Friday, 29 January 2010
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
The Start of the Adventure....
Monday 25th January - an important date for the company, as we were presented for the first time with scripts and parts! It was the fourth meeting we have had since returning to South Street after Christmas, and it was worth the wait!
In the first week, having trudged through inches of snow, we were plunged straight into the world of the refugees living in the shadows at Calais. In the middle of the room, a container had been created with tables and pieces of cloth. The company crouched in corners and behind chairs, and a "French security guard" tried to prevent us from getting to the entrance of the container. At first it seemed impossible, in the light of the room, but when the lights were off, the room began to swarm with silhouettes, all desperately fleeing towards the container. We were lying and kneeling in the tiny space, trying to make room for just one more person, but eventually we had to give up. Some of the silhouettes tried to subtly retreat into the shadows, but the guard was too quick and took them to the side of the room. When everyone was either in the container or caught at the side, the lights were restored and those fast enough to get in began to crawl out from under the cloth.
In the second half, we tried to show another experience of refugees in Calais, where they are taken onto a truck and smuggled in by the driver. The company was ushered into the container again, although this time it was slightly bigger. The lights were turned off and the sounds of a motorway began to play. I have never seen the Reading Youth Theatre fall so intensely silent. We spent about ten minutes in there, just listening, so tense that we could barely move. Then, the driver came out again, and told us that more people were coming. The container size was decreased, and we were cramped even closer together. I don't think any of us could have guessed that by the end we had spent a solid twenty five minutes in that state of frozen silence. It was an amazingly surreal experience, but very rewarding in terms of empathising with our characters.
The second week was definitely "time for something completely different", after the intensity of the week before, but I don't think any of us were expected to be so moved by what we heard. We started by sitting around a huge map, and sticking post-its on places where we had been. Not surprisingly, most of Europe was covered multiple times, and everywhere else had a fairly even scattering. We were then given different coloured notes and asked to place them on places where we think refugees came from. This presented much more of a challenge, but we ended up with a fair representation. A young refugee had joined us this week, and was asked to show us his journey in post-its. None of us had ever imagined someone our age could have been through what he had. We were asked to draw pictures - one of where we lived, and one of another place of importance to us. We then created a map of Reading as we experience it. Then, bit by bit, the pictures were turned over, as parts of our lives were being taken from us. Even though it was just a map on the floor, the impact that it would have was just so incomprehensible that it made everything seem so insecure. This shock tactic, at making us see just how significant our homes and families were was very powerful in understanding how much the refugees in the play had left behind.
After the map exercise, we listened to Hanibal, represented as Samuel in the play, explain to us in more detail what happened to him on his journey here. Everything he had been through, from Military Training, to a 14 day drive in a Toyota with 38 other people through the Sahara, to living on the streets in a Foreign country, was just another thing he had had to deal with. None of us could imagine anything that he had been through whilst he was travelling. It was just so different from anything else we had ever experienced. Everyone felt in awe of him, knowing that he had been through so much and had come out the other side, and he had just been a child, the same age as many of us. His bravery and determination were certainly inspiring.
In the third week, we started working on some whole cast scenes: one at a refugee camp, and one in the Toyotas going through the Sahara. The refugee camp scene started off as a still image of Reading Festival, as this was the closest most of us had come to the experience. We were then told to change the scene as though we were having to go on living like this, without the festival stalls and the music, forever, as far as we could see. Slowly the images changed from fun and games, to a fight to stay alive. We considered the elements of society that we thought would stay with a community in a refugee camp. We thought that people would still eat together, children would still play, people would still make music together, they would still worship and they would still try to create some form of alcohol or drug. We then formed one big still image with people inside tents made of sticks and fabric, doctors, families, boys playing football, and brought it to life to introduce one of the scenes.
The Toyota scene was completely different. We stood on one small folded piece of cloth, some kneeling, and some on other's backs. We then split into two - one Toyota for the men, and one for the women. Samuel fell off the men's car and was lifted onto the roof of the women's. An oasis appeared in the distance, and Samuel was lowered. He and the women knelt and threw the water everywhere, drinking it and soaking in it. We discussed how to show this best on stage, using some form of cloth or glitter. These two scenes will later be integrated into the play.
After a short meeting about events to raise more money for Edinburgh, we were presented with our copies of the script. We have read through it once, and briefly discussed the stories, and everyone is eager to get on! So, Reading Youth Theatre's first Edinburgh Project, Nothing to Declare, has officially taken off!
In the first week, having trudged through inches of snow, we were plunged straight into the world of the refugees living in the shadows at Calais. In the middle of the room, a container had been created with tables and pieces of cloth. The company crouched in corners and behind chairs, and a "French security guard" tried to prevent us from getting to the entrance of the container. At first it seemed impossible, in the light of the room, but when the lights were off, the room began to swarm with silhouettes, all desperately fleeing towards the container. We were lying and kneeling in the tiny space, trying to make room for just one more person, but eventually we had to give up. Some of the silhouettes tried to subtly retreat into the shadows, but the guard was too quick and took them to the side of the room. When everyone was either in the container or caught at the side, the lights were restored and those fast enough to get in began to crawl out from under the cloth.
In the second half, we tried to show another experience of refugees in Calais, where they are taken onto a truck and smuggled in by the driver. The company was ushered into the container again, although this time it was slightly bigger. The lights were turned off and the sounds of a motorway began to play. I have never seen the Reading Youth Theatre fall so intensely silent. We spent about ten minutes in there, just listening, so tense that we could barely move. Then, the driver came out again, and told us that more people were coming. The container size was decreased, and we were cramped even closer together. I don't think any of us could have guessed that by the end we had spent a solid twenty five minutes in that state of frozen silence. It was an amazingly surreal experience, but very rewarding in terms of empathising with our characters.
The second week was definitely "time for something completely different", after the intensity of the week before, but I don't think any of us were expected to be so moved by what we heard. We started by sitting around a huge map, and sticking post-its on places where we had been. Not surprisingly, most of Europe was covered multiple times, and everywhere else had a fairly even scattering. We were then given different coloured notes and asked to place them on places where we think refugees came from. This presented much more of a challenge, but we ended up with a fair representation. A young refugee had joined us this week, and was asked to show us his journey in post-its. None of us had ever imagined someone our age could have been through what he had. We were asked to draw pictures - one of where we lived, and one of another place of importance to us. We then created a map of Reading as we experience it. Then, bit by bit, the pictures were turned over, as parts of our lives were being taken from us. Even though it was just a map on the floor, the impact that it would have was just so incomprehensible that it made everything seem so insecure. This shock tactic, at making us see just how significant our homes and families were was very powerful in understanding how much the refugees in the play had left behind.
After the map exercise, we listened to Hanibal, represented as Samuel in the play, explain to us in more detail what happened to him on his journey here. Everything he had been through, from Military Training, to a 14 day drive in a Toyota with 38 other people through the Sahara, to living on the streets in a Foreign country, was just another thing he had had to deal with. None of us could imagine anything that he had been through whilst he was travelling. It was just so different from anything else we had ever experienced. Everyone felt in awe of him, knowing that he had been through so much and had come out the other side, and he had just been a child, the same age as many of us. His bravery and determination were certainly inspiring.
In the third week, we started working on some whole cast scenes: one at a refugee camp, and one in the Toyotas going through the Sahara. The refugee camp scene started off as a still image of Reading Festival, as this was the closest most of us had come to the experience. We were then told to change the scene as though we were having to go on living like this, without the festival stalls and the music, forever, as far as we could see. Slowly the images changed from fun and games, to a fight to stay alive. We considered the elements of society that we thought would stay with a community in a refugee camp. We thought that people would still eat together, children would still play, people would still make music together, they would still worship and they would still try to create some form of alcohol or drug. We then formed one big still image with people inside tents made of sticks and fabric, doctors, families, boys playing football, and brought it to life to introduce one of the scenes.
The Toyota scene was completely different. We stood on one small folded piece of cloth, some kneeling, and some on other's backs. We then split into two - one Toyota for the men, and one for the women. Samuel fell off the men's car and was lifted onto the roof of the women's. An oasis appeared in the distance, and Samuel was lowered. He and the women knelt and threw the water everywhere, drinking it and soaking in it. We discussed how to show this best on stage, using some form of cloth or glitter. These two scenes will later be integrated into the play.
After a short meeting about events to raise more money for Edinburgh, we were presented with our copies of the script. We have read through it once, and briefly discussed the stories, and everyone is eager to get on! So, Reading Youth Theatre's first Edinburgh Project, Nothing to Declare, has officially taken off!
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Nothing to Declare Gets Funding
Sought after funding has been granted to teenagers at Reading Youth Theatre to develop a play about unaccompanied refugees arriving in Britain. The money comes from the Youth and Opportunities Fund, aka YOF, at Reading Borough Council.
The company are preparing to travel to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time with the funding, enabling them to perform for a week in a central venue in the city.
More fundraising will still have to be done and if the group of 15 want to fill up with audiences they will need to be printing and handing out flyers, working hard to get noticed.
The company are preparing to travel to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time with the funding, enabling them to perform for a week in a central venue in the city.
More fundraising will still have to be done and if the group of 15 want to fill up with audiences they will need to be printing and handing out flyers, working hard to get noticed.
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