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Joanna Nicks wrote the first blog of the week...without being press ganged...I love a voluntary blog...


  • I buzzed off Black Company this week… here’s why:
    -So far I’ve found Robin Hood and my character in the play really challenging because she says so little in a situation where I’d find myself so angry that I’d want to shout. After a pretty flat and demoralising run we talked about being brave and helping other people to be brave and knowing who our character is and where they are going to and coming from. The things it made me think about meant that I spent the next run deciding why she didn’t say much- there were the obvious but general answers, but I realised I needed specifics, each time another character spoke I needed to know why she didn’t reply or save them and what she thought of that person and of what they had said and how everything affects her and her agenda. Saying less made her interesting. Every character thinks that they’re the main character and I’d forgotten that up till now.
    -Another reason I find Robin Hood a challenge is the heightened language. It’s really hard to own and mean the words we’re saying because they don’t feel natural; it’s not how we speak any more. In the last run when everyone was braver and made a conscious decision to commit it felt like the emotion was bigger so the language seemed to fit, the play felt fast and exiting. It felt like it was kicking off.
    -I absolutely committed in Cowboys and Indians as well and was speedy mc speedyson… and I almost won… I drew
    So it turned out to be an excellent session.
    Although I now have a bruised spine which really hurts, I think I committed to beans on toast a bit too much.

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