The way my creative process for script writing usually goes is; either through commission or workshop (or both) the subject is set, then I write, then I cast, then I direct either professional or youth theatre actors and then I sit back and enjoy the results.
However this week saw the culmination of a very different process. On Tuesday I saw the talented CAT’s youth theatre (based in Southampton) perform “Whatever Happened to Grace Connor’” a play commissioned by them and written by me. I’d travelled down to Southampton earlier in the year to workshop ideas with them. Once back in Wakefield I set to work writing something that befitted their ambitions and talents. Once the play was sent they got to work in rehearsals and I pretty much moved on with the demands of two solo shows to write and a number of training commissions.
Going to see their performance was definitely a highlight of 2010. First there was the anticipation, wondering what a director had done with it; the lack of my usual control over interpreting my writing was both unnerving and exciting. Then there was sitting front of house and seeing the audience arrive to watch something I’d written. Finally there was the rediscovery of the play seen through and interpreted by theatre makers both directors and actors.
Of course there were things I’d seen differently and of course there were surprises but this wasn’t a bad thing. It’s a brilliant thing to see what your work says to people who can’t see inside your head. Listening to the laughter of the audience and the comments they made as they left, having no idea who I was, was of course gratifying. Possibly the most gratifying thing, however, was watching an ensemble of 16 actors who owe me nothing commit to a performance of my play, making every endeavour to perform it to the best of their considerable talent. I felt a genuine gratitude to them for creating something of such value out of my words…
And the final bonus of the evening, I got to chat to the cast at the end about the journey to performance and their positivity and enjoyment of realising “Whatever Happened to Grace Connor,” made the long trek northwards well worth it…an achievement in itself…
Sunday 23 May 2010
Tuesday 18 May 2010
A vision of success...
The last week has been spent using drama techniques to try and teach ambition to year 9 high school students…funnily enough it’s really, really hard…
The students we’re working with have been identified as having potential but for a variety of reasons they aren’t fulfilling it. As usual the reasons for this are complex, often deep rooted and invariably intertwined: Lack of confidence, difficulties at home, a peer group that undermines their efforts to succeed, learnt behaviours or coping strategies that do not include conforming to others expectations, a resentment of education…the list is sadly endless.
However there is a universal theme that has emerged through the workshops we’re delivering and that is the student’s inability to visualize and/or articulate what success would look like for them. The question is met by the majority with general answers of “Money,” or “A good job,” or “A big car,” but very few of these potentially able young people know what kind of job or how they’re going to be able to earn the money or how they’re going to afford the car.
The consequence of this is that they are moving through life without a road map…with no destination they have no idea whether they are on the right track, no grid references to check their progress and in turn this makes things so much harder. Makes success, which is hard enough for young people with their life experience anyway, even more unreachable…
All this is indicates another potential way in which we can offer assistance as educators. In finding ways to help young people to see in clear terms what they want…in assisting them to draw their vision of success…in giving them the words or courage to articulate it to others, so it can be affirmed and developed in the telling and the hearing, we arm them with an invaluable tool to aid them in the process of actually reaching it…and that to me sounds like a worthwhile way of spending the day…
The students we’re working with have been identified as having potential but for a variety of reasons they aren’t fulfilling it. As usual the reasons for this are complex, often deep rooted and invariably intertwined: Lack of confidence, difficulties at home, a peer group that undermines their efforts to succeed, learnt behaviours or coping strategies that do not include conforming to others expectations, a resentment of education…the list is sadly endless.
However there is a universal theme that has emerged through the workshops we’re delivering and that is the student’s inability to visualize and/or articulate what success would look like for them. The question is met by the majority with general answers of “Money,” or “A good job,” or “A big car,” but very few of these potentially able young people know what kind of job or how they’re going to be able to earn the money or how they’re going to afford the car.
The consequence of this is that they are moving through life without a road map…with no destination they have no idea whether they are on the right track, no grid references to check their progress and in turn this makes things so much harder. Makes success, which is hard enough for young people with their life experience anyway, even more unreachable…
All this is indicates another potential way in which we can offer assistance as educators. In finding ways to help young people to see in clear terms what they want…in assisting them to draw their vision of success…in giving them the words or courage to articulate it to others, so it can be affirmed and developed in the telling and the hearing, we arm them with an invaluable tool to aid them in the process of actually reaching it…and that to me sounds like a worthwhile way of spending the day…
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