I have been learning more recently about Theatre for the Very Young, and by Very Young I mean infants and toddlers... check out this theatre production being developed that is performing at the egg: 16 singers.
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I have a huge, ever-changing list of shows I want to see in Bristol. There are tons of theatres there that rotate productions daily, if not weekly, so it's a little hard to make them all compared to in London where the same show runs for an extended period of time.
To help me prioritize shows in London, I decided to make a list of TEN shows I want to see. They're in alphabetical order, and based on what's showing as of today's date.
What do you think of my list? Would you take one of these shows off and replace it with another one? Which one would you want to come see with me if you were here? Happy Wicked Day!
GOOD NEWS! Today is the 12th Anniversary of WICKED on Broadway! Did you know that WICKED is the show that changed me FOR GOOD? I did not have huge aspirations to be a performer until I first saw WICKED on Broadway in 2004. The more I reflect on that moment, the more I realize just how special WICKED is to me and to my story. I've tried to negate that for years since EVERYONE loves WICKED, but being here on this program, I've been able to reflect on it and am embracing it as the start of my musical theatre story. I've seen WICKED three times in three different cities, the first being on Broadway with the original cast in 2004. Earlier this week I was tickled with excitement over the announcement that it's going to become a movie, so I decided to celebrate by treating myself to see it again here in London on WICKED DAY! It just feels right. (Thank goodness for student ticket prices!) That being said, be prepared for a huge blog post later on this weekend. If you aren't familiar with WICKED, I urge you to check out this trailer. Be safe & enjoy your Halloween weekend! Love, Miss Jacq Today I chose to attend a research lecture for the MA Dance Programme with Dr. Jess McCormack. Jess just got her PhD from the University of Bristol and presented how she did practice and theory research for her thesis, "Dancing other People’s Words: an investigation of choreographic practice in the field of verbatim dance-theatre.”
As a theatre/dance facilitator, I really was intrigued by the different types of techniques Jess used to help herself and her dancers devise and create choreography outside of their normal training and technique. In our two hour time with her, we briefly took part in a few of the exercises she used daily in her six weeks of research. While I was nervous how I might find myself enjoying these concepts (dancing to spoken word, interviews, etc.) I found a lot of positivity in the uniqueness of the experience. It was so nice to not have to think about my previous dance training and just MOVE. Depending on the exercise, we may have been instructed to move in a variety of ways, in different types of styles, with the music, against the music, with physical restrictions or free flowing... it's a little difficult to explain on paper since so much of it was just expressed in the movement. The overall idea was that these exercises stopped her dancers from drawing on their previous training and encouraged them to push themselves past what they already know by improvising a certain way to a specific type of sound. I thought the pieces we saw recorded from her research were obvious indications that this special method of choreographing worked well to create a unique piece of dance-theatre. I can see myself using the techniques she shared with us today in the future, and I'm excited to manipulate a few of them to be able to do with my students. Yesterday, my MA program was invited to tend a workshop for the BA Acting students taught by the Trestle Theatre Company. Trestle has been a company for over 30 years, originally focused on physical story telling, creating "a distinctive style of theatre using masks, puppets and music."
We learned how, over time, Trestle developed into an arts facility funded by the Arts Council, and how they eventually chose to stop receiving funding in order to continue creating the work they originally set out to do in the 80s. They have a very intriguing history for any young artistic entrepreneur to know, and it was wonderful to learn about their company before setting off into the workshop. We were led by Emma Rose Payne, participation and company coodinator of Trestle and the founder of Anthos Arts. Through this workshop, Emma helped us focus on activities we could facilitate when working with varying groups of people, specifically those in need of team building support and that come from oppressed situations. We discussed how theatre can help bring people together to communicate and cooperate, and appropriate activities to use in sensitive situations. She was very helpful in expressing how some acting activities can bring about uncomfortable feelings or memories, and emphasized encouraging participants to utilize their muscle memory instead of actual memories in practice. It was really interesting material to wrap my mind around, and very helpful for when I consider creating future classes for the different schools I work in back home. Perhaps the main identifying component of Trestle Theatre is their work with masks. I personally have done very little work with masks, but after the different activities we did in this workshop, I recognized just how much of a tool they are; especially for students who are not confident in acting or speaking on stage. With the use of a mask, they can become a character using their bodies and muscle memory to express the character's wants and desires instead of their voice and face. In order to do this in such a short amount of time, we played with the seven stages of tension and combined them with the different emotions that are portrayed on the mask. We also were taught to pay attention to the audience response to our movement with the mask on, recognizing which actions enhanced the emotion of the character and made it more believable, more relatable for the audience. I think the most eye-opening activity was when we deliberately fought the emotion of the mask through our questions. For example, asking a sad character to express something they really loved to do such as their favorite hobby or past time. It was incredible to witness that transition, but still see the same expression on the mask and how they still worked for the character. Some of the activities were variations of some games and activities I use in my own classes and Broadway Bootcamps. I think it is good to have different ways of playing games because of the different ages I teach. Of course, I learned plenty of new acting games and activities that I plan to incorporate in my classes when I am home in March and over the summer. I am definitely going to be saving up to get my hands on a set of Trestle masks (baby wipes to clean them) and other props that we used throughout the afternoon... I know all of my students would LOVE working with them. It would be amazing to attend another workshop with Trestle Theatre while I am here. They're based north of London, so perhaps when I am there over the holiday break I can take a trip to their facility. I really thought Emma was a fantastic facilitator. I picked up on her energy and passion for theatre and thought we had very similar teaching styles, so when I do workshop what I learned yesterday in the future, I will be very happy to be able to refer back to her teaching example. Every day is a school day! Today I was back at the egg for another puppetry workshop with our course leader, Laura.
Among conversations about our puppetry assessment in January, we learned how to create and manipulate puppets made out of newspapers and bin bags... It took me about 5 minutes to realize what she meant... bin bags = garbage bags. Duh, Jacq! A lot of these workshops are about moving our puppet around; it is such a special art form and takes a ton of practice to make sure the way you are moving the puppet comes across as believable. We worked individually to discover easy and difficult ways for our puppet to move before we shared them with a partner and moved them around the room together. Alternating between those two realities, we created scenes with our puppet and our partner's puppets for a half hour before sharing them with the class. My puppet had zero muscle in it's legs, so it preferred to slide/shimmy on the ground on it's huge belly. My partner's used it's short arms to pull it's heavy body before realizing it moved better swimming, and we contorted it's body back and forth in the air. For my homework, I am creating a puppet made of different material from the puppet my partner Jeanette is creating. Together, we will workshop them together so we can present a short performance for the class when this project is due in November. So far, we've made puppets with newspapers, plastic grocery bags, bin bags, and trash. What do you think I should use to make my puppet for my November assessment? - Miss Jacq One of the many fantastic benefits of being in a program that works so closely with a theatre like the egg is that we get to see a TON of theatre for young audiences. This past week we were able to see Tree/Boom/Umthi from Magnet Theatre company based in Cape Cod, South Africa. I loved seeing how this company used minimal set and props to tell their story. They relied on their language, music, and sounds, as well as images created with their bodies individually and as an ensemble. It was great to see how engaged all of the children in the audience were. There were no hesitations to get up and participate in the little workshop on stage afterwards to act out parts of the show they just saw. It was a great example to see in the beginning stage of creating my own piece of theatre for young audiences. You can check out more about this show and the Magnet Theatre on this video. Today we met for the first time at Puppet Place in Bristol, which was great for me because it is so close to where I am! Our lecturer was Tobi Poster, who is a theatre-maker, puppeteer, and educator in the South West of England. He also is Co-Artistic Director of Wattle & Daub Figure Theatre, creators of "The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak"which is about to play at the Suspense Puppetry Festival. It was great to know that I was learning from a true puppeteer and theatre creator in England, and it was exciting to have an entire day working with him.
Tobi taught us how to make puppet "heads" with tape and newspaper, and we workshopped them as puppets and characters by placing them, and our hands, in a cut up children's jumper from a local Charity Shop (think Goodwill / Salvation Army). He asked our puppet a ton of questions about who it was and had it 'audition' for a piece. He always addressed the puppet (not the puppeteer) to make corrections and suggestions about how it was moving and responding to his prompts. One of the topics most commented on was making sure we knew (as puppeteers) where the puppet was looking. We also each created our own full-body puppet out of newspaper and tape, and discovered how we could move them both on our own and with a partner puppeteering with us. We created scenes with our individual puppets and then partnered up with another puppet to tell a story about relationships, struggling to overcome an obstacle, and general everyday movement. Tobi also had us 'audition' our puppets once more, and sometimes had our puppets compete with each other, which was really fun. Overall, it was a great first introduction to puppetry. I liked the Puppet Place space but it was really cold when we weren't moving. Also, it was hard to imagine being in class for 6 hours on a Saturday, but it went by quickly. All of the activities were really fun and I had a chance to explore the dockside of Bristol on my lunch break. Dayne met up with me as I forgot my lunch and needed a sweatshirt. We walked and checked out some market stands that were set up for the afternoon. We also saw the SS Great Britain and a Steam Train go past! It was a good Saturday. Today I took the train into Bath for the first time to get to the egg for the first day of the incubator. the incubator is a program created by the egg to allow aspiring TYA creators to preview their work in front of industry professionals for feedback and connections.
It started at 10:30am with a meet and greet breakfast hour in one of the rehearsal spaces while the first performance prepared for their show. the egg arranged for local students to come see each of the shows, that ranged from 20-45 minutes in length. It was my first time watching a show with the sole intention of recognizing how the children interacted and responded to what they were seeing. I thought it was incredible. I saw four different performances on Thursday, two from local performance groups and two from last year's MATYA program I'm doing. Since this was theatre strictly created for young audiences (roughly 2 years old to 8 years old) I paid attention to different aspects of theatre that I wouldn't normally consider when directing a typical musical number for Broadway Bootcamp or a show at summer camp. My favorite performance of the day would have had to have been the first one we saw called "Flying the Nest," a story about a father and son bird, living in their nest and preparing the young bird to learn how to fly. Although they didn't use words, their bird language (which was actually slowed down bird song) was easy for the children to follow and encouraged them to participate in the interactive portions of the show, which I thought was really exciting. The day really had me thinking about what kind of show I might create for next year's incubator! Do you have any ideas? |
"Hello" from Miss Jacq!Hello to all of my lovely Broadway Bootcampers! This blog is for you! Over the next few months I am going to be learning a lot of fantastic ways to add more creativity & fun to the classes & camps I teach back in Michigan. I'll post updates about the theatre I see, workshops I attend, & some of what you can expect when I come home in the spring & summer. Please comment & say hello! XOXO - Miss Jacq
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