Week 2- Tuesday

We started our session with our ball games and also with a discussion about our first session at MIND. Sharing and talking about our experiences with each other and with the people from MIND is really important to maintain that level playing field that I believe we established last week. We were able to share our worries, our tips, our observations and found that a lot of us had received the same vibe. Something I thought was important to contribute to the discussion was Peter's reaction to the memories. When we had asked him to share some memories with us he didn't want to talk about it which was a different reaction from the others in our group. Therefore sharing our experience informed the whole group of the possibility that some exercises and some weeks our group may be less willing to share personal details and we need to be aware and considerate whilst still bearing in mind that our aim is to create a piece with, for and about them.

Another part of this term is doing a presentation on another community theatre company and this week we did our initial planning for this task. We got into a group of 4 (myself, Mia, Kitty and Ed) and we decided on our chosen group which is Wild Works a community theatre group who do pieces all around the world addressing a variety of subjects. Their specific project we chose to focus on was their 'A Great Night Out', an evening of live entertainment from all members of the Sunderland community. We decided to look at this company and project because it involves our skills as artists, not just actors. Whereas other community theatre groups focused on only acting, Wild Work's 'A Great Night Out' involved singing, dancing, comedy and a variety of acts in which each member of our group can explore and understand. As a group we are aiming and working towards bringing our talents as individual artists to our presentation, reflecting the structure of the project we have chosen to look at.

At the end of today's session we focused on giving our final piece a structure that we can start working towards. As a group our biggest confusion at the moment, is the design of our final performance. Will it be a scripted, improvised, student led, group led piece, or something completely different. We all wanted this clarification and yet by the end of the discussion realised that this term it wasn't like any other term; we weren't going to be learning scripts to a distinction level, or perfecting a ballet sequence, or harmonising a song, we would be working with our talents and giving them to our group, meaning the standard we work at normally is not a goal this term and that is just something we are going to have to get used to. Our end goal now is not to make our performance perfect for us, but for our group, a value and aim that I think keeps slipping from our minds.

After last weeks feedback from Susan about how keen she was to act, I suggested that with such a big group of actors in the room, acting technique and exercise are something we can and should be facilitating. I suggested that we focus on something like Shakespeare, a branch of acting that I and others in the room would feel comfortable facilitating. Playing to our strengths is key, but making our group feel like we are creating worth while work is the ultimate goal. Something a little more classical like Shakespeare, I believe will help them feel like they are really learning something and being given a responsibility within the group.