Kimberley's Blog

Wednesday 12th May

2010-05-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

Elleray Hall

In today’s workshop with Elleray Hall Laura and I worked with the group and produced some lovely colourful paper flowers.
Laura had lost her voice; therefore I had to practically run the whole workshop. Once the people arrived I began the workshop by showing them how to create the flowers and showed them step by step the processes of making them. I gave them all a template of the shape of the paper petals and gave them all paper scissors and a stapler. Some of the older members had slight difficulty handling the scissors and did not have the strength in their hands to use the staplers; therefore I helped them with the cutting and the construction of their flowers. It was nice to see that they all helped each other and constantly praised each others work. By the end of the session we had created as a group twelve multi coloured flowers that can be held in the procession by the members of the group. These flowers will bring colour and variety to the procession.
It was nice to see how much they enjoyed themselves during the workshops and I fell great, as a person, because I know that they have enjoyed themselves and it gives them something different to do with their day.

Tuesday 11th May

2010-05-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

Animals Animals Animals

Go the design team Go!!!

The animals are really looking great, i should hope so after all the time we have spent making them.

My pig is almost finished now, it just needs all the finishing touches done to it, for example the eyes, the tail and the colour for the body, but that is all being done on the creative day on the Saturday. As is the mane and the tail for the horse and all the bodily colours for all the animals.
The Pelican is coming along nicely now and the body of the badger which i created today is starting to work as a badgers body, however the head definatly needs more work because at the moment it doesn't really look like anything.
But im sure once Tina gives us ideas on how to correct it, the Badger will look as amazing as the Goat, the Beaver and the Pig.

2010-05-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 28th April

Elleray Hall's second workshop.
NOISE MAKERS!!!

Me and Laura went to Elleray Hall today to do a workshop with some of the elderly members that attend.
Last week Laura and Zoe worked with the group and made masks.
This week we made noise makers out of plastic bottle, pasta and various decorating items.
We decided as a group that it would be a great idea to have more noise in the procession on the day of the celebration. Therefore we decided it would be a great idea for the members of Elleray Hall to help us with this task.
Nine members of the group helped us today to create these noise makers, some of them were more able than others, Laura began by going around the less able people and showing them what to do, however i sat nearer the more abled people and whilst creating my own noise maker i helped give inspiration and ideas to people.
Once i had finished mine i then placed it in the centre of the table so that the rest of the group could see what they could do.
I then helped a lady who was sitting next to me who had trouble attaching the tissue paper to her bottle. Together we then painted it, and covered it in glitter and then added more tissue so that it had some kind of design.
Overall the group enjoyed making the noise makers with us, and i enjoyed myself aswell, i especially enjoyed the old music that was played and the group singing along. The whole workshop had a great feeling about it, and i felt really good to have brightened up a part of their day :)

2010-05-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 27th April

Im sweating over the Perspirating Pig :(

In todays session we had to continue with our animal creations.
As the week had passed Tina had created a pretty impressive Goat; this then gave us all the hope that it actually would be possible to create these animals out of these laundry baskets.
Once i had worked on the shape of my Pig more i decided to try and create some of the features so that i would be recognisable as a Pig and not just as some kind of animal.
I began to create the ears for the Pig, this was a rather long winded task. The ears in which i originally made i thought looked good and realistic, but Tinas said that they were not big enough and that i should reconsided making them again and adding more fabric to create a more reaslitic look.
Even thought my oringinal ears took a while to make i agreed with Tinas and decided to make them again.
This time i made tham much bigger and as i created them i found a way of making them slightly 3D and therefore they became much more effective.
With part of the snout already attached to the head and the ears made to 'perfection' hahaha i was able to see the character of the Pig coming though.

We also discussed what we think each animals body should be covered with.

The animals are looking good but we still have alot of work to do on them!!!
:)

2010-05-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 20th April

Design group, Tina, and a load of £1 laundry baskets!!!

"Today we will be making the animals from the story out of these laundry baskets."

I asked myself; 'How in God's name are we going to be able to achieve this?'

At first we all chose a character from the story in which we will TRY and create, i choose the charatcer of the 'perspirating pig'.
Capturing the initial structure of the animal at first was a must. Because pig's are rounded and the baskets in which we were using are squared i had to try and make a more rounded shape. Using spare wire i made circles and attatched them to the inside of the basket by stitching them to the netting.
A more rounded shape was forming and i was able to move onto the head of the pig.
I had to keep refering to a picture of a pig on the internet, because even though i think i know what a pig looks like when it comes to recreating one it is surprisingly hard to visualise.
By the end of our session with Tina we had all achieved some kind of animal enen if it didn't really resemble the animal we were trying to create. This will be something we will have to do in a following session.
:)

2010-04-15T04:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 13th April

Elleray Hall

Me and Laura went to Elleray Hall today to talk to a lady called Linda.
After being in contact with them before me and Laura already knew that they were enthusiastic about us working with them and them getting involved in the day’s celebrations.
Therefore we approached them as if they were already involved. We recapped on what the day was going to involve and we told her what we are doing on the Saturday.
She was very happy and assured us that the men and women who attend Elleray Hall would most probably be very interested in the days of celebrations.
She also was pleased at the prospect of us working with the group over a period of 4 Wednesdays from now until the week of the birthday, starting next Wednesday.
Due to transport issues for the day she said that they most probably would be able to get an Age Concern bus for the day to transport the group to and from the event. But it does only carry 15 people. She said she will do as best she can to get as many people from the group involved on the day as possible, even if some of the volunteers who work there drive their cars.

So during the workshops that we will be doing with them we are going to make masks with them one week, paper flowers with them another week, etc. She also told us that some of the people who go there are involved in a mosaic group. When we mentioned to her that every group that is involved in the day is going to make a letter from the sentence ‘Happy Birthday Ham House’ she was looking forward to the idea that maybe their letter could be in mosaic form.

After a pleasant meeting with her in the Sunny gardens we said our Goodbyes and left looking forward to going there again next week and begin the workshops :)

2010-04-15T04:43:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 24th March

Let the Mexican antics begin!!!

NINE THIRTY I arrived at Tina’s cabin today ready to work, paint, cut, draw, stick, and decorate all the items we needed for the evening in the SU.

The piñatas had dried almost completely with exception of a few damp patches.
I began to decorate my piñata with the three colours of the Mexican flag.
Once al the paper had been attached I decided to paint over the paper with the same colours just to give it a stronger look.
I was soooooooooo pleased with how it looked, I didn’t want someone to take a stick at it now and break it apart after all the work I had put into my beautiful piñata.
Once they had all been decorated and had dried I then filled them with large amounts of sweets and tissue paper, threaded them with string and then they were ready to be hung up in the SU.
As Tina’s cabin was getting very crowded with all the decorations, we decided that we needed to begin taking them over to the SU to give us more room to work.

Over went the palm trees and my ‘Amazing’ flag, hahaha and then back to the cabin for more creative ideas.
We made two more palm trees to go with the other two we had already made. Also we made numerous mini Mexican flags that we decided would look great draped everywhere in the SU. Mini Mexican men and cacti joined the rest of the decorations.
We all said that we needed a big impact on people as they arrive, so three very large strips of fabric were brought in the three colours of the flag and were draped in the centre of the SU, with the words “Welcome to Mexico” in English and in Spanish written across it.

After many many many hours of designing the decorations making them and erecting them it was finally time to go home and get ready for the evening.

Even though I spent over 2 hours on the door collecting the admission fees from people I had a good night, until I left slipped on the pavement in the rain and twisted my knee and ended the night in pain, (after only ONE drink) :(

We made slightly under £150 profit with taking into account we had to pay for security was not bad takings for the night. There were not as many people there as we would have liked but we all had a good time.
The process of the entire fundraising evening helped us work more closely together and brought all the small groups within the entire group together and we worked as a team well I thought.

One down side to the evening, as I was on the door when the Piñatas got smashed apart I never got to see what happened, after my many hours of making one I never got to see. I was not happy with that part of the evening…

2010-04-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 23rd March.

Mexico Mexico Mexico.

Today me and the design team began to create the decorations for the Mexican / Spring Break SU night tomorrow.

Piñatas, Flags, Mexican men, Palm trees, etc.

The piñatas was the first item on our long, long, long list of things to do.
We needed to do these first because they had to dry between each layer of sticky, floury, gluey mess of paper.

We each started with a blown up balloon, and made a paste out of flour and water, which apparently to ZOE would work.
I said we needed to add PVA glue as well just to make it that much stickier, so I did.
We then began by sticking small strips of tissue paper to the balloon layer by layer, gradually building it up. We then added thicker paper to give it a firmer hold and once that had all dried we then give it another layer.

They now needed a long time to set before we add coloured tissue paper to decorate them with. Therefore there was nothing more we could do to them today. Tomorrow we would have to finish them and fingers crossed they will be dry before the evenings antics begins.

I then took on the job of making a MASSIVE Mexican flag to erect in the SU.
It took quicker then I thought and in no time at all I had made a master piece (three strips of colour). But still it looked great.

Palm trees was the next item on our list, Zoe and Hannah began sketching out the trunks of the trees while I tried my best to draw the shapes of the main ‘leafy bit’!
Once we had drawn the parts of the trees we had to paint them brown and green.
They looked great and we were all pleased with our efforts.
But was two enough???
We are defiantly going to make more tomorrow if we have time.

A long day but we got a lot done and excitement looms for tomorrow :)

* Meeting *

2010-03-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

Today most of the group at the meeting which was great because it allowed us to discuss what everyone has been doing and who everyone has contacted etc.
As part of the Design team we were able to tell the rest of the group about the face moulds we made on tuesday with tina, and what we decided on about the FLAG.

The Mexican night next wednesday was also discussed and we made a rota for who is doing what on the night and who will be manning the doors at what times.

Next tuesday me and the rest of the Design team will be making pinata's for the mexican night and we are still playing with ideas about different things we can make to make the night look great.

CONTACT, CONTACT , CONTACT.
Contacting people is still we all feel slightly slow and undefinate still.
By the end of March we have said that all the groups that have been contacted will know what is happening and the communicating between us and them will be constant.
But we still need to get more people involved.

Workshops with all the different groups we have already are going to begin shortly :)

Come on guys we are going to do this and its going to be great. x

Twickenham sCRAP Store!

2010-03-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last week i drove me Hannah and Laura around Twickenham looking for the scrap store. After a long time driving in circles we finally found it in a large recycling industrial estate.
When we were shown to the building where the scrap store was i almost laughed out loud with dissapointment, i thought the woman was joking!!!
It was a little shed like building that was sooooo small, that contained a few boxes of bits of carpet and old fabric cuttings, boxes of paper, magazines and old folders that had been recycled by old businesses.
What a complete load of sCRAP.
We were not happy.
All we managed to get was a bag of old carrier bags that we could use to make flowers etc in the workshops.
Fingers crossed the next one we plan to go to will be BETTER...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAM HOUSE!!!

2010-03-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

Well how much has happened since my last blog!

Ham house will be turning 400 in May and as the house's resident theatre company we have been asked to organise the procession and many of the activities for the day of celebrations.

I decided to work on my own on a challenging task that involved working with a GCSE Drama class in my local community.
During feburary i began working with the GCSE class as they were participating in a Arts Award festival.
Unfortunatly the school had to pull out of the festival for many reasons therefore the work i had begun with them and the work i had planned for the next 2 months could not be completed.
Even though im not working with them on the entire project i still feel that i learned alot from the few sessions i worked with them.

WHAT DO I DO NOW :(

After i spoke to Mark i was reassured that there was still plenty for me to get my teeth into for the up coming celebrations at Ham.
I was still quite looking forward to working with a group of people from the community.
Laura told me about a old peoples home situated in the Richmond, Ham area that were very enthusiastic about someone coming into the home and working with the residents, maybe getting them involved in a few workshops and then the prospect of them joining in the celebrations on the day.

I had soooooooooooo many ideas about this and immediatly spoke to Mark to see what he thought of my ideas.
Laura has got to get back in contact with them and fingers crossed i will be able to work with the home and successfully get them involved.
I had the idea that the work i did with them would be based on the subject of World War 2. Most of the residents would have been alive during the War and would have their own experiences about that time.
My idea involved working with the house using the subject of the War.

I also had the idea of talking to the Historian at Ham house and for me to get an insight into how the house was affected during World War 2.
This i feel is a very strong starting point.
Also the house would be interested in joining the prosession on the day :D
It would be fab to get a large amount of people for the older generation as well as the younger one.

Things are looking very exciting now!!!!!!!!!!!

First Performance 5th December

2009-12-05T10:56:00.000-08:00

Do you want to hear a story???

Today was our first performance at Ham House.
And what a day it was.
For a first performance i feel that as a group we all performed and handled the audience really well, taking into account we did not know how the day was going to pan out.
At first the day began slowly with only one or two familys walking around but as the day went on more people arrived and were really interested in what we all had to offer.
I was in the bathroom telling my snowman story, because the bathroom is slightly off from the rest of the rooms not many people were venturing into the room in which i was waiting to tell my story. But once a few people came in and listened to my story more people followed and at one time i told my story to a large group of familys.
I seemed to find that people were walking around in big groups, and most of the time i was telling my story to big groups of people, and then no one would come to listen to my story for about 15mins.
I did find myself telling the story slightly differerent when i had different numbers of people listening. At one time i just had one child and her dad listening; my storytelling would change and become more personal to them.

The facepainting was my favourite part to my day which i found slightly surprising. I really enjoyed painting the childrens faces with lots of different designs, and i found myself talking to the children and interacting with them alot more then when i was storytelling. I even told my story to one of the children whilst i was painting her face, because she would not sit still, i asked her if she would like to hear a story while i painted a snowman on her face. Painting a snowman and telling a story about about a snowman was a really nice way to connect the two.

There was alot of really nice feedback about our presence today at Ham House and i found that what i was told by different people has really helped me think about how i can improve my performance for the following dates.
There are a few changes that as a group we have decided to change for tomorrows performance and fingers crossed the changes will make the great performances we gave today even better :)

Drama in the Community - 20th November

2009-11-21T12:18:00.000-08:00

What Story??? What Space???

In todays lesson we discussed what the plan of action was going to be for the forth coming weeks leading up to our performances and the performances themselves.
We made a plan and everyone confirmed their availability so that the timetable and the running orders could be made so that we all knew exactly what everyone was doing on the day of the performances.
This was really helpful to me because i was able to set my mind at rest and i now have a clear view as what is happening.
Me and Sharmilia are working as a pair and are telling the story together.
Because Sharmilia is only performing on the first week im going to adapt the story that we have so that im able to tell it without her on the other weekends.

We worked on our storytelling for the remainder of the lesson and we all decided on which space would suit out stories best. I decided that our story would be best told in the bathroom because it relates to our story itself, and therefore it can be imagined better by the children if the space they are in is recognisible.

Through out the lesson i was hearing little bits of other peoples stories and i was really pleased to hear how different they were from everyones in the group. Even though they are all about christmas they are very diverse and different. This is fab because it will definatly keep the audience, especially the children, interested.
Also another great idea is that there are going to be 'driffters', people who are going to walk about and just begin to tell their stories to anyone anywhere.

I have a really positive feeling about these performances and i hope that the people who come to Ham House and listen to our stories really enjoy them and get them in to the CHRISTMAS CHEER!!!

Drama in the Community - 23rd October

2009-10-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

The Nation Trust Film Office.

In todays lesson a man called Harvey came into out lecture to talk to us about The National Trust Film Office, and how it functions as a company.

We learnt that the filming in grounds and houses owned by the National Trust can range from Student Films, to fashion photo shoots to documentaries to TV Dramas to Blockbuster Films.
Crews that use the grounds can range from 1 to 150 at any one time, so PREPARATION is one of the main factors that needs to be thought of when allowing such a mass of working people into a historic house etc.

So why let filming happen on Nation Trust property???

MONEY.
MONEY.
MONEY.
That is the main reason for allowing film crews to use the National Trust property.
As the National Trust is a Charity it needs as much money as possible to keep up and running.
Also the films etc that is produced on the grounds create alot of visitor interest. People from the public come to many of the grounds of the Nation Trust and pay entry because it has featured in a big film etc.

We were also told about all the different complication that can occur when film crews are using the grounds and houses.
We were shown into the house and were taken into the Great Hall and were asked what we would move and protect if a film crew were using the space.
We were able to visualise where the film crews would set up their equiptmewnt and the damages that could occur with misuse of objects.
We were told of damages and what the companys would have to pay for if damages arised.

I found this really interesting, because i myself have worked with a film crew at a National Trust stately home in Cornwall, called Lanhydrock House. I had a small part in Antiques Roadshow when they used the grounds for filming. The programme wanted to film some history of the house to show in the programme, and i auditioned for a part of the kitchen staff and was given the part.
I had no idea of the complexity of arrangements that went into organising filming at a National Trust property.
As part of the actors you dont get to see that side.
I didnt realise that health and safety was a major issue with the film crew. As i was in the kitchens we had the fire alight and pots cooking away on the stove. At the time i didnt know that there were people on the side lines ready with fire extinguishers and fire blankets. It does seem a bit obvious now but when your their filming and part of the crew you dont really think of the actual place you are filming you are concentrating more on doing you job and doing it well.

The preparation that is done before during and after filming is huge and very important.

Story Ideas!!!

Nearing the end of the lesson we showed each other our ideas for a short story that could be shown at the christmas festival.
Me and Sharmila worked together to create a story about a Autumn Fairy who helped a young lady who used to live in Ham House hundreds of years ago.
We used the idea of a pumpkin and that the seed of a pumpkin can be the making of your dreams, if you believe enough than it can come true.
We used aspects of Cinderella and Aladin to create the body of the story and the meaning speaks for itself.

x

Drama in the Community - 16th October

2009-10-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Cardboard Citizens!!!

At the first section of the lesson today we discussed the performance by 'Cardboard Citizens' who performed in the theatre on monday.
As a group we discussed the techniques and forms of theatre that they used as a company and how those types of theatre work in a community and how they can get audience members involved in the performance.

Who to work with?

We also quickly scanned across the fact that many people, companies and organisations have heard about us as St. Marys and are interested in working with us and using our skils and theatre makers to help their cause whatever it is.
I would like to hear about each of these oppertunities in more details if we have some time in one lesson soon. I think as a group we should get together and discuss the different ways in which we can use theatre to help and work with different people.

Projection...

Gary Colland who is the Property Manager at Ham House spoke to us for nearly an hour in todays lesson about how the Nation Trust works etc.
He used a series of slides that were projected for us to see and explained to us the different aspects of the Nation Trust.
The National Trust was founded in 1895.
Currentky there are about 200 historic houses owned and managed by the National Trust.
They are the largest land owner in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
They have 4,000 paid imployees and 50,000 volunteers working with them.
They are the largest conservation organisation in Europe.
At present they have over 3,500,000 Nation Trust Members.
The National Trust is a charity and can only keep running with the help from grants and the help from the general public.

Ham House for example costs about £700,000 a year to run and mantain. Without the contributions for many areas Ham House would not be able to be kept open for the public to enjoy, this would be a enormous loss to Richmond and to England.
It is such a gorgeous estate and should be viewed and love for centuries to come.

GARDENS

For the majority of the lesson we were taken on a tour of the Gradens by the Head Gardener.
We looked at the Cheery garden, the South gardens, the Wilderness gardens and the Kitchen gardens.
Each of these gardens were used for many different reasons in the 17 Century.
I found this a very interesting tour of the gardens because i was given an insight on how the house and the people living in the house used the gardens all those years ago and how the gardens were used top promote their wealth to people visiting them.

Because i have now seen and walked through the gardens i can see different stories and pieces of different theatre that can be shown and performed in the actual grounds.
This i feel would be a different and inspiring ingredient for the christmas festivities at Ham House.

x

Drama in Community - 9th October

2009-10-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

HAM HOUSE

Today we began the lesson in the Orangery room at Ham House.
As a group we discussed the different aspects of work that we shall be doing in the lesson and lessons to come.

We were priviledged to be shown around Ham House by a member of the team.
The tour focused on reminding us that the house was once lived in and was very much full of life.
I found myself looking at each room and imagining what went on there when William Murray's family lived there back in 1610. Where they ate, slept and exercised?

As i was walking around the grand rooms of the house i used the intense atmosphere to create different characters and different stories in different rooms.

One of my favourite rooms was one of the attic bedrooms where the servants slept. The room was very small and basic with very few materilas and furnature.
This room was solely fo sleeping in, there was nothing in the rooms that entertained or comforted the servants.

The kitchens and the larder were other rooms of interest for me and i could see myself using the space to create great pieces of theatre. Making pieces of theatre and telling stories about the workers and the servants were more interesting to me that using characters like William and Elizabeth because i felt that i could relate more to the workers and i felt that they had more of a story about them that was interesting.

SPIRAL

Mark gave us information about a company called 'Spiral'.
I found this very very very interesting and i was really interested in thge project that we can particicate in december. Im desperate to go out and work with them. Its sounds like such a new and fresh way of working that i dont think im used to, and it would be brilliant to work with them and gain a different aspect of making theatre.

From their website i found out that;
Spiral lives and works from rural La Rioja, Spain, developing participatory, multicultural theatre projects in site specific contexts. Much of their work takes place in beautiful locations and places of significant historical importance. At Spiral they work with local communities, theatre students and with those who have a passion for theatre. Projects and workshops can last from a few days to years. And for this reason every outcome and performance is unique.

Spiral makes theatre and performances in all sorts of places. Museums, windmills, archaeological sites, abandoned villages, forests, village squares, classrooms, old folks residencies, community centres… everywhere can be places in which their workshops and performances take shape. Participants can be school children or village neighbours. All their performances are designed to be popular, participative and festive. The more there are the better.

NOW DOESNT THAT SOUND BRILL???

x