CYAC: Advent Avenue

                                                      Merry Christmas Everyone~

                              

                                                     (Cast of CYAC and director, Paul Mayers)

So, another Christmas show has come and gone again and with it, my penultimate term with Contact Theatre's CYAC. 

Needless to say, it was a terrific, and spectacular performance that not only showed off the sheer range of talent CYAC has to offer, but also provides the audience with one hell of an experience! The show ended up being some what like an episode of Corrie, but with even more drama! The play was split into five different stories, however each of them intermingling with the overall theme of children playing in an attic. My story was, I have been told, the most chilling of the whole play, which is not only a compliment but also an absolute delight to hear! 

                                

                                                                        (The Big House)

My character, Ruth from the Big Housr sets out to ruin Christmas for her ten year old younger brother, Edward (played by the wonderful Mr Eddie) by revealing to him that Santa isn't real during the very last moments of Christmas Eve! Add that to a drunken father and a mother who is more bitter about the way her life has ended up than most Disney Villians, it's safe to say this was a dark story. Oh, and did I mention my father was having an affair with the mother of the Small House? Dramatically, we played with tension and subtext to create a multitude of moments that were almost so ridiculous you wanted to laugh, but at the same time, is so awful that laughing would be a really terrible thing.... 

For me, creating this balance between funny yet awkward was brilliant fun and I learnt a lot about how powerful silence is!

Through this play, I met a hell of a lot of people with so much talent and even more enthusiasm for acting that it really has been a brilliant learning experience for me. The role of Ruth was initially challenging as I rarely had any lines, so all my characterisation was through my physicality. This isn't something particularly new to me and I feel that I was able to convey the character's feelings at all times :) 

The Cast of CYAC

                                

My father, played by Ross Macaffrey and my mother, played by Hannah Foster

So, once again, I would like to say a HIGE thank you to the Contact team for choosing me to be a part of this truly magnificent group and, although I am having to take a break before my final term (due to my compulsory year abroad for Uni), I look forward to the day I can reclaim my spot as part of CYAC. 

Thank you for reading and I hope to post again soon! 

Xxx

CYAC: Advent Avenue ~

(CYAC dress up)

Phew! Almost the first weekend of December! After two weeks of daily five hour rehearsals, we are almost in the last stretch of rehearsal for our CYAC (contact young actor's company) and boy, are we excited!! 

Advent Avenue, directed by Contact Theatre's very own Paul Mayers, is about 

'Christmas Eve on Advent Avenue, and all of the children have been banished to the attic, where they gather amongst the spider-webs, boxes and broken TVs. It’s a place where their imagination can come alive, but someone is watching from the shadows. Tonight something is going to happen that will change everything...'

'In a performance that blurs the boundaries of the real and the imagined, Contact Young Actors Company will show you the secrets of Advent Avenue, from the awkward office party and the cosy family feast to a banging drunken brawl. Until, finally, the future of Christmas is revealed.' 

A predominately naturalistic performance,  Advent Avenue is, so far, an entirely new experience for me, providing me with such great acting skills! The whole show is entirely self devised and as there were no 'set characters' like there are in Commedia, I originally found this project to be very difficult. With only the poster and some very cryptic hints from Paul as to what our performance will include, we began to imagine what would happen onside the different buildings, how the relationships between the different characters function and from little snippets of scenes that we create, we can deduce the bigger picture of what life is like on Advent Avenue. Slowly but surely, we are starting to shape our characters, initially having only a few vague characteristics before moving on to figuring out why they have these character traits. Essentially? What makes these characters tick. 

My character, Ruth, is from the 'Big House'. She lives with her dad, mum and you get brother. She is roughly 14 years old in the play and is so far proving to be a very fun character to play. At first I was worried that I was just going to play myself as I felt that I didn't know who my character was. However, last week, something 'clicked', and I found a personality for her. She still shares some similarities with me, however it's by focussing on her differences and aims that I managed to finally cultivate this darker-than-I-could-have-imagined character. And I absolutely love the role! 

It is also very interesting to see how other people's characters and scenes are developing as having been there from the beginning of the process, to see the progress that everyone has made and how everyone is working together to create such truly wonderful pieces of theatre is just.... It is trip inspiring for me to be able to witness, and of course spurs me on to do even better. 

Once again, I am hit with an overwhelming realisation that every time I go into rehearsal, I am surrounded by such a wealth of raw theatrical talent, and I am thankful that I managed to be a part of this theatre troupe! It is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life this far and I find myself already worrying about how fast I seem to be going through the terms! 

And now, all I can say, is that I am so very excited for this show!!! Bring on Christmas!! 

(For more information and tickets, please go here: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/6634-cyac-advent-avenue/ )

Xxx

Welcome to 'La Biblioteca'~

[Isabella - The Lover]

Ahh I was doing so well with the updates and everything and now it's been about 3 weeks... 
Hopefully I'll be better in future!

So, as you may or may not know, I was recently in a production with my theatre company in Manchester called 'La Biblioteca', performed in John Ryland's Library. (which, seriously, if you haven't been there before, you should definitely go! It's so beautiful! I felt like I was in Hogwarts :) ). The piece was site specific, and it was very intense - both emotionally and physically! 

The show was in the style of Comedia Dell'Arte, which is a style of Theatre that has it's origins in the early 17th Century Italy. It was the first form of professional theatre groups and was, at first, performed on the streets of Italy. Naturally, most of the performance work was improvised as, like with all forms of art which has elements of audience interaction, spontaneity is key. We incorporated this element of interacting with the audience in our piece, which, I personally felt was a success! The audience seemed to really enjoy being able to talk to the characters and make suggestions - although some people weren't the most responsive! For me, the improvised element of the whole show was possibly my favourite, as it allowed for a lot of creative freedom, which as an actor is something rare to come across!!


Comedia Dell'Arte is also a very physical type of theatre as most of the characterisation of the set roles starts from the body and works it's way inwards - very different from naturalistic performances where characterisation is usually starting mentally and then physicality. Strangely enough, although perhaps not too strange considering my background in theatre mainly stemming from physical theatre, I often find that the Comedia method of starting with a physicality and developing a personality from that to be far easier! And whilst that's possibly not very good for working on film, where movement is usually underplayed as much as possible, in Comedia I found that it helped a lot and I feel that I managed to get a grasp of the style very quickly.

There are also set characters in Comedia, which usually represent the hierarchy of the Italian era. At the bottom you get the 'Zannis' who are the slaves, then there are the Lovers who are the pampered children of rich old people. Next there are the Capitanos who represent foreigners of Italy at the time (namely the Spanish). Finally there are the rich old people, who are usually rather stuck up and stingey. 

Of course, I ended up playing a Lover, of the name 'Isabella' (undoubtably cast in this role due to the sheer amount of Disney that I had watched as a child...) 
This involved a lot of balletic movements and stances floating through the corridors wailing about how my love interest was being sent to Rome! 

It was highly over dramatic and very very silly in terms of storylines (we used 3 set stories - The Toothpuller, The Absurd Visit of Dotorre and The Two Identical Capitanos) and although in the last week, we had 13 hour rehearsals with high stress and little sleep and practically no food (only a few sandwiches for lunch and that was it!), I thoroughly enjoyed the entire performance process and experience!! 

It is, to this day, the best production I have ever been in and I am so grateful that I managed to get involved with such an amazing theatre company! And even though we had 7 shows in 3 days (I KNOW!!), I felt nothing but happiness!

So yeah! Overall, amazing project! Can't wait for the next one at Christmas! Go CYAC! 

Till Next time~

If you would like to read more about this amazing play from an audience point of view, here is a blog from another member! :)

https://ashybabe91.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/contact-theatre/
xxx

From Manchester to London~

[Head shot - © Andrea Hanzlikova, www.ahimagestudio.com]

CYAC

CYAC is a theatre group in Manchester for young people. It is Contact Theatre's own theatre company and the people involved get the chance to many amazing things that are rather unique to this theatre group.

I had heard of Contact theatre since September and having a great interest in drama, sought to join this group. In April I auditioned and then in May I found out I had gotten in! 

This theatre group aims to produce one show each term and with each new show comes a new director and theme and a whole new style of theatre. This term, our show will be called 'La Biblioteca' and is set in John Rylands Library, Manchester. The style is Commedia Dell'Arte and although we are still at the beginning stages, I am really looking forward to it! 

The workshop process however is gruelling and I often find that I don't really know what I am doing. Which is, according to our director, Tom, a good thing. Each week he works on trying to make us a more spontaneous group by playing drama games designed to make us stop thinking so much and just act on pure instinct. I find this rather more difficult, but in the long run, I feel that this will help make me a better actress! 

Most of CYAC's work is self devised, we still have no idea what the actual show will contain, other than the fact that it is supposed to be a comedy, and an interactive piece, so the audience are engaged as well. 

Oh, and we shall be wearing masks (!!). 

Overall, I feel rather apprehensive about this upcoming show (show dates: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Aug) but also very excited and I hope it shall go well!

I will update you again sooner to the time! Ciao~

[For more information about the show and CYAC, here is the link! http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/1233-cyac-la-biblioteca/ ]

CYAC

CYAC ist ein Theater Gruppe, die in Manchester liegt, für junge Leute und gebt viele Leute viele gute Gelegenheiten zu haben, die sehr einmalig sind. 

Ich hatte von Contact Theater erst im September gehört und seit dann, möchte ich ein Mitgleid bekommen. Im April, hatte ich ein Vorsingen, und im Mai, war ich ein Mitgleid!

Das Zeil dieser Theatergruppe ist jeder Term eine Ausstellung zu machen, mit vershiedene Themen und Regisseure. Dieser Term, unsere Ausstellung heisst 'La Biblioteca' und liegt im John Rylands Library, Manchester. Es ist eine Commedia Dell'Arte Austellung und, obwohl wir es nur begonnen haben, finde ich es wunderbar!

Jedoch, ist die Prozess, um dieser Austellung zu machen, ganz schwierig und oft, weiss ich nicht, was ich machen sollte. Jeder Woche, unser Regisseur, der Tom heisst, machte viele Theater Spiel mit uns, um uns spontaner zu sein. Es ist ganz schwer, aber ich glaube, dass es mir helfen kann, um mein schauspielen zu verbessern!

Meistens, sind unsere Ausstellung unsere eigenes Ideen,also jetzt wussten wir gar nicht, wie dieser Austellung geht. Wir wussten nur, dass wir Masken tragen werden (!!).

Uberall, fühle mich ein bischen besorgt aber auch entspannend und ich hoffe, dass es gut gehen werden!

Ich will Ihnen gleich auf den neusten Stand bringen! Ciao!~


[Fur mehr Information an dieser Ausstellung und CYAC, geh hier: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/1233-cyac-la-biblioteca/ ]

xxx