Punchdrunk: The Drowned Man

The Best Theatrical Experience.

The Drowned Man, by Punchdrunk has become somewhat of a legend among aspiring theater students as it is not only entirely unconventional, but is also an entirely interactive and immersive experience. 

From before you even enter the studios where the piece is set, you feel the buzz and excitement all around you from the other audience members, all apprehensive, nervous and yet strangely excited. You have to queue to get in and they require you to leave all bags in their bag storage area, for reasons which become obvious once you enter the main stage performance space.

The studio is built up of four different floors. You enter the performance via the elevator after being given a mask which you are to wear for the duration of the performance. The Gatekeeper gives you a bit of an idea of what you are about to experience whilst encouraging you to stay away from friends and experience this performance by yourself. This may seem daunting, given the creepy music and dark hallways, however I found it to be highly beneficial to split up from my friends as this helped add to the realistic feel of the performance. 

The first floor, from what I could see was only props which you were allowed to touch and examine as you liked. The belonged to the characters of the play and every detail was absolute perfection. You could spend hours trawling through the different rooms, exploring the lives of the characters through their possessions.

However the main action happened on the upper floors. Characters were scattered around the building in different rooms and each of them had their own, highly detailed story. There were two 'main' storylines, the William and Mary story, and the Marshal and Wendy story, one of which was an inversion of the other. 

The characters all interacted with each other at one point or another, using a mixture of dialogue and contemporary dance to convey the emotions and aims of each scene before they would split off. The wonderful thing about this was that you could follow any characters you liked!

After examining the first floor for a length of time, I then found William and Mary and decided to follow their story line for a while, swapping between following William and Mary and some other of the main characters until that storyline was finished (each story looped 3 times). After that, I followed random characters, which turned out to be highly confusing at first, as I had no idea who they were in relation to anyone else, but somehow found Marshal, entirely by accident, and managed to catch the end of his story with Wendy before everyone was gathered together for a truly haunting ending.

The experience was entirely amazing. Props, set, costume, performance... everything was done in so much detail that the world and stories truly came alive in that space. I would say that it is not only one of the best performances, but also one of the best experiences I have ever had and has also given me an idea for a new project I would like to do! (When I eventually get money that is...)

Anyway, The Drowned Man is only on for another few performances, so if I were you, I'd get down there straight away!

Tickets can be found HERE.

Other than that, that's all from me for today. Catch you soon :)

xxx

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

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