Youth Groups Blog
Prague - November 2008
On Thursday the 27th of November, at precisely 3.00am when most people were tucked up in bed, Shinfield Players youth group (SPUDS) were gathering in the blistering cold, about to embark on a trip of a lifetime. Destination: Prague. There we would be taking part in an international drama competition with five other groups. After a great time visiting some of Prague's spectacular sights and experiencing a bit of Czech culture, it was time for the competition that was being held at The Black Light theatre.
The day was structured around the five competitive performances, but also included a variety of other entertaining sketches by local groups and the Bear Educational Company. This was a fantastic opportunity to watch international dramatics and learn new things, and after watching four brilliant pieces by our opponents, it was time for SPUDS to hit the stage. The criteria for the piece was that it should be between ten to fifteen minutes, be based on either talking animals, a school trip, or the internet and that it should be easily understandable to an international audience. Our group chose the internet as our theme, and devised a fifteen minute long piece about internet dating, allowing the audience to vote for their favourite couple at the end. After weeks of rehearsing, the performance was nerve-racking, exciting, fulfilling and extremely successful. All the groups left the competition in high spirits.
Before going to the award ceremony, all the groups took part in a workshop, in which we had a great bonding experience and a wonderful opportunity to work together and create with international actors and actresses. We learnt new ways of exercising our skills and made some new friends along the way. After the workshop it was straight to the award ceremony which was a very exciting evening. Awards went out for best sound effects and costumes, but it was two members of SPUDS, Katie Cox and John Potter, that received best actor and actress awards. Overall in the competition we came second, of which we were extremely proud in a room of such talented people. Once the award ceremony was over, the organizers held a disco, where all the groups spent the night celebrating what had been a trip of a lifetime.
Blog: November 2008
I thought the performance of Our Country’s Good was a great success. There were a few hitches within the play but they were successfully smoothed over by a little improvisation. I think the success was definitely due to a mixture of the workshops to help us get into character and also the dedication everyone put into the show. There were many excellent characterisations and costumes which made the final performance tremendously awesome and set the standards even higher for the summer show next year. We started the term with a few sessions to unite the youth group, making sure everyone knew who each other was, due to lots of newbie’s. This involved super games such as shoe swapping and being blindfolded sheep with David as our able Sheppard. We also acted out sketches such as disagreements and vampires in the classroom and began to learn the songs we will be singing in the review. So far its been a suuuupppper start to the term
Hannah LockwoodBlog: June 2008
Hey! It’s Lindsay from the Senior Youth Group just giving an update on what’s been happening this year!
During February half term a number of us spent an evening ten-pin bowling. Not content with the normal method of bowling, Gordon decided to spice things up! His suggestions included bowling with a blind fold and bowling backwards – this caused much hilarity and probably annoyance to those in the lanes next to us!
We have had two trips to musical productions; firstly The Wedding Singer at the Hexagon followed by Hairspray in the West End. The Wedding Singer was probably better than we all expected and even included the end sequence on the aeroplane from the film, which had surprise ‘celebrity’ passengers such as Tina Turner and Margaret Thatcher!! Some of the group were disappointed with Hairspray, but I thought it was a high energy production with amazing singing and dancing. Ben Ellis as Link Larkin was an added bonus!
The year our Friday evening meetings have been mostly taken up by rehearsing for our summer production of Our Country’s Good. This is a play set in Australia with convicts putting on a play. We have blocked all the scenes and now just need to out our scripts down.
Unfortunately we will saying goodbye to Rachel, Sam, Katie, Ruth, Ellen and Matt who I know will miss the youth group a lot, but I’m sure it won’t be the last we see of them!
The play (Our Country’s Good) is coming along really well, so come and support us!
Lindsey Alexander
