Bad news first. I’m back on the network at Cumbernauld Theatre , but all of my work from the past two weeks has been deleted. In between redoing that work, I’ve been sitting in on the Summer Youth Academy classes.
The good news is those classes are really fun! As I stated in an earlier post, there’s lots of familiar games to play. I’ve mostly been sitting in on the 13+ group. We seem to have the same sense of humour and taste in musicals – I don’t know what that says about me.
As it turns out, the 13+age group is apparently the hardest to work with. They’re very determined to devise and perform a play entirely written by themselves, and to them there’s no such thing as too ambitious an idea. Or too angsty an idea. Or too cliché. As such, I haven’t been called upon for any actual writing or writing advice; the kids all want to go their own way, and the adults would rather put on a polished production of Midsummer Nights Dream than rush the writing and rehearsing of an entirely new show. The real shame is that, given a lot more time, some of the kids ideas could develop into something quite impressive (they’re a frighteningly precocious bunch).
On the other end of the spectrum is the 6-8 class, who’re putting on a 15 minute show that was already 90% planned out by the tutors before the Academy even started. So once again my writing skills don’t come in very handy.
Next week, the 6-8 year old class will be replaced with the 9-12 year old class. I’ve been told they’re more willing and able to structure their own stories than the 6-8 year olds, but much more “malleable” than the 13+ group. Hopefully this means I will finally have the chance to prove myself as good for something other than a game of Splat.
As for my own writing, I’ve finished a first draft of my play. My main concern just now is making it more “theatrical” than “conversational”. We now have more physical comedy, voice overs, imagine spots and a musical number.
Splat! You’re out!
Kai
