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

Young Identity: One Mic Stand

[Flier and ticket!]

As a student of German and Chinese, it might be easy to imagine that I end up reading quite a lot of literature outside of learning how to speak the language, but in actual fact, at the University of Manchester, I find it is quite easy to somehow miss out on reading old literature in favour of the more modern approach to language, learning more about the culture, history, political and economic scenes of the country, and as I am doing a joint hons, my credits are quite quickly used up. So it had been a while since I'd been confronted with any form of poetry, let alone 'Spoken Word', which was the basis for the show I saw at Contact Theatre last Friday.

Now usually, when I hear the word 'poetry', it brings back memories GCSE English lessons, sitting in a classroom reading about potatoes, or images of people sitting solemnly in silence together, talking in metaphors and smilies and other such techniques that I know nothing about, so when I was invited by a friend (and participant) to this show, needless to say, I really had no idea what to expect.

And I am glad to say, I was more than astonished by the sheer talent and enthusiasm and excitement that spoken word generated in that room. With the relaxed atmosphere, dim lighting and overwhelming wordplay, my evening was filled with an array of genres, from discussing the political situation of not just our country, but the world to what one's personal identity means to them to messy rooms and refereeing football matches for younger children. And, as if that wasn't enough, there were 2 solo singers and a hiphop group who performed as well as a chillax'ed band, who had apparently only met up a few hours before the performance, but still managed to captivate the audience with an impressive display of improvisation. But the thing I found truly inspiring? The fact that everything performed that night was all original work. 

The night was kicked off with a poetry competition known as the poetry slam, the prize being a lovely sum of £50. The poetry had some guidelines (including the prohibition of props and the need for all work to be original) and a panel of three judges who rated each poem on a scale of 1-10 for Content and Performance. There were roughly 10 competitors and I have to admit, I was genuinely astounded by each and every poem that was read. They all touched on seperate issues, some about love, some about individuality and some about loss. But each poem was sincere and heartfelt and entirely original. It made me realise that all my preconceptions of poetry were entirely wrong, and the skill with which everyone manipulated and played with word and rhythm to illustrate a story was and is something that I don't think I could ever do. Plus the fact that performing poetry as yourself is hard enough without the added pressure of it being your own work! 

The section my friends were in was at the end and was part of a selection of work by Contact's spoken word group called 'young identity'. 'Young Identity', as I understand, is much the same as CYAC, in that it is a free weekly workshop aimed at young people to try and expand their horizons and hone their skills. It caters for people of all experiences and is a very open and generous environment where you can create work to be proud of, whilst also providing you with the opportunity to get your messages and performances out to the world to hear! It is a fantastic opportunity and, if anyone has the time, I strongly recommend it. For more information, please click HERE.

My friends did one performance each, and, as they were both in CYAC with me, I had no doubt that they had a true, raw talent in acting. However to see them both performing their original poetry was still breath taking for me, not for lack of belief in their talent, but more from the sheer quality of work produced! It's hard to imagine that people roughly my age and younger are capable of weaving words together in such a harmonious manner to create something truly magnificent to hear. With just the right balance of dry humour to lighten up the dark themes, I found myself entirely engaged by both their performances and actually quite inspired to join Young Identity at some point in the future.

On whole, the entire event was a complete inspiration to have witnessed and I feel that I have discovered some new world that had previously been clouded by my own misconceptions. Can't wait until the next open mic!

youngidentity.org 

Well, until next time~

~~~

Obwohl ich Deutsch und Chinisisch studiere, habe ich den Gelegenheit um Classische Literatur zu lesen nicht ganz oft, also jetzt, wusste ich ganz wenig über Gedichte. Meistens, studiere ich Politisch oder den Deutsche Kultur, aber letztes Freitag, sah ich eine Gedichte Stück bei dem Contact Theater. 

Normalerweise, wann ich den Wort 'Poetry' gehoren, denke ich über meine alte Englischen Stunden, wann ich hatte Gedichte, die an Kartoffel gesprochen hat. Also, wann ich an dieses Stück gehort, hatte ich gar kein Idee, wass den Stück sein würden!

Glucklicherweise, hatte es mir ganz gefällt! Der Atmosphäre hat mir entspannend und alle Leute die ihren Gedichte gelesen haben, war total wunderbar! Sie haben viele Gedichte geliest, ein paar über Politische Meinungen, ein über Identität usw. Und Alles war ihren eigenen Geschriebte! Da gibt es auch Musik! :D Am Anfang des Nachts, gab es ein Gedichte Wettbewerb. Der Sieger hat £50 gewonnen! Später, hat meinen Freunden geliest. Es war wirklich toll, um ihren Gedichte zu hören und ich finde alles wirklich toll! :D

Jetzt, finde ich Gedichte wirklich cool, und hoffentlich, wann ich Zeit haben, gehe ich auch zu 'Young Identity' um mein eigenes Gedichte zu schreiben! :) :)

Bis nächste Mal~
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