Hi Nathan
Sorry it took so long to get back - been busy so didn't check the site for a long time.
1. Contact Improv - that was fun. I enjoyed it very much although it is a long time - 2 hours - I just had to look around and see what people were doing - the problem with that is, some people are moving fast, others slow etc so you go with who you focus on. I tried to influence the whole room so that it would be more of a ensemble improv but people are working in pairs so they are generally more into each other than the room (if you know what I mean).
Improv generally - I do a lot of that - did a week with
'Lying with the Animals' - Steve Gerber and towards the end things were getting more bizar e.g one improve I played yukeleli with one hand and harmonica with the other.
Improv - went on to do RandD at the Little Angel Theatre and finished up writing the score (based on the improvs) for "Jelly Bean Jack" which has just started and will be on there for 10 weeks.
So - I do lots of improvs and lots of writing and scoring and I enjoy it very much. Also it helps because I play Cello, Violin, Guitar, Harmonicas, perc etc. so I just pick up different things I feel are appropriate.
Its great for RandD's and gives directors a mood to work with. Then I work with that mood to extend into compositions.
Anyway hope thats what you wanted to know - feel free to ask me more. PS your site looks great and you look busy - nice one.
Kind regards
James
Hey! I can't say I've been on here much myself, life has been way to hectic! Actually since we last spoke I have managed to land myself a full time post in a school in Essex as their Community Arts Co-ordinator! So I move down on the 14th, actually going to be living in North East London, pretty scary stuff! but it's all part of life's adventure... what about you? what's your news?!
In USA running some Improv workshops for ADD kids, at a summer camp, and having amazing time getting them to improvise. The kids that can not do too much are fantastic. The challenge to locate something that can give them success is great. Twas merely last week when I could have done one game for the whole workshop, it worked so well. Finding the necessary structuring and the freedom that I enjoy from improv is also interesting, because I like the architecture where you have not much initial input into what will happen and these kids need those restrictions.
Thanks so much for your feedback about the image, it's really good to hear that it works for gaining people's attention!
And thanks too for looking at our website - 187 is coming along well and very exciting. We're hoping to get some footage of the project in development up on the website soon, I'll keep you posted. A trailer for LIMBO will also be up soon too, so keep your eyes peeled!
Ye my summer at camp was the best summer of my life. i miss it so much but can't afford to go back, financially and in terms of the work i'm now getting over here. That's cool that you are thinking about taking workshopping further. It's such an amazing thing for everyone involved!
that sounds like fun! I bet you'll come up with all sorts of new ideas when you're away as well. That's possibly my favourite part about this sort of work, is learning from other practitioners and also the young people. The amazing thing about young people is they are not scared to tell you what they think and if they think your idea sucks they'll tell you why. Arts work is a constant learning cycle. Where abouts is the camp you are going to?!
That sounds awesome! I taught drama at a summer camp in Cape Cod two years ago, such an awesome experience! Our cultures are so alike yet so different at the same time! How long are you over there for!?
Lots going on which is v. good! Covering alot of work for an arts co-ordinator in East Ayrshire at the moment so that's keeping me nice and busy and getting me loads of experience! Hold in there chuck and keep selling yourself, work will come along eventually!
There will be other opportunities in other places, you just have to keep putting yourself out there. That is what it is all about, making people know your name. Ye some of the work has been really moving, on Saturday there we were working with the story "Giraffe's can't dance" and honestly, I can't stop talking about it they were AMAZING! The older group made a lovely piece the week before too, that was slightly more rehearsed though.
well it depends very much on the group and the circumstances within each session. I work mostly with 4-8 year olds so obviously they won't come out with the same sort of things as adults or teenagers etc. There's been some material that's been really moving, there's been some thats been really awful. It is very hard to generalise. I'm not entirely sure how else to answer your question?!
well every situation is different, I'm not sure how to answer your question...um... perhaps this is best left to when I'm a little more awake and a little less minced in the head from writing assignments?
no i totally get what you mean. you couldn't do that kind of work if you didn't feel strongly about what you are doing. How can you empower others if what you're doing doesn't empower you?! The buzz I get from a workshop that has gone well can make me smile endlessly for days at a time, in fact a class I had on Saturday is still making me smile today! But equally, the classes that maybe don't go so well can leave me feeling blue. In that sense I imagine it is alot like performing (from the amateur performance experience that I have). So what I'm trying to say is, of course there has to be something in it for yourself, we are only human after all! The only time it becomes an issue in my eyes is when a practitioner pushes their own artistic intentions on a group when it isn't what the group believes, wants or needs. Does that make sense? It makes sense in my head!
I think that as a drama practitioner I am constantly learning and improving, every workshop throws up new ideas or new obstacles. You just have to throw yourself into it and embrace it. As you said before though, I guess I have the intense training in it since I study it at uni, so maybe it's easy for me to say?!
glad to hear it. i agree that of course there will be personal accomplishments involved in your work, and obviously it's great to achieve them, the only time it becomes a problem is if they get placed before the needs of the participants. But I think that is what you are saying too! :o)
oh and a final note... what you are saying about workshopping in schools etc, i've done a bit of that as well. That sort of stuff is all what I do, I would love to put some photos up but I can't because of child protection and the like. My artistic intentions are very much secondary to the needs of my participants. In my opinion, the only thing I should be striving for, for myself, is that the participants get something out of the project and that we fulfil objectives that were laid down at the start of the project. That is, my artistic experience is used to guide the participants and to provide them with platforms and opportunities to express what they need to express. I'm working to a social agenda, using the arts as my medium. Performance, for example, is often a by-product. Ah, I'm going off on one again! Sorry!
ye ye ye, glad we are sorted on that one! And by community theatre i'm broadly talking about community drama as well... Neelands and Goode talk about "theatre as the ‘direct experience shared when people imagine and behave as if they were other than themselves in some other place at some other time’. It is a meaning-making endeavour that interprets life and helps us to understand our world.” That is very much what I am into and therefore drama and theatre become somewhat one and the same. It's cool that you are into workshopping and working in the community, it's something that I feel really passionately about and I think the more people that push for it the closer we will get to a shift in funding. Back when I was in 1st year at uni i was so extremist community arts but now I can totally see the bigger picture and I believe that getting as many people involved in participation as possible can only help consumption of professional arts. Like I seem to say in all my messages to you, I could go on for days on this topic...
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Sorry it took so long to get back - been busy so didn't check the site for a long time.
1. Contact Improv - that was fun. I enjoyed it very much although it is a long time - 2 hours - I just had to look around and see what people were doing - the problem with that is, some people are moving fast, others slow etc so you go with who you focus on. I tried to influence the whole room so that it would be more of a ensemble improv but people are working in pairs so they are generally more into each other than the room (if you know what I mean).
Improv generally - I do a lot of that - did a week with
'Lying with the Animals' - Steve Gerber and towards the end things were getting more bizar e.g one improve I played yukeleli with one hand and harmonica with the other.
Improv - went on to do RandD at the Little Angel Theatre and finished up writing the score (based on the improvs) for "Jelly Bean Jack" which has just started and will be on there for 10 weeks.
So - I do lots of improvs and lots of writing and scoring and I enjoy it very much. Also it helps because I play Cello, Violin, Guitar, Harmonicas, perc etc. so I just pick up different things I feel are appropriate.
Its great for RandD's and gives directors a mood to work with. Then I work with that mood to extend into compositions.
Anyway hope thats what you wanted to know - feel free to ask me more. PS your site looks great and you look busy - nice one.
Kind regards
James
And thanks too for looking at our website - 187 is coming along well and very exciting. We're hoping to get some footage of the project in development up on the website soon, I'll keep you posted. A trailer for LIMBO will also be up soon too, so keep your eyes peeled!
Hope you're well :-)
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