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

Future worlds

So it's been at least a month since I last did a post.... I suppose exams and drama keep me busier than expected! But hey, better late than never! 

I am writing today to talk about an amazing event I went to late last year known as 'Future Worlds'. It was at the Royal Exchange, Manchester and (although my memory is slightly fuzzy), was a performance event showcasing music and poetry from local mancunian artists. 

I went to support my friend, an actress who has recently gotten into spoken word and, despite being entirely stressed out by the amount of work I had piling up, I was hugely glad that I was able to take a few hours out to just enjoy the exhibition. 

Although I wouldn't really call myself a poetry/spoken word fan, I was entirely impressed by the lyrical and frankly quite amazing display at the event. Not only did everyone manage to interpret the theme (Future Worlds) in so many different ways, but also able to raise really interesting themes and concepts. 

It was definitely a wonderful experience and was also entirely free! I shall definitely be checking out more spoken word performances! 

In the mean time, I just wanted to offer a belated well done to everyone involved in Future Worlds (and a small shout out to Contact Theatre's Spoken Word group) and that I cannot wait to see more! 

Till next time ~

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

Night of Neon!!

[MIPP Actors]

Good day there my fellow people! I hope the winter storms aren't taking too much of a toll on you!

So this is the end to a fairly hectic two weeks, to say the least! A few nights ago (26/10/2013) I was involved in a piece of Street Performance for the Night of Neon with the absolutely wonderfully talented MIPP theatre group. 

The Night of Neon is a fun walk which raises money for the Christie Charity and BBC Radio Manchester. It takes place in Salford, starting at The Lowry in Media City and is a staggering 10km! For more information on how to get involved, please follow THIS LINK to the Christie Website :)

Unfortunately that evening, Manchester was practically submerged by huge amounts of rain for a large proportion of the evening. Despite my initial worry that the rain would disrupt the event, I was very mistaken as a substantial amount of people managed to make it, with so much energy and enthusiasm that the rain was almost forgotten. 

Dressed head to toe in luminous neon clothing, armed with nothing but a jacket, we all set off to our set positions at 7:20 in order to meet and greet the walkers as they passed certain check points. Our job? To entertain the crowd as much as possible and help keep motivation levels high and enthusiasm soaring.

Due to the interactive aspect of the performance, I managed to get to speak to quite a few of the runners and I was absolutely overwhelmed with the positive attitudes of all the walkers and their eagerness to not let anything get in their way! In fact, numerous people had told me that this was not their first experience at the Night of Neon and nor will it be their last!!

My character group was called 'The 80s Girls' and, as the costume and title suggests, involved a dance routine, choreographed by my ever-so talented partner Tempemy, which we performed to the walkers as they ran by, accompanied by our mild screeching rendition of 'Girls just wanna have fun', by Cyndi Lauper. The crowd seemed to enjoy our free high fives and terrible american accents and were even more open and responsive than I could possibly have asked for as a performance. 

This opportunity was truly an honour to be a part of, and pleasure to do! Hopefully I shall be able to get involved in more cool projects like these in the near future!

Until then~