Danny Southern Ladies and Gentlemen...
So… haven’t done one of these in a while. Gonna get back into the blog saddle and ride this bad-boy… Here goes…
BONUS WORKSHOP. WHAT. A. LAUGH. Honestly one of the best things I’ve EVER done. Literally. I really didn’t know what to expect tbh ‘cos I’ve only ever been to one other workshop and that was Shakespeare, so I was kinda throwing myself in at the deep end when I heard the words: “Physical Theatre”.
Now, I dunno if I’ve made this clear enough in the past at Yew Tree, but me and ‘physical’ ended in PE in Year 10 when I was picked last for dodgeball… after the blind kid. Physical exertion is just something I’ve never really been any good at, so when Sarah mentioned “Physical Theatre”, I was like… oh.
I can honestly say that my expectations were obliterated immediately. First of all, these epic peeps from West Yorkshire Theatre Dance Company… OMG what legends. Not one of them was daunted a bit by all these strange looking people (especially Laura ‘Staggsinator’ ‘Staggsy’ Staggs, complete with new braces) and even conquered Yew Tree at Ninja Warrior!! Also, People to People was absolutely hilarious with everyone vying to be partners with one of the new awesome people
Unfortunately, our new mates couldn’t stay for the whole workshop, so the veterans of Yew Tree continued onto the ‘Physical Theatre Master Class’. So, the warm-up had finished and I was now worrying about all the strenuous tasks Sarah might be setting us: two mile run, pulling a lorry by the teeth, wrestling a bear… well yeah, I know that these seem bizarre, but c’mon this is MY mind – y’know the warped inner-thoughts of a madman?? Well anywho, I thought, okay yeah, bring it on (whilst inside I was papping myself).
It was one of the defining moments of my Yew Tree life. No joke. I loved it. I’d never heard of Virtual Playground or Pebbles on the Beach, but as soon as we began devising and creating shapes, it was just amazing seeing all these magnificent shapes forming. I kinda took a backseat approach to this without really realising as I was just awed at how a simple device could create something so elegant at times, and at others dark and mysterious. I think it just relies on the context of what you want to create. This was an idea that I took and put into action along with Ashleigh Waters in Stage 3 of continuous images.
Epic. That is all I have to say. We really immersed ourselves into a scenario of lust and betrayal – even though we hadn’t even spoken about it to each other!! I felt psychic and, with my new powers, sensed Ashleigh was too. Every move that we made had an impact on the others feelings, body language and rhythm. I can’t really describe how I felt but: inspired. I wanted to take some of these techniques and skills I had learnt today and put them into my A2 work (which is kinda shocking at the minute if you ask me). I learnt from this workshop that body expression can be just as (or even more) powerful than dialogue. Okay, yeah sometimes it hurts – during an immense fighting scene with the Sapphire leg Holly, I ran towards Jack and ended up falling… on my face…
Plus, the fantastic people from NODA were, well, fantastic!! They were sooo nice and just seemed to enjoy being there. I hope that they took the same experiences back with them that I have taken. But most of all from the session, I know that it doesn’t matter what age or company you’re in, Yew Tree is a family… A weird, sorta strange, (sometimes borderline freaky) family.
Oh yeah and I didn’t die from physicalnessness. Bonus.
So… haven’t done one of these in a while. Gonna get back into the blog saddle and ride this bad-boy… Here goes…
BONUS WORKSHOP. WHAT. A. LAUGH. Honestly one of the best things I’ve EVER done. Literally. I really didn’t know what to expect tbh ‘cos I’ve only ever been to one other workshop and that was Shakespeare, so I was kinda throwing myself in at the deep end when I heard the words: “Physical Theatre”.
Now, I dunno if I’ve made this clear enough in the past at Yew Tree, but me and ‘physical’ ended in PE in Year 10 when I was picked last for dodgeball… after the blind kid. Physical exertion is just something I’ve never really been any good at, so when Sarah mentioned “Physical Theatre”, I was like… oh.
I can honestly say that my expectations were obliterated immediately. First of all, these epic peeps from West Yorkshire Theatre Dance Company… OMG what legends. Not one of them was daunted a bit by all these strange looking people (especially Laura ‘Staggsinator’ ‘Staggsy’ Staggs, complete with new braces) and even conquered Yew Tree at Ninja Warrior!! Also, People to People was absolutely hilarious with everyone vying to be partners with one of the new awesome people
Unfortunately, our new mates couldn’t stay for the whole workshop, so the veterans of Yew Tree continued onto the ‘Physical Theatre Master Class’. So, the warm-up had finished and I was now worrying about all the strenuous tasks Sarah might be setting us: two mile run, pulling a lorry by the teeth, wrestling a bear… well yeah, I know that these seem bizarre, but c’mon this is MY mind – y’know the warped inner-thoughts of a madman?? Well anywho, I thought, okay yeah, bring it on (whilst inside I was papping myself).
It was one of the defining moments of my Yew Tree life. No joke. I loved it. I’d never heard of Virtual Playground or Pebbles on the Beach, but as soon as we began devising and creating shapes, it was just amazing seeing all these magnificent shapes forming. I kinda took a backseat approach to this without really realising as I was just awed at how a simple device could create something so elegant at times, and at others dark and mysterious. I think it just relies on the context of what you want to create. This was an idea that I took and put into action along with Ashleigh Waters in Stage 3 of continuous images.
Epic. That is all I have to say. We really immersed ourselves into a scenario of lust and betrayal – even though we hadn’t even spoken about it to each other!! I felt psychic and, with my new powers, sensed Ashleigh was too. Every move that we made had an impact on the others feelings, body language and rhythm. I can’t really describe how I felt but: inspired. I wanted to take some of these techniques and skills I had learnt today and put them into my A2 work (which is kinda shocking at the minute if you ask me). I learnt from this workshop that body expression can be just as (or even more) powerful than dialogue. Okay, yeah sometimes it hurts – during an immense fighting scene with the Sapphire leg Holly, I ran towards Jack and ended up falling… on my face…
Plus, the fantastic people from NODA were, well, fantastic!! They were sooo nice and just seemed to enjoy being there. I hope that they took the same experiences back with them that I have taken. But most of all from the session, I know that it doesn’t matter what age or company you’re in, Yew Tree is a family… A weird, sorta strange, (sometimes borderline freaky) family.
Oh yeah and I didn’t die from physicalnessness. Bonus.
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