This week John led a session on 'split screen' use of the stage and Sue led a session where characters were derived from random props!

John's brought back 'Major Billing's radio interview, but with a family also onstage listening; we looked at how two separate locations can interact and enhance the overall spectacle. Sue's session got us improvising characters from random props, but we then had to put a sketch together using these props and characters! Darth Vader on a train arguing with the ticket collector was my favourite...!

StageOne had a really fun and equally important Core Skills workshop lead by Sue Roe where we had to design and act out scenarios where our audience was either visually impaired, deaf or had other disabilities. It was very interesting and brought home the point that drama needs to be tailored to the audience who will see it and that they should engaged with when ever possible.

Today we welcome our newest member, Sophia. StageOne had yet another brilliant Core Skills workshop with Sue. StageOne took part in some interesting exercises and rehearsed two sketches the group have been been working on.

Today StageOne had another brilliant Core Skills workshop with Sue. With just a few random objects from home and a little imagination, each member was able to create a character based on two objects chosen at random. Members also divided in to two groups and each performed a mini sketch based on the objects they had chosen.

This week Ray and Mavis lead the StageOne group in a mixed sketch acting and poetry work shop in which we had to use all our skills and knowledge.

We began by listening to a short peom, read my Mavis. Then we had the same poem with only the first four lines. Our task was to add as many more lines as we could think of. The results were very interesting.

After the break, we had to choose a situation from a small selection and in pairs act it out. The rest of the group had to guess what it was we were doing. Examples included moving a heavy item of furniture, trying on cloths and some very hilarious examples too.

We had a really enjoyable work shop with Sue focusing on alittle bit of dance or movement and actions and then doing actions to certain hymns found in the methodist hymn book. We looked maainly at the "Give Me Joy in My Heart" hymn. Other hymns could have actions and movement made to me. Previous examples of this sort of thing have been shown at the D.I.Y concert in 2008.

Tuesday 15th February 2011

This week we have another exciting workshop focusing on improvisation, another core skill for drama with Shelly. Each workshop is fun as we improve on ways to react to something happening on stage or to something that is said to us. Such skills will be useful for the Alice In Wonderland production.

Following on from Shelly's workshop, John will be leading a workshop on stage lighting. The Alice In Wonderland production will be a very good demonstartion of what we have learnt and our experiences from two previous productions.

We had a really exciting Core Skills workshop today with Sue. We practised how to present a message to the audience buy using only our faces, expressions and our actions.

We also read and acted out a sketch called The Rich Fool, by Dave hopwood. This sketch is based on teh parable by Jesus. See the Gospel of St Luke 12:16-21.

This week we have another exciting workshop focusing on the core skills for drama and workshop for improvising with Sue.

Each workshop helps us remember the basics of how to perform on the stage and how to handle yourself when something does not go as expected. As of writing, I remember oen of the most basic things is "never turn your back to the audience", and "don't walk infront of another person when moving about on stage".

This week we have another exciting workshop focusing on the core skills for drama and workshop for improvising with Sue and Shelly.

Each workshop helps us remember the basics of how to perform on the stage and how to handle yourself when something does not go as expected. As of writing, I remember oen of the most basic things is "never turn your back to the audience", and "don't walk infront of another person when moving about on stage".

Core Skills & Improvisation Tuesday 26th October 2010

This week we have another exciting workshop focusing on the core skills for drama and workshop for improvising.