Looking over the work I have done for the Project

The SU night was a really good fund raiser for our project, it was tiring but a lot of fun. Plus I am very glad that we did not do a Car Boot Sale for fundraising as there is a lot to organise, when we look at the things you have to do, and it seems to much to do at a short space of time, these are the things you have to think about when organising the Car Boot Sale:

First of all the venue:-
You need a good surface to park on.
Good pedestrian access
Don't be next door to another one or somewhere where there is competition

There are cost implications.
You have to book and pay for the venue up front.
If not enough people turn up you LOSE money.
Look for the competition and see what they do.
Look for the right area to do it.
A very rich area off the beaten track is as good a near town centres/big housing (therefore people therefore buyers) estates.

IS A CAR BOOT SALE THE RIGHT THING TO DO?
Would collecting stuff to sell at other boot sales be better?
Would one or more of the schools you are working with let you have the venue for free?
If they do their own car boot sales probably not.

Next Advertising:-

What can you get free?
What does the competition do?
Would handouts do the job or would somebody walk around with a bill board.Handing out leaflets at other car boot sales to sellers and buyers is a good start (remember if you are asked yours is bigger and better!).
Poster in cars! If any one you are working with will put a poster in their car "Best Ever Car Boot Sale" , etc.
Would the schools you are working with hand out leaflets to pupils at the school and/or put up posters?
Could you run more than one?
Can you put up posters at Uni?
Some student might like to clear out their things and raise some cash.
Big posters near the site a few weeks in advance gets in some business. (you might upset the local council if you leave them up for 2 weeks but might get away for a weekend and take them down again)

Money:-
What do the competition do?
What do they charge?
Do they charge admission for buyers or ask for donations?
Have a look at what is happening nearby, visit a few car boots sales
Can you get items donated for you to sell at your own (free) pitch.
You will need change on the day! Lots of people turn up with £20 notes to pay for the pitch (they want you to provide them with change for their buyers).

Bookings:-
Keep a list of vehicle reg's and names.
No booking without CASH in advance
If more than one number published for booking keep in touch with each other
Each taking 50 bookings for a place that only takes 70 cars is not good.
Commercial booking i.e. burger vans should pay more!
Make sure the people who own the venue don't mind them being there.
Make sure they don't dump rubbish.R
Receipts given should state that you accept no responsibility to any damage to their property when they are on site.

On the day:-
You will need volunteers to collect money when people turn up and direct them to where you want them to park.
Make sure EVERYONE knows how much to charge (keep the money safe), how the cars are going to get to where they park, how much space each pitch is allowed and how cars are going to leave.
Make sure no one dumps rubbish for you to clear up.
You will end up with some litter so take some bin bags with you.
Make sure nobody who books a pitch loads up items that belong on site and takes it/them with them when they go!!!!
If you have taken the money then it has to go ahead what ever the weather!
Your helpers need to be there all the way through to the bitter end whatever!!!!

This seems like a lot of problems to organise the Car Boot Sale!

Chiswick House

Thinking over the logistics of Chiswick house, I am finding it really annoying that there are works going on in the Gardens, I have a huge worry that the builders will still be making a lot of noise whilst we are performing, plus there is a problem with the Cricket club playing a game when we are doing our evening pre-show, I just hope that we are going to be able to move the pre-show some where else in the park, just in case we have a problem with not being able to do it on the cricket pitch.

Also thinking about the route of the performance has been a little of a problem throughout the time we have been doing this performance, as we wanted to have the Water Nymphs by the Ionic Temple, but with the trouble with that, is that the Temple will still have scaffolding over it when we are performing. Also, we are not going to be able to cross the main bridge over the stream. So we have to let the audience walk down the long path down beside the stream, so we have to make sure they stop every now and then when they are on the way to the fountain bridge. But I like this new route, as we leave the house right up to the last minute during the performance. Which I think is a really good idea! But throughout the route design it has been changed so much, as much as the storyline throughout the rehearsal period. As the Milky Magician was to stand at the water fountain bridge to let the audience into Kalku, but then he has been moved up to the main bridge, but the audience do not cross the bridge.

Thinking about the show.

Looking over the past few months of rehearsals and workshops with the schools, it has been a really worth while time. When looking at the workshops with the children it was a really good experience. As i have done a little bit of work in schools before this project, in Theatre In Education but even with the experience from that course you still get very surprised at the children, as they are so different from each other. It was incredibly hard to go through the workshops as the children can really throw you off your game. You have to be very good at improvising on the spot in front of the children, as some of the children really do come out with the most funniest and disturbing things. But it is great doing the work with them.

The rehearsals have been an experience as it has been over 3 years since I last acted in a piece which has a real director. Following the directions of the the directors is very hard as I really wanted to do my own thing in the rehearsals. It is also harder when you are a smaller character as you are not really used that much, so you do not know when you are next needed in the rehearsals and with that you do not know how the whole of the show is going until the technical/dress rehearsals. The only way I have really found out about what the show is doing is because I am in the design team for the show, so I have to be kept in the loop for the props, set and costume for the show, which is one way of keeping up with the performance.

The show being around the corner, is really exciting and worrying as well, as I do enjoy doing my scene but it is thinking that I will muck up on the day, plus i have not really seen the whole of the show, without breaks in between the scenes. Which I am particulary looking forward to, as then I will feel part of the group and it will be great! Bring on the show I say! We will Knock them down!

Poncho's and all

Well today we got 80 metres of fabric for Poncho's for the audience to wear. As there are 4 tribes in the play, one colour for each tribe. So we have split the audience up into 50 audience members for each colour as we have only 80 metres we have produced 110 ponchos, 55 of pink and 55 of green. we have produced a 5 poncho contingency plan per colour. We are getting together the milky Magician costume, it is nearly finished. We have also de-barked 5 sticks of wood ready for staffs for some of the characters. We also have thoughts of the Water Nymphs and what they are like and what we can do with them. As the Design team had a little day trip to chiswick house on monday, unfortunately we could not go around all the gardens but we could see them from some points of the cordened off area which went to the house (as it was open). so we had a few ideas from what we saw. We are thinking that the Water Nymph queen could travel across from the island in the middle of the river to the audience on a little raft or boat. Or if possible, walk across the water on a hidden platform under the water. There are lots of ideas coming from our team and we are getting things done. Lets hope it carrys on like this!

Designing the show

We started creating costumes and props today, I am finally feeling like I am doing something for the show. We have gone for a Robin Hood/Lord of the Rings (LOTR) - esque style of costumes. Plus we are really getting a lot of ideas, once we found out the storyline and the first bits of the script. Like the idea that we have The Milky Magician on stilts, but this had proved a problem as we want the Magician to increase in size when he shrinks the audience, as trying to stand up on stilts from sitting in the space of 1 minute is incredibly difficult. So we have decided either that he will climb on top of a ladder when he is shrinking the audience, the other idea is that he will sit on someone else's shoulders and they will stand up when the magician shrinks the audience. There are ideas of the sad caterpillar being about 10 metres long, hopefully we have the budget to get the fabric to cover it all! There are a few ideas of things coming from the Magical tree when the audience succeed the task at the end of the show, for example chocolates! Well, thats all for now, but i will be writing some more tommorow!

"The Help"

I have just got back from watching Carboard Citizen's "The Help" and I had a brilliant time watching it. I have not had the chance, until now to see a forum theatre piece live. I thought that it was really informative and gave me some suprising insights to people who live in hostels and care homes to people who are homeless. I was taken aback by how much it costs to live in a Hostel for the homeless, it surprised me so much! Why does it cost so much to rent a room from the charity? it should really be quite cheap as they are homeless! the show dealt with stories of three people and how they got to get to the hostel. There were a various reasons why they turned up at the home, from being made redundant, running away from home because the character is a stroppy teenager and a woman who came from a different country to work with a family, as a nanny.

The way they used the set (which consisted of cardboard boxes), by moving them around, and placing them in different places, made you feel, as an audience member, you were in a different place. They also used puppets in the performance, which was very effective as they really told the story well. These puppets ranged from an Action Man doll with a stick out the back of his head to puppets, which were human sized, made from just the clothes of the actor, they were impersonating.

Once i left the place i felt invigorated, wanting to help out and also just a chance to help out people in those situations.

Thinking about, problems I think we will face.....

I'm not too sure about how many people want to be doing a big group project, as I would not know where to look for a community project which I will be happy with. As i have been looking at other possibilities for a individual project, thinking maybe at a prison or a young offenders institute, but I am very worried about what they would make of me. This is why I am so hopeful that most of the people on this course want to do a big project, like last year's 'Helios'. As i feel that it would help people if they are working together, as you have people to help you through the whole project. But there are two problems that I foresee in doing in a big project are: 1) People not pulling their own weight in the project and 2) People doing too much and finding themselves behind with their other modules.


I think my best resource for D.I.C would be Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, as the book has sections on his idea of Forum theatre, and that is one of the style's people use in D.I.C. Plus Carboard Citizens use forum theatre in their shows, if people would like to see, their webpage is:

http://www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk/

Looking back at todays lecture of Drama in the Community (D.I.C), it was a fun lecture from my position, as it was looking at the storytelling side of D.I.C. Looking at our own Memories and using specific style memories; we looked at memories of us going out for the night. when i thought of my own memory, i thought is was a really good night out, from my point of view, but when we interviewed each other, it felt my memory of the night out, was not as good too listen to. But I think that was because in my head I think back at that night and sort of 'put it up onto a pedastal'. It was very wierd, because when we got into fours, one of the people i was in a group with, thought that her story was not very good, but i thought that it was a really good memory/story as it could be transferred to all different places around the World and people would be able to relate to it. We also looked at the role of the storyteller, and how they could change the whole feel of the story from the way they tell the story.