Guest Blog: Member of the New Vic Youth Theatre, Becky King, age 15.
During half term, Crossing Boundaries took place at the Kingswood Centre in Wolverhampton. Over 40 people from youth theatres around the country took part and I was lucky enough to be involved. Throughout the week, we devised and rehearsed a piece of Berechtian style theatre whilst making new friends and gaining fresh ideas.
On the first day, I was very nervous and excited as to who I would meet and what we would do. After arriving on the coach, we were split off into dormitory groups and settled in. To begin with, it was slightly awkward talking to people we had never met, but after about ten minutes, everyone was laughing and joking. Once we’d unpacked, we all began the first session. We started with a warm-up that included a dance. This was embarrassing to start off with, however, it ended up as a fun and enjoyable routine. The afternoon included games and getting to know one another working as a group. We also began to understand skills and think about how we may use them such as unison, ripple and echo. We did not know yet what style of theatre we would be devising so it made us think about the piece. Our next task was to produce stereotypes of people by thinking about invisible pieces of string pulling on different parts of our bodies. This was funny and we had good fun exaggerating the different stereotypes.
Tuesday was one of my favourite days. Using our stereotypes of the previous day, we created small scenes and re-wrote lyrics to a well-known song that could put with our scenes. This was fun and made every laugh at each others lyrics. We were then introduced to the style of theatre and after the warm-up, we began using the stereotypes to create 50s scenes that were fun and over the top. We were told to only show what was needed and this was hard as we wanted to show lots. After cutting down lots of lines, it looked much better but was harder to actually think about our characters. We rehearsed these scenes and also made a new futuristic one that was to show communication in the near future. This day seemed to go on forever and by the end, everyone was so tired but couldn’t wait for the next day.
The next day, we were asked to meet at the hall early and we discovered that we were going for a walk. This didn’t appeal to most people as it was cold and we were all very tired, but it turned out to be fun and became a laugh. After warming up with our now traditional dancing, we rehearsed our 50s scenes and introduced other scenes such as the Que sera sera song. This was an over exaggerated mime to the song and to begin with, I was embarrassed about going too far and over the top. This was the hardest part for me, as I wasn’t sure which actions to make up.
Over the next few days, we added different scenes including futuristic, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s scenes which were interesting and good fun to include.
As the week drew on, everyone made so many new friends and we all had so much fun. On Thursday, we had a party. This was one of the highlights of my week as everyone was having so much fun and it was such a great atmosphere.
But on the last day, we all realised it was coming to an end and as last rehearsals took place. We were all so pleased with the piece and it felt like so much longer than a week. After swapping phones numbers and taking countless photos, it was time to go home.
The next day, was the performance. Run-throughs began and didn’t go perfectly. New things were introduced like projecting onto a screen and bits of costume. The performance, however, went really well. We were so pleased with it and as the audience piled in, I was excited like everyone else. As soon as the lights went down afterwards, we were buzzing and everyone was so proud of what we had created in under a week.
However, we had to say goodbye. The after-party was tearful and although we were all happy from after the performance, we all knew there would be some people we might never see again. We grew so close to people and I feel like it had been an experience of a lifetime. It was so much fun and also gave me new ideas, I would definitely encourage anyone that enjoys drama, meeting new people and having some great laughs to take up this brilliant opportunity.
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A ferociously busy month at the New Vic, finishing the run of The Weir; welcoming in Northern Broadsides’ hoot of a production of Accidental Death of An Anarchist; starting rehearsals for The Knotty; getting The Arabian Nights up and running; casting A Voyage Round My Father; designing The Price and Honeymoon Suite. As with everyone, Christmas is a busy time here, but this one’s been especially hectic for every department.
And, quite apart from all this, a fantastic Christmas present is about to be opened. Our new WorkSpace got underway in the spring, with its foundations being dug. Now it stands, splendid and nearly finished, waiting for acoustic doors and the final finishing touches. Fingers crossed all goes well and it will be handed over to us just before Christmas, ready for us to start moving in come the new year.
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Upstairs, coloured scarves are flying and shoulders snaking as choreographer Shobna Gulati leads a dance session with the Arabian Nights’ young company. “Now I need you to get a bit more Persian for me”, she tells the girls as they pull together a wedding dance. Downstairs, puppeteers Blind Summit are introducing the cast to puppet Sinbad, exploring how he enters, moves on stage and exits. “What’s he thinking?” Blind Summit asks one of the cast, who very honestly admits she doesn’t know. “I could tell,” comes the reply. This afternoon we’ll be in an English country garden as we discuss the set proposal for A Voyage Round My Father, and as the day goes on we’ll find ourselves in the honeyed warmth of a rural Irish bar for this evening’s performance of The Weir. A trip round the world and back all in a day’s work.
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I popped downstairs to get a cup of tea and found the Fame academy in our Green Room. A dancer sitting on the sofa, practising the complex hand movements for the dance she’s just learnt; an actor sitting on the other side of the room, playing a strolling rhythm on his guitar, two actresses improvising bluesy harmonies over it in between mouthfuls of their lunch. This is the enormously talented Arabian Nights cast, so full of energy and enthusiasm that, despite nine hours of dancing, singing, acting, clowning rehearsals, they still perform all the way through their lunch break.
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Guest blogger – Communications and Marketing Officer Clare Hargreaves
Most people think that PR people make good schmoozers. I’m sure that in most cases that’s true. Except I’m terrible at it. Worse than that, I actively make people feel uncomfortable. An unsuspecting mover or shaker being met with my incessant need to fill any silence is the social equivalent of being sprayed in the face with fly repellant. So the news that I had been asked to go to the TMA awards to ‘meet people’ was at first flattering, then exciting, then utterly terrifying. What would I say? Who was I supposed to meet? And most importantly – what would I wear?
The TMA awards celebrate the best in regional theatre and the New Vic had been nominated for Best Musical Production. I was privileged to see Chris Monks’ breathtakingly brilliant re-working of Don Giovanni earlier this year and it was a belter. So I was quietly confident that we might walk away with the gong.
After getting on a train in bright winter Stoke-on-Trent sunshine to emerge from the London Underground in depressing darkness, the glitz and glamour of the awards awaited. Armed with a new frock, a glass of champagne and something that resembled an upmarket Twiglet, the New Vic’s Artistic Director, Theresa Heskins, and I filed into the auditorium with everything crossed.
Entertainment came from a fabulously postmodern band of musicians donning bow ties and white suits – the irony of them playing a loop of West End show tunes at a regional theatre awards event was not lost. The awards themselves were great: a weird and wonderful skit from Brian Conley as he picked up his gong for Best Performance in a Musical; a moving acceptance from producer Bill Kenwright, his Lifetime Achievement Award presented by ‘The Tart’ herself – Bill’s term of endearment for Dame Judi Dench. Obviously they were chums and had that kind of relationship. I noted that, if I were attempting to attract her attention over a crowded room, ‘Dame Judi’ would probably be a safer bet.
Unfortunately, we didn’t go home with an award – we lost out to Liverpool Playhouse’s Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi. City of Culture and all that, I decided. But the nomination was the thing and being put in a bag with some of the Industry’s finest was a great – and well deserved – compliment.
In between eating a variety of indistinguishable nibbles we managed to do a bit of flesh pressing, assisted by Sir Brian and the impressive Ann Fender, who had forgotten more about PR than most people accumulate in their entire career; RSC Director Michael Boyd, Brian Conley, friends from our sister theatre – the Stephen Joseph in Scarborough, Chris Monks and multi-talented partner Jan Birkett, playwright Bryony Lavery – almost all posed for a photo.
I left the event suitably uplifted. An evening minus any fly repellant-type disasters or social faux pas was a result in my eyes. Plus I got to spend the evening with some inspiring and genuinely interesting people.
The only disappointment was not meeting Dame Judi. Despite some gesturing and hopeful eyebrow-raising I was unable to catch her eye. Maybe I should have gone with ‘Tart’ after all. But then again, I am hoping to be invited to another one.
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