It’s about media and filmmaking, the participants have been learning about film and technology, and having fun as well!  We’ve been playing lots of games like Zip, Zap, Boing and Pass the Clap which everyone really enjoyed.  We’re trying to get faster and faster at Pass the Clap – we did it 3 times today and it’s getting faster.

We’ve been trying to create little short films, they can be about anything – for the one my group are doing, we filmed two people with their faces together moving their eyes.  Then we projected the film of their eyes moving onto different surfaces, it looks kind of scary because we have edited it with spooky music as well.

It’s been a really good week, the group are very lively.  On Friday there’s going to be a showing for parents and friends when we’ll show all the films that have been made.  I think they’ll like the films and be impressed with what we’ve done, some of the films are a bit weird and some are very funny.

Last week we worked with Denis Darzacq, he is from France and he came to take some pictures of Acting Company and Making Theatre.  He came last year in the Winter, in November, so he is came back again because he wanted to do more work with us on his pictures.

He took us to the woods near Tim’s house and he told us to line up on this hill and walk across it holding hands.  He also took us all to The Cow & Calf in Ilkley and we had a picnic and took some photos – but then it started to rain so we had to come back.

He is going to put his pictures in a book, and he is going to show them in a gallery in Paris and New York, and hopefully Bradford as well.

The other big thing we’ve been working on is Chicken Coup! and I was stepping in for Chris because he was poorly.  We did lots of practise for all the scenes, and how to use the puppet – it’s an egg that a baby chicken pops out of wearing sunglasses, we’ve nicknamed it Scratch!

On Sunday we went to Bradford Mela to perform Chicken Coup!  Bradford Mela is like a festival where everyone gets together, there were other artists there too.  It rained quite a bit so there were some scenes we couldn’t do, like the ones where we fall on the floor.

I heard lots of good comments about it and people seemed to like it, especially little children.  As part of it we pose for photos with loads of people and families – then they can upload their photos onto the Chicken Coup! facebook site:
www.facebook.com/MtGChickenCoup

We also worked 2 days with a guy called Sanjoy Ganguly from India, he has got a theatre group over there.  He started off with a game and we all had to put our arms up and one person sat in the middle like it was a house.  It was a good game because it helped us focus.

It was interesting, I learnt some new stuff and he was a very nice man.  He said we were amazing and he would like to work with us again.

Joyce said to make it big when we perform it.  We wrote stuff down on a flip-chart describing what street theatre is and the things to be aware of when performing such as health and safety and staying in character.  And we chose a piece of music for Kung Fu Chicken (one of the scenes) which sounds Chinese.

We had Dave on Wednesday doing the tech and with all the music.  We’re having like an egg in a big old-fashioned pram and we’re putting an egg in it, and that will be the music system so Alan can press the buttons for every scene to make the music come on.

We’ve got the tour dates now and I’m doing 2 or 3 in all, and for one of them I’m going to Cardiff with Chris, Alan and Susan.  Everyone is excited about going on tour, me and Susan are looking forward to sharing a room together.

On Monday morning Acting Company worked with Charli and we devised a tour around the building to introduce us to them.  When they first got here we did our tour and then went into Studio 1 and played games to get to know each other.  Alison led one game and Alan as well, we didn’t do lots because they were tired from traveling.  We finished with Grandmother’s Footsteps, but there was something in the way – it’s a big secret what ‘the thing’ is so I can’t tell you at the moment.

They were with us Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning as well.  We all worked a lot with Karen using ‘the thing’ and tried different movements with it and making contact with it.

On their last day we did a performance for all the staff using ‘the thing’.  It’s been great working with Mosaik, I really enjoyed it and think I’ve made a few friends – but it was hard to understand their language.  I think they enjoyed it and would like to come back again.

During the next day the group created a den to work out what is and what isn’t possible when the den is inside a building instead of it being outside. The results were very interesting.

After the excitement of the den, we worked on four different scenes, and after giving a small performance on the four scenes, we were happy that we had answered some of his questions.

The last thing that I did was to go a little further into the scene that I had been working on previously and to work with the other actors to sort out different aspects of how to move a heavy object without the help of any technology. There were three groups: sound, dance and the visual movement. The three groups then put the three different aspects together. I think that the final result must have been interesting to look at.

Zara again, letting you know what Acting Company have been doing this week.  On Monday we had Joyce and did a couple of warm-up games to start the day and get us ready for the session.  We did more work on Stig of the Dump, so we went into an imaginary cave one at a time being different characters, I was Stig.  Then we put props in the cave, when we went into the cave we had to play with the props the way the character would, so I threw a few cans around the cave.  In the afternoon we worked on it moor and everyone had chance to play with the props.

Tuesday we had dance class with Mia and travelled around the room making different shapes.  We worked on the duets we’ve been practising for a while, then next week we’re going to film them.  I’m working with Alan and our’s is about someone being angry – at one point I push him.

On Wednesday Jonny Ide and Jonathan Lewis did the Of Mice & Men workshop with some school pupils, they said it went well.  On Monday next week I’m doing the  workshop with Alison at Ravenshall School in Dewsbury – I’m looking forward to it.  I’m also doing one at a school in Wakefield on 23rd.

Then next week it’s also Stig development week, which means working with Tim to come up with lots of ideas.

Hello Zara here, Monday we came in as usual, it was the first day back after holiday.

First Joyce introduced Stig of the Dump, we are looking at it at the moment.  It’s about Barney, he is a small boy who is living with his Grandma and his sister called Lou – she picks on him a bit.  Then he meets Stig when he falls down a chalk pit into the dump where Stig lives.  Stig is a kind of hairy man that can’t talk – so we did a scene about how to greet a Stig.

Wednesday was Rachel’s dance class, we did a movement on the floor where we had to close our eyes.  It was a bit scary because you don’t know who’s around you.  Then we read some more of Stig of the Dump, we looked at the characters and thought about what they are like and how they move.  We’re working on Stig because it’s going out on tour in the Autumn.  I think it’s a good story, it’s exciting – we did a dance sequence based on Stig last year with Rio so we know it a bit.

Have a listen to what we’ve been working on at:
http://audioboo.fm/MindtheGapStudios

Zara again to tell you what’s been happening this week.

On Monday we rehearsed the workshop for Of Mice & Men and thought about the different groups we might be running it for.  Then we did scenes from Of Mice & Men for each other to make sure we’ve got them right.

Tuesday was Mia’s dance class as usual, we did a warm-up where we used our arms to spin round then did a dance – it was good.

Then Wednesday we watched Of Mice & Men rehearsals, we saw the scene where Jess’ character points the gun and tries to shoot the dog.  I like the bit where Jess jumps on Rob’s back like a horse and the go around the stage, it was funny that bit.

I recognised one of the bits of the scenes that we’ve been working on – the bed scene where Suzy gets angry with George because he says her soap won’t get her clean.

I think the cast are all good actors, Jess who plays Suzy does a good American accent.  I thought Rob was funny when he says about rabbits and sticks his fingers up like rabbit ears.  I like the way Jez speaks in it, he did good with his lines, he has loads!

On Tuesday we were playing a game where we had to pretend a bin was something else.  Susan put the bin on the floor and said she squatted on it and said it was a toilet.  Then it squashed underneath her and she tumbled on the floor now the bin has a big dent in it.  I don’t think she was very happy because we were laughing at her!