I imagine you're feeling a bit like Alice...

'The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.' ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, 'The Fellowship of the Ring' ~*~ My main blog is wayfaringchild, containing mostly fandom stuff.

[tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Week 6

Monday - I. Love. Kabuki. That is all. It's a Japanese theatre form which is a bit more accessible than Noh, and it's so much fun! They use stock characters, acrobatics, awesome make up, amazing sets... the list goes on :) If anyone knows what commedia del'arte is, it's a bit like that but Japanese and way more visually impressive; the stage tricks are breathtaking! :D

In our music lecture, Stephen showed us how to deconstruct a typical Western piece of popular music - this basically meant the whole class was rocking out to Avril Lavigne's 'Sk8er Boi' for an hour or so :P It was really helpful though, as we've got to do exactly the same thing next week! I should be OK with my musical knowledge and experience, but condensing everything I have to say into 10 minutes is going to be tricky, especially as I've picked a Queen song...

Tuesday - Movement began with 2 hours of yoga again, which is definitely getting easier; I really feel like I'm building my upper body strength quite nicely. After this, Steph told us to explore the room; a broad brief, I know, but it's fun to run around looking at and touching everything you see. We were tracing shapes and textures of things, moving in ways that were suggestive of the object or surface, piggy-backing other people to reach things high up... it was entirely how we interpreted it, and it was fun :) THEN we had to close our eyes and explore the space and people in it. The room felt so much bigger with my eyes closed, with so much more to explore. Steph put some yoga mats and chairs out so we could use them like a playground - I think I made a pirate ship at one point, with a yoga mat as a treasure map...

Wednesday - We finally finished roadmaps in Acting! Everyone's really glad they're finally over, but we all feel closer together as a group now - I personally trust everyone in the group so much more. To wind down at the end, Martin had us create a little tableaux of a moment in our life, using people in the class, and everyone else had to guess what we had sculpted. Mine was Tom, Adam and I watching the fireworks last Saturday on Waterloo Bridge :)

Thursday - African Dance is going so well; we're well on our way to having a finished performance (which is on the 8th December, by the way). We're pretty good at remembering most of the stuff, but we're having another recap rehearsal tomorrow to reinforce it.

Music was individual tutorials with Stephen, to work on our jazz songs. I have been stressing out so badly about this, but apparently I'm doing alright. I just have to engage with the song a bit more and stop concentrating on getting it right, because I already am.

Friday - GO TEAM AFRICAN DANCE! We still know all the stuff from yesterday, so we'll have one final rehearsal next Wednesday but so far we're awesome!

As today was Children in Need, at lunchtime the choir went down to the Royals Shopping Centre near the seafront to perform live on BBC Radio Essex! We did a medley of songs about bears, including 'The Bare Necessities', 'Winnie the Pooh', 'Paddington Bear' and 'The Teddy Bears' Picnic'; I listened to it the day after and it actually was pretty good!

In Voice, Tara gave us a lot of tongue-twisters to do, to practise consonants and articulation; we heard a few more monologues as well. We have a dry run for assessment next week so I need to revamp mine a little.

Articulation was mainly listening to audio samples people had brought with them from home. Mine was my dad talking about how he used to hide from his mum, and the class had to listen and pick out features of his accent. He's from Liverpool but has lived in Kent for about 30 years, so there are still one or two words that are very Scouse.

This evening, Adam and I went out for a drink down at O'Neil's (near where we study) - it's a Irish pub that does live music on a Friday night. The guys that were on tonight were pretty good, and played some really good pieces, but it was very loud so we had a bit of trouble hearing ourselves talk.

Then on Sunday evening we went to see 'The Imitation Game' at the cinema; it's the new biopic about Alan Turing, the man responsible for cracking the Enigma Code during WWII and is regarded as the father of the modern computer. I read Turing's papers when I was doing A-Level Maths and his ideas are really interesting (if you're into that kind of theory) but I get so angry whenever I hear about what was done to him, and the injustice he suffered at the hands of the society he lived in.

That's all for this week - first assessments next week so wish me luck!

Tasha x

[tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Week 5

I forgot to do this one last week, so two blog entries to follow!

Monday - began with us learning exactly how unexciting Japanese Noh theatre is to watch. It's not the only form of Japanese theatre, but it's one of the elite styles that used to only be performed at court. The movements are very slow, and is historically associated with the Samurai class. Learning about its roots and theory was quite interesting, but when we watched a video of it, stylistically it didn't appeal to me.

Music wasn't a lecture this week; instead, Stephen wanted to talk to us in pairs about our upcoming jazz song for assessment. He's given me Ella Fitzgerald's version of 'It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)', which is fine as I sort of know it; however, most of the song is scat, which I'm not particularly good at, and it's right at the bottom of my range, so it should be quite a nice challenge.

Our Persia group had a meeting to have a chat about what sort of things we need to include in our final presentation in the last week of term (which is creeping up on us so quickly), and we ended up just talking about the 1979 revolution for most of it. Not that it wasn't interesting and relevant, but we probably should get our arses in gear a bit...

Tuesday - movement began with 2 hours of yoga. My first thought was, 'As if two hours on a Thursday morning wasn't bad enough...' but Steph's yoga was actually really helpful. I find pushing down into press-ups much easier now, and it was quite relaxing after a while. Then we did some 'negative space improvisation', which means you move around people without actually touching them, moving your hands, arms, legs and body into the 'negative space' around them. At the very end of the session, we got into our 'epic poetry' groups (mine was 'The Iliad' if you remember) and enacted our section from these epics using negative space. Our group actually found it really useful in pinning down important physical movements that reinforced the action, so we decided to add some of these in.

We had quite a long discussion of 'The Bacchae' in Western Theatre this afternoon; it was similar to our Medea discussion last week, in that people had brought in articles about an issue or interpretation of the play, and we briefly touched on each one. I'm in two minds about 'Bacchae' at the moment: I've only read it once, and I'm probably going to read it again this weekend, but I'm not certain whether I like it yet or not. We'll see...

This evening I had an audition for a cabaret-style piece that one of the second year Worldies are putting on at the end of the Spring term. Call-backs for the ensemble are next week so fingers crossed!

Wednesday - We met up in the morning to go through our 'Iliad' scene once more, to make sure we had it all down properly, then in our Western Theatre this afternoon we performed our 'New and Improved Iliad'. Feedback was mixed; people liked the additions and smoothness we had added to it, and the multi-roling was a lot clearer, but we didn't have as much commitment to character because of that; next time I think we'll have to concentrate much more on character motivation and personality as well.

Acting was more roadmaps, and I did mine today. I don't really talk about or look back over my life that much so it wasn't difficult talking about it. I haven't had that many bad things happen to me; the hardest part was finding enough interesting things to put in it. A guy called James was the last person to do his today and it was the best one to end on; everyone had been feeling really sad and emotional, and James' one was all happiness and full of brilliant things :D

Thursday - Yoga was a lot easier this week thanks to Steph doing some with us on Tuesday; Martin was really pleased with us. I also did a headstand for the first time since I was 13, woo-hoo!

African Dance is getting much more fun (but also frantic!) as we near the performance date; we're learning new things and putting bits together all over the place. I have to kick off the whole thing with a little African chant, so I'll be a bit nervous on the day I think!

Double-music in the afternoon; Stephen wanted to do one-on-one sessions with each of us, so that we could record the basic outline of our jazz song and give us some tips on how to approach it. Mine was really useful, and we ended up having quite a long chat about music and life in general, which was nice :)

At the very end of the last lesson, everyone had to come back in and perform a little song from Ghana; we'd created all the percussion instruments from household items! My group had a big plastic box from my bathroom, an empty Quality Street tub, a few empty Pringle tubes glued together, a metal pot, and some pasta shapes clued to a board and scraped with a hairbrush!

Friday - First two lessons free, so Annie, Tom and I went shopping for Adam's birthday present/card/balloons/beautiful things. We had a look in the old vintage shop down the road as well, which was cool; there were many, many vinyl records and lots of retro clothing in there.

Voice in the afternoon; we learnt a bit more vocal floor barre and how to support the breath, but also how to generate a specific blending of the spoken and sung voice tones. It's really difficult to describe but it basically sound a bit like a sick cow until you sit up.

I also performed the first draft of my monologue for my assessment at the end of term. Feedback was really good: they said they were really engaged with the story and thought it was really cute :) It was about the first time reading my favourite book (it's 'The Hobbit', by the way, thank you for asking :P); I had to switch in an out of my current age and my six year old self quite a few times, which they said was very clear from my vocal tone and physicality. I'm rewriting it a few times before the assessment but I'm keeping most of it as it was so well received.

Articulation was alright - we finished classifying and describing consonants with their technical names and put them on the 'Articulation Family Tree'. I was the head of the Plosive family (Madame Plosive, to be pronounced in a French accent, thank you), as the sound /p/. It took us ages but I can now tell you what an unvoiced, bilateral plosive is (which I'm not going to as I know you won't ask :P).

This week was really long, so on Friday night we had a party in flat 4.15 on the 8th floor - it was a Rubik's cube theme so we all had to come in pretty colours and stuff :D

Then on Saturday was Adam's 21st birthday - we'd got him a beautiful silver jacket and a Batman cake, which he was made up with :) Then he, Tom and I went to London for the day - I worked for a year in Central London, so I was their unofficial tour guide for the day! We walked through the financial district and caught the end of the Lord Mayor's Parade up by Bank tube station, then went up Cheapside to St Paul's Cathedral and over to the South Bank. We went as far as the London Eye and then ran back to Waterloo Bridge to watch the fireworks! It started raining just at the end and we got absolutely soaked, but it was worth it :) After that was a stop-off at Covent Garden to fix Tom's iPod at the Apple Store, and dinner at Garfunkel's in Leicester Square. Finally, we went to Ronnie Scott's jazz bar and danced for about three hours! :D It was a brilliant day/night, and the best way to end a week :)

Tasha x

[tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Hi, I've just got my audition dates through for a few drama schools I'm auditioning for, I'm so nervous! I was wondering if you have any advice for me. I'm struggling to pick monologues, probably just my nerves getting in the way, but if you had any advice that would be great!

Hello there! Congratulations on your audition dates, first off! :D I’ll do my best to help using my own experience; I got in on my second year so I’ve had quite a bit of it :)

First of all, DON’T PANIC. When I got my first few dates through, I completely freaked out and started thinking, ‘Oh gosh, can I really do this?!’ If this happens, just take a moment to breathe deeply and say to yourself, 'Yes, because I absolutely want this.’ You’ve actually got an audition, which is a big deal, so of course you can do it.

I live in the UK, so I auditioned for UK drama schools, and I’m female, so I used female monologues. I don’t know if you’re in another country or if you’re not planning on using female monologues, so this is advice based on UK schools and a mixture of genders.

In my first year, I auditioned for five schools, because I was in my final year of A-Levels and didn’t have the time or money at the time to do more. The following year I was working in London, so I auditioned at 11 places. Most of them don’t offer Open Days in advance, so you have no idea what the facilities or the atmosphere is going to be like before you get there. One really important piece of advice for the day is to really pay attention to the feel of the place and the people: are you 100% certain you’ll be happy spending three years+ here? There were two or three this year that I was pretty sure I wouldn’t want to go to even if I got in, and that’s fine too; it’s as much about you auditioning them as the other way round :)

So, you’re picking monologues, huh? Rule number 1: if you can avoid it at all, don’t use books of monologue collections. Everyone will be using them, the panel will have seen them many times and they’re really difficult to make your own. The books provide no context for the speech, so you can’t get the essence of it across. Instead, look through some of the plays you’ve read or performed and see if there are some interesting monologues in them. Research the playwrights and investigate the other things they’ve written; maybe there’s a lesser known play of theirs that has a good speech in? 

Once you’ve made a list of speeches (mine had about ten or so potential ones), make sure you read the plays. This is so important I can’t stress it enough: if you haven’t read the play, you can’t embody the message the playwright wanted the character to get across. Every play has its own tone, voice and interpretation, and they will be different depending on the person reading it. If you’re asked a question about the context (which you very often will be), you must be prepared to answer that question.

After that, it comes down to deciding which speeches:

a.) you can explore most deeply, and

b.) are most appropriate to your age and experience.

I’ve seen people aged 18 try and do Margaret’s curse from ’Richard III’, and every time it falls flat, because the people are too young and don’t have the experience needed to bring to the aged queen who has lost everything. However, when someone with a bit more life experience did Lady Macbeth, it was mesmerising, because she was that bit older (I think she was about 30) and could relate to the age Shakespeare wrote her as.

The above advice applies to both Elizabethan and contemporary speeches; the latter is a little more fluid if interpreted in the correct way. The character in one of my modern speeches was written as about 30, but she was reliving her childhood days, so the language was appropriate for me to portray her as around 20. I hope that makes sense (I know I contradicted myself a bit); just bear the aims of the writers in mind.

Also, there is no point in auditioning with a speech that you can’t enjoy getting your teeth into. If you weren’t really able to see yourself performing the character in the monologue, maybe don’t put it at the top of your list.

Congratulations, you’ve selected both your Elizabethan and modern speech! Always have a reserve for both periods - that way if you get the feel of a place and think another speech would be more what they’re looking for, then you have a bit of a safety net to avoid panicking :) Now comes the acting bit - how are you going to interpret and show this piece? This bit’s great fun - it’s what you’re auditioning at drama schools to be doing after all!

Worry about the words first. Sort out your objective for the whole speech, and your objectives for individual lines. What do you want the audience to understand when you say these words? Also really important: make sure YOU understand the speech (especially the Shakespeare); if you don’t know what you’re saying, the audience definitely won’t.

Next, intonation. How are the words said? Do you stress any part of the sentence? Which part of the speech is the height of emotion?

After that, start thinking about your physicality. Generalise first, then work down to specifics. How are you standing/sitting/kneeling? Do you move at all during the speech? How do you start, how do you end, and how do you get from one to the other?

Then start to add in specifics: do you look left on this word? Could you gesture as you explain this thing? What’s your face doing here?

All the way through this process, ask yourself WHY. WHY are you moving your head here? WHY does your voice shake when you mention your father? WHY do you get up/sit down? WHY is this necessary?

As you go, write down the movements and intonations you decide on above the words on the monologue (it helps to write it out a few times on separate pieces of paper) - you can always change your decision later if you have a better idea. And remember, WHY is the most important question you need to ask.

Get someone to watch you perform it. I know this sounds really obvious, but you’re going to be doing this in front of a panel, so better start with an audience now. This shouldn’t really be anyone in your family or close group of friends, as they’re less likely to give you unbiased criticism. If possible, get someone like your drama teacher or director, or at least someone in the business, to give you improvements, and tell you what you should keep.

The Big Day

It’s finally arrived: the audition day. Honestly, if you’re prepared, this won’t be a problem. You’ll be nervous, but not scared. You’ve learnt your monologues, you have an idea about what’s going to happen today, you’re in control. Be polite, smile, be confident but not arrogant, be encouraging to the other people there. In my first year, I didn’t really talk to anyone else there, and in hindsight I probably should have. It made me feel so much better in my second year when I initiated conversations with the other auditionees - I’m actually still in contact with some of them! You’ll feel more relaxed if you have someone to talk to and be nervous with together :)

Once you’re done, don’t dwell on the things that might have gone better. It’s over, it’s done, you did your best in the moment. If you completely lost your head, that’s fine; you’ll have another chance if you don’t get in here this year. Just keep cool and think about what went well; it’s never a complete train wreck :) 

One final piece of advice: you have a right to be there. No matter how scary the panel may seem, or how up-themselves some of the other people are, you have the same right to be there as everyone else. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else there, because you’re all different and you’ll al interpret things in different ways. People from all kinds of backgrounds and experience (or lack of) get in all the time, so that has absolutely no bearing on your performance in the room.

I really hope that helped a little bit, friend - if you’d like any more then please don’t hesitate to ask - I know how it feels to be on your end so I want to help in any way I can :) If you’d like a bit more specific advice off anon, then drop me another message with a few details (like the gender of speech you’re considering, age, where you’re auditioning, etc.) and I can give you some suggestions on monologues and reviews of the places if I’ve been to them :D

Take care, and finally, the very best of luck to you,

Tasha x

[tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Week 4 - almost up to date!

Hello again!

Monday - So this week kicked off with a really in-depth discussion of Kathakali and Kuttiyattam theatre, which come from India. According to legend, theatre was created as a distraction from uncivilised and evil ways; performance is regarded as an act of worship and is therefore sacred.

Music dealt with some of the different musical elements. We have to do a presentation on a ‘Western’ song of our choice, highlighting these elements (amongst others), so this lecture was really useful as a refresher; I’d come across most of these terms in my musical background.

Tuesday - Movement this week involved support exercise. We had to gently lower one person to the floor as a group, without giving them any cause to think they might fall. Steph made us realise that trust is about giving someone your full attention and focus, and not be distracted by anything. Being able to lift someone is not about strength: there were twenty people lifting one person, so that wouldn’t be a problem. We added in lifting the person above our heads, and then walking around with them up there before lowering them. I was lifted three times, and never once felt like I would fall.

Wednesday - We performed our scene from Chapter 16 of ‘The Iliad' in Western Theatre Seminar today! I was playing Patrocles, so the whole piece centred around the idea that, no matter how hard he tried and how valiant he was, Patrocles could never be Achilles, and so was destined to die from the beginning. We had some very positive feedback from the rest of the group: our storytelling was very clear and the transitions were smooth. There were a few things that we needed to expand on or clarify, so next week we will present a 'New and Improved Iliad’!

Acting was just listening to more roadmaps. I haven’t done mine yet, but I’ve been used as a support blanket for people that have so far, so I feel like I can’t really show it if some of the content is making me sad. I got back to the flat and had a bit of an emotional moment; none of the things in people’s talks had directly related to me, but they brought back some similar thoughts that I’d forgotten about.

Thursday - Yoga was better this week, as my ribs are a bit better than they have been. We learnt another dance in African Dance Drama, and I’m having trouble keeping track of them all!

Music went pretty quickly this time; we started by recapping some of the exercises we learnt last week, and learnt a new clapping game. We also had to sing a tongue-twister up the scale, with appropriate hand indications of the notes. I know that sentence made absolutely no sense, but I’m rushing this one a bit. It was easier to say the tongue-twister when concentrating on the hand signal instead, I found, which I’ll remember for later!

Stephen made us all sing one verse of ‘Moonglow’ as a solo, so that he could properly hear and judge our voice for the jazz solo he’s going to give us next week. After that, we did a gospel number (which was SO MUCH FUN!) and learnt a new song for next week. We have to use household objects to create different rhythms he’s given us, so I’m going to have a bit of fun finding those!

That evening, I took some of my flatmates to see ‘Frankenstein’ at the cinema. This was the NT: Live production that’s broadcast every Halloween; I’ve seen it a few times before and it still made me cry. Everyone had different reactions to it, but pretty much everyone was in tears (in a good way).

Friday - I managed to get a LOT of work done on Friday morning, plus having a heart attack at the fire alarm test! Then Voice in the afternoon was more vocal floor barre, which was really interesting again - I realised I am able to speak at least 4 lines of Shakespeare on one breath without it sounding unnatural when engaging certain muscles, which was a nice surprise. Articulation was just continuing a discussion of where certain sounds are made in the mouth, which was interesting at times but did start to drag a bit.

So as Friday night was Halloween the frivolities began! I helped Adam, Bradley and Tom with their makeup and Annie with her costume, before donning my own costume; I revived my Bluebeard costume and face-pattern from last year, which went down really well!

Tom, Bradley, Annie and I on Halloween 2014!

We went to two flat parties, then went out with the intention of going clubbing but the queues were immense, so we ended up just going back to another flat and playing Cards Against Humanity with tequila shots, which is probably why everything after that is a bit of a blur, but it was a really good night :)

So now that I’m up to date with this, I’m going to go and actually do some work now :P

Tasha x

[tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Week 3!

So week 3 began with a really interesting discussion of Asian Theatre in our World Theatre Studies lecture. I learnt a lot about the characteristics of different Asian performance (NOT Eastern performance - see notes on Week 1), as well as where they come from; most of them I had never even heard of before!

The second half of the lecture gave an overview of Puppetry from around the world - puppetry is everywhere, and most of them derive from rituals. Some of them are regarded as sacred, especially in India. It was really interesting hearing about it, and hopefully we'll be doing more about them in a few weeks.

In our Music lecture, Stephen talked about folk singing a lot. We watched an extract from 'The Night of the Hunter', which I wouldn't mind seeing more of as it was pretty creepy, despite how dated it was. The score and the little folk song in the middle was what we were concentrating on, both of which were incredibly atmospheric; the folk song was sung by a five-year-old girl, which made it even creepier.

Tuesday - Movement was a little difficult this week, as I'd woken up this morning with the right side of my ribs really aching. It felt like I'd knocked into something, but I hadn't as I definitely would have remembered it and there was no bruising visible. I spoke to Steph the Movement teacher after the lesson and she thought it was muscle damage - I may have pulled or strained it in the night. Unfortunately, the only thing to do is take it easy and wait for it to go away.

We did a lot of partner work in Movement, including counter-balances and supporting the other person off the floor with our arms and feet.

Following this was Western Theatre in Context, in which we learnt a bit more about Greek culture and the Festival of Dionysus. This was a yearly Athenian festival created by Pisistratus, and centred on wine and revelry; Dionysus was the god of frivolity and pleasure. There were prizes for best comedy play and best tragedy play, as well as a singing competition and a procession.

Wednesday - In Western Theatre Seminar, we divided into four groups, one for each of the epic poems we're studying, and were given our task for the week. We have to select a scene that we think is one of the most important and create a 5-10 minute dramatisation of it, with no costume, music, set or props. My group are doing 'The Iliad', and we spent the rest of the seminar skimming through the text finding a potential part to perform. We decided on Chapter 16, 'The Death of Patrocles', as this was a turning point in the Trojan War: after his friend's death, Achilles finally decides to join the fight and defeat Hector, the Trojan hero.

In Acting, we started to present our roadmaps. These are literal or metaphorical maps that contain turning points in our lives. I'm not 100% sure why we've been asked to do them, but listening to other peoples' has made me really think about a lot of things I haven't contemplated in a long time.

Thursday - Music was quite fun: we learnt another partner clapping game, sang a few solo lines of a song by Don McLean, and learnt a reggae song called 'Water Come A Me Eye' (which has been humorously renamed by several classmates as 'Water Come On My Face') - I don't like reggae at all so I can't see myself enjoying learning this one. Stephen also warned me to be prepared to be used as a demonstration when he needs one, or a spare piano player from time to time.

I don't remember if I mentioned this last week, but I've joined the choir! This is the second week it's been running, and it's great fun so far - we're learning a gospel version of 'Ding Dong Merrily On High' and a heightened RP version of 'The Teddy Bears' Picnic', both of which are great fun :D

Friday - more 'Iliad' rehearsal in the morning, followed by Voice and Articulation in the afternoon. I'm finding Voice so interesting at the moment: we're doing something called 'vocal floor barre', which is about supporting the breath to create sound. Tara taught us about diaphragmatic recoil, which involves creating a vacuum underneath the ribcage, and then inhaling quickly to counter that. She also taught us about how to contract the muscles in our pelvic floor in order to give the sound more power when projecting loud phrases.

This weekend I am going back to Kent for one night (god knows why) - my sister's birthday is on Monday and as I can't be there, she and Dad are picking me up on their way back from an Open Day in Luton, and Mum will drive me back up here on Sunday afternoon.

UPDATE: I have been back to Kent and am now home again (home is here with my flatmates now). Even though it's only been four weeks, it felt really strange going back - it didn't really feel like my house any more. I am a guest in the house I grew up in, and I'm OK with that. I've been ready to move out for at least a year, and now I have it feels really temporary going back, but in a good way :)

Tasha x

[tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Drama school - Week 2!

These are going to be a little more summarised from now on, because I'm tired and it's 11:00pm and I have a full day of practical again tomorrow.

*consults actor's journal*

Week 2 began with lectures, where we started talking about the potential origins of theatre and what it might have originally been for. The music lecture was listening to Stephen talk about folk music for a bit, which was still quite interesting.

Movement on Tuesday morning involved exploring each other with our backs; Steph wanted us to really know our way around parts of our body that we don't normally think of using, like the ribs and the spine. We also played 'The Grid' game, which was moving along imaginary grid lines on the floor in any way we wanted, as long as we only turned at right angles. We could interact with each other, and it was funny seeing some of the things other people came up with!

In Western Theatre, we performed our short scenes from 'The Iliad', which went alright, and started discussing Greek culture and its relevance to the plays we were about to start studying. Following that, I was voted class representative for my group (!), which means people come to me if they don't know the answer to something. There's more to it than that, but it basically boils down to being organised and good with responsibility. That's not very detailed but I'm tired.

In our Western Theatre Seminar, we were given a short narrative envisioning the potential origins of theatre as a storytelling device, during the time of the cavemen. Without using recognisable spoken language, we had to re-enact the story told in the text. This was followed by Acting, where we were each given a really short play (about 12 lines each) and had to act it out in pairs. They were from different parts of Britain, and each was about a different subject.

Yoga hurt. African Dance was exhausting. In Music, Stephen gave us a jazz song called 'Moonglow' to learn, and taught us about the proper way to support the breath whilst singing.

The next day in Voice, we were given a lecture on Physiology and Anatomy; Tara told us a lot of information about the vocal folds (not vocal chords, that was made very clear very quickly!) and how they create different sounds.

Articulation followed, in which we did 'Tongue Gym'; this is a series of tongue strengthening exercises, which also hurt, but which will help us broaden the range of sounds we can make.

On the Friday evening, we were introduced to our 'mums and dads', who are second years on our course tthat we can go to for guidance or just a chat if needed. My 'mum' is called Akari - she's from Tokyo and she's absolutely wonderful :) This was at a pub near the seafront and we stayed there until about 11:30, then came back and celebrated the start of my birthday with run, doughnuts and 'The Woman in Black'...

And then it was my 20th birthday! I had been getting various parcels all through the week, so I got to open them all that morning :) I got a lot of book vouchers (which will be SO helpful for my course!), plus a new pair of boots and a Middle Earth cushion :) Adam bought me a new hat, as I am known around the school for my wacky shoes and hats, and my flatmates took me out for a meal at Frankie and Benny's that evening, which was lovely :D They also got me a TARDIS hat between them - we didn't end up going out after that, as we went a liand just stayed in having a good time :P

End of Week 2 - now on to week 3!

Tasha x

[tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole]

Week 1, Part 2!

Here I go again! The last post was really long so I thought I'd split it into two. I still have three and a half more weeks to document so I may have to summarise a bit more...

Thursday - A full day of practical. Oh my word. It hurts, let me tell you that. We start off with Yoga (which I don't like, by the way), and then African Dance (which I like but I really have to be in the mood for). At lunchtime we have to run home and have a shower because we sweat BUCKETS in African Dance - there's a lot of bouncing involved.

In the afternoon is DOUBLE MUSIC. Oh yes. The music tutor Stephen is brilliant, as I've mentioned before, and Music is something I know I can do. I've been doing it since I was five, and was brought up with musical parents, so I can't imagine not doing it! These lessons are a mixture of practical music, theory, and physically getting up and feeling the music in our bodies. The lesson this week really got us started on that, and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, even for me who's done stuff like this all my life.

Friday - two lessons of Independent Rehearsal this morning, so we used it to finish our 'Iliad' scene and to do a bit more research on Persia. Then in the afternoon we had Voice followed by Articulation. Vice is about the production of sound using the breath, in order to create a more natural sounding speech; we also have to do monologues and study the use of language. Articulation focuses more on the formation of phonetics and different sounds; things like placement of the tongue and the teeth.

We were all whacked on Friday evening, so I made Emily Oreo milkshake and gave her a head, neck and shoulders massage, which got me voted as The Best Flatmate :D

Saturday was a bit of a recovery day (well-needed, trust me) and in the evening we had a few drinks round the kitchen table before heading out to Chameleon nightclub for a few hours.

So that was my first week at drama school! Week 2 to follow soon!

Tasha x

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Late again - Week 1, Part 1!

Sorry again - this is later than I thought - I have so much stuff to do and no time to do it all in...

SO. I left you after Freshers' Week. Well straight after that was the first week of actual lessons, which in reality were practical lessons and introductory lectures, so we didn't have to use our brains too much. Our timetable is 9:00-6:10 every weekday, with an hour for lunch and a 20 minute pit stop between lessons.

On the Monday, the first lesson was Independent Rehearsal, which meant we had a lie-in, as we didn't have anything to rehearse yet! Following that, we had our first lecture, which was World Theatre Studies. This one was just an introduction to our course, and the things we'd be learning this year, which was still pretty interesting.

After lunch was a Music lecture, which was GREAT - the music teacher knows everything, I swear - I've had a few chats with him about music between and after lessons and he loves talking about it. I have a lot of musical experience so I'm really enjoying these lectures.

Following that, we had a scheduled Research Project lesson, which wed been told about but not actual given yet; this project is in groups of five, and each group researches the history and culture of a given country, with the aim of putting on a short piece of theatre in the style of that culture at the end of term. My group is researching Persia (which isn't actually a place any more), so we have a lot of traditional Persian and modern Iranian theatre to look up.

Tuesday - our first Movement lesson. Ouch. Four hours of Movement on a Tuesday morning is brilliant, but you definitely feel it afterwards! In this one we did two hours of running around exploring the space (you do a lot of that in drama school) and what our bodies could do with it, and then two hours of massage therapy, which was so relaxing I almost fell asleep, not going to lie. I was with Emily (the girl in the room next door), and I've used it on her a few times since - apparently it works when I do it.

Following that, we had a Western Theatre In Context lecture, which is basically European theatre history. We're starting with Greek theatre (mainly Greek tragedy) and the Greek epic poems we had to buy: 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey'. Again, this was just an introductory session this week to prep us for the term; next week we'll dive in with Homer's epics.

Finally, we had our weekly Year Meeting. This is a session with our course leader to discuss any issues we might have, or to pass on any information she needs to give us. She also mentioned the idea of course representatives; as there are two groups, we need to vote for two reps, one for each group obviously, ,who are in charge of organising things and passing on messages from the tutors. They also do a bunch of other stuff but it's a 'position of important responsibility'.

Wednesday - Again, our first lesson was Independent Rehearsal, but this time we actually had something to rehearse! For Western Theatre we were asked to create a short scene from 'The Iliad', which captured the essence of the gods' involvement in the Trojan War. There were three of us in my group (one of whom is in my flat!) so we sat and had a think about what we could do to show this scene.

After that, we had another lesson of Research Project; my group got together and collated our research so far. There wasn't very much of it but it had only been two days!

In the afternoon, we had our first Western Theatre Seminar. We didn't actually do any Western Theatre in this one: our course leader wanted to get to know us all a little better, so we went down the register alphabetically and spoke a bit about our backgrounds, lives, interests, what we're doing here at drama school, etc. It was quite nice to hear a little about where everyone was from, and something about the people I'll be working closely with for the next three years.

Lastly, Acting. This was fun; we had to walk around the room as someone we know. I chose my best friend, as I know how she talks and walks and the sorts of things she would say. After doing some short improvisation as this character, we played Consequences (the one where each person writes something down on a piece of paper and passes it on), and created a little scene in pairs depending on what we came out with! I was paired with a Portuguese guy called Martim, and ours involved Jack Sparrow and Dory from Finding Nemo discussing feminism at the cinema!

Then we read an extract from The Mad Hatter's Tea Party from 'Alice In Wonderland' and had a do a physical theatre scene based on a few lines of text. Ours was great fun and ended up being very literal: when the Hatter said, 'Your hair wants cutting!', one person kicked up into a handstand and we used their legs as a giant pair of scissors!

This post is getting very long, so I'll continue in Part 2!

Tasha x

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An Unacceptably Late Update

Tasha, you haven't updated your blog... you're terribly late you know, naughty...

I do apologise - the last three-and-a-bit weeks have been completely metal and packed to bursting! I'll do my best to summarise now but I may have to finish tomorrow. It's 10:30 and I have a full day of practical tomorrow...

SO. FRESHERS' WEEK. We moved in on Sunday 28th September, and after our parents left all nine of us sat round the kitchen table drinking and talking and getting to know each other. I've been so lucky with my flat: everyone living here is brilliant; I honestly feel like I've known them for months already!

Room A - Me!

Room B - Emily, who was the first person I'd spoken to over Facebook and via text before I arrived. She's on my course (World Performance) and she is lovely :) She's been really supportive so far, and I love just wandering into her room for a chat sometimes :D

Room C - Dene, who is on the Physical Theatre course, and is hilarious in a really straight-faced sort of way. I know that sounds really odd but I can't think of any other way of describing it. We've had some awesome late-night conversations in the kitchen so far :)

Room D - April, on Stage Combat course (I know, Stage Combat!), and who is quite quiet at times but also really sweet :)

Room E - Annie, who does the BEST Edna impression from 'The Incredibles' ('NO CAPES!'). She's on my course and also in my class, so we spend all our lessons and lots of our free time in between together :)

Room F - Bradley, on Community Theatre - he is always singing, which is great to hear down the corridor :D Lots of Beyonce and Whitney gets belted out, but he's also introduced me to some really nice acoustic songs.

Room G - Tom - also on my course, and has the track record for the funniest things said in our flat so far. My personal favourite is 'I will literally stab you guys with an orphan' (after we stole his coffee sachet...). He's also great to have a random chat to, and he plays bass so we've had a few jam sessions so far!

Room H - Adam, who is basically my brain in a Stage Combat's body: we have so many similar interests and the same sense of humour. It's nice to have someone supportive here that I feel comfortable talking to about absolutely anything. Another musician (acoustic guitar this time) so he's been to our jam sessions too :)

Room J - Katie, the last one who's on my course and who is the first one at the party! Along with me, she's our other course representative; so you can always rely on her to know what's going on :D

And that's our flat! I am really happy to be living with these guys for the next two years at least, which is the real indicator is.

We had some great nights out and some awesome nights in - Cards Against Humanity made several appearances (if you haven't played it yet, you have missed out on a wonderful experience!), we made an obstacle course in the corridor, played spatula ping-pong in the kitchen (which is exactly what it sounds like), plus many a round of Ring of Fire (DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME WITH CHAMPAGNE.)...

We explored the night life around, and found some decent pubs and clubs. Unfortunately, we can only visit them on Fridays and Saturdays because of our manically full timetables, but that's not exactly a bad thing...

I'm going to have to finish this post tomorrow and elaborate on my timetable and actual lessons then. For now, I'll keep you in suspense!

Goodnight all,

Tasha x

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Five dayssss...

Five more days to go!

I've done the summer homework assigned (well, nearly done), and I've got a couple of goodbye get-togethers planned for the rest of the week... nearly nearly gone :D

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Pre-moving excitement!

Hello all!

The moving date is getting closer - two weeks tomorrow!

I've now bought everything I need for the flat, and packed most of the things I'm taking with me into cardboard boxes in my bedroom. It's become a problem when I need something from one of the boxes, as I've had to hunt through them all to find it! I can hardly move there's so many: most of them are empty as I slightly overestimated the amount I would need...

Freshers' Week starts the day after I move in, so I'll have plenty to write about then. And after that, the real drama school starts!

In other news, I've done a bit of filming for a music video this week, recorded the vocals yesterday, and there is a potential chance of being in quite a big show sometime next year or the year after! Nothing confirmed yet but the buzz is there...

Tasha x

[wayfaringchild]

Visit Original Link

Another of my original compositions - this one is a bit experimental, but I liked how it turned out in the end.

This may change a bit (I might fiddle with the levels a little) but on the whole I’m quite proud of this. If you’d like to know more about my music/this piece/would like to use this piece somewhere, just ask!

Feedback is always very much appreciated - it helps to know whether a type of music appeals to people or not, and whether a piece works or is a bit of a train wreck so please do let me know what you think!

Thanks

Tasha

[wayfaringchild]

Visit Original Link

This is one of my original songs, inspired by Ford Maddox Ford’s masterpiece ‘Parade’s End’.

These books are wonderful and I loved the BBC adaptation. Please excuse any off-notes; my throat was feeling rather sorry for itself when I recorded it.

Please ask for permission if you wish to use this song anywhere, as I like to know what my music’s up to - it’s for a charity CD for Cystic Fibrosis, so if anyone’s interested my ask box is open!

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Submission from aalphonseelric - thank you incredibly for this, it's beautiful :) A mermaid based off my blog colours - there's a princess one at wayfaringchild.tumblr.com

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And yes, the icon is by me - it took me about an hour in Microsoft Word and I'm very pleased with myself :)

It only took me an hour because I kept getting distracted by shiny things on the TV shhhh don't judge

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Hello all - Tasha here!

I'm starting at drama school in October (I know - HUGE excitement from my end!!) and I wanted to use this secondary blog to document some of my experiences, both in education and out.

Some workmates asked if I ran a blog so they could keep up with me whilst I'm away, and I didn't want to do that on my main blog.

So here is my virtual journal - I'll still be using my main blog (wayfaringchild) for fandom stuff/everything else, so I'll still be active on both!

Thanks guys, for reading and following,

Tasha x