuses, but, all I knew personally was that it didn't feel as strong as it could be, and Nick let us know! That night, it was resting up again, looking at the script again, and going back to the detail we had discovered.
And then there was Friday. Our last day. Our final performance.
There was an instant energy that only comes with last shows. It many ways you want to try and fight against this energy- because as actors, we tend to specialise everything if we can. And so you really need to say to yourself 'this is just another show,' 'I am going to do my best and let it not come about me and my special moment. The goal is still to tell the story as best as I can to the audience.'
Playing Sir Nathaniel was a treat with my classmates watching, because they were so willing to want to listen, and laugh. It was also a joy to watch everyone in my class ride to a sharp new level within their characterisations and specific moments that had been created in the play. It was especially fun playing opposite Audrey in my class as she just grew and grew in the comic school teacher role of Master Holofernes. What fun we had!! :D
And so were the last drinks, certificates, and the party to celebrating what has been truly an amazing experience for me. I cannot thank everyone enough who has supported me to make this opportunity happen...Arts Queensland, The Ian Potter Foundation, the support from Rob Pensalfini and the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble, my teachers and referees and constant support- Dianne Eden, Bille Brown, Margi Brown Ash and Karen Crone and all of my friends and family in the Brisbane community. Without this support, this trip would not have been possible.
And on that note, I am off the blog for a while. Thankyou again for reading and I hope to share more of what I've been through when I'm back home!
xx Claire :)
This was the last, and the most challenging. Monday we did tech for 'Love's Labour's Lost' . Although we had been rehearsing on the weekend and now lines were firmly down (there was a moment when the pgrase 'Love's lines lost ' was the perfect description for how things were going. But after a group study session slog and no sleep, lines were down. Exceptm when tech happened- costumes, props, letters and costume changed well, change everything and a lot of what had jsut started to flow well in the show was lost again because of these new elements. But, we got through. Nick, our director kept encouraging us..that this could be just an ok show, or it could be a great showm and we wanted it to be the latter!
Wednesday and Thursday were our first two performances for the 4 week Shakespeare course that has just began. The first was great- we got many moments we wanted, stil trying to get specifics, but the energy was up and a new smoothness to the show was discovered, not without problems, but the show was there. The second day, Thursday, we ...lost it again. Energy was low.Lines were lots left, right, and centre. Perhaps the second night blues? Can you have this in a 3 day season? There's no excuses, but, all I knew personally was that it didn't feel as strong as it could be, and Nick let us know! That night, it was resting up again, looking at the script again, and going back to the detail we had discovered.
And then there was Friday. Our last day. Our final performance.
There was an instant energy that only comes with last shows. It many ways you want to try and fight against this energy- because as actors, we tend to specialise everything if we can. And so you really need to say to yourself 'this is just another show,' 'I am going to do my best and let it not come about me and my special moment. The goal is still to tell the story as best as I can to the audience.'
Playing Sir Nathaniel was a treat with my classmates watching, because they were so willing to want to listen, and laugh. It was also a joy to watch everyone in my class ride to a sharp new level within their characterisations and specific moments that had been created in the play. It was especially fun playing opposite Audrey in my class as she just grew and grew in the comic school teacher role of Master Holofernes. What fun we had!! :D
And so were the last drinks, certificates, and the party to celebrating what has been truly an amazing experience for me. I cannot thank everyone enough who has supported me to make this opportunity happen...Arts Queensland, The Ian Potter Foundation, the support from Rob Pensalfini and the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble, my teachers and referees and constant support- Dianne Eden, Bille Brown, Margi Brown Ash and Karen Crone and all of my friends and family in the Brisbane community. Without this support, this trip would not have been possible.
And on that note, I am off the blog for a while. Thankyou again for reading and I hope to share more of what I've been through when I'm back home!
xx Claire :)
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