Last Blog Before Malta

Hello Everybody

We hope you are all well and getting excited about next week. We have been working on final preparations for the show and the journey itself. Seven Stars have produced what we think is an exciting piece of theatre.

Later today we are going out to give a preview to Bedlington Day Centre.

The remainder of our group would like to say hello, and say they look foreward to seeing you all very soon.

So we have Jean, Paula and Kris

Anyway, best wishes to you all and we will see you in a few days

Best Wishes

Steve and all of Headway.

Acting is fun.... (hello from Shana)

Hello,

My name is Shana (I'm dancing with Jessica in the pic) and like the other participants I have written a little something about the project!

I, ....

always try to do my best.

I, ...

am a good actrice.

I, ....

love playing something romantic.

I, ...

like it.

Shana

Ode to the stage..... (Hello from Christine)

Hello,

My name is Christine Huysmans. I'm 39 years old and live in Lommel. I love making personal birthdaycards and going for a drink or shopping.

I'm participating in this project to have fun with my fellow participants and I'm already looking forward to going to Malta.

Here's a little something I wrote about the project:

I think,

Wim's a cool coach.

I think,

the handkiss he gives me is very cool.

I think,

dancing is good fun.

I think,

balloons are great.

I think,

having a drink during break time is nice.

I think,

.....

I think,

this is it!

Christine

I was acting... (Hello fromYvette)

Hello,

My name is Yvette (in the pic with Ivo) and I work in Berkenhof. Here's a little something I wrote about the project!

I don't know,…
Ah yes,
I played I was a little Piglet.

I don't know,…
Ah yes,
I played I was snowwhite.

I don't know,…
Ah yes,
I played I was a little princess.

I don't know,…
Ah yes,
we set up the chairs.

I don't know,…
Ah yes,
It's all good fun.

I don't know,…
Ah yes,
I played I was a piglet.

See you all in Malta!

Yvette.

A word from Wim... (Dramacoach for Belgium).

Hallo everyone out there,
Yes, I am still alive, and want to report about our working process in Belgium, Leopoldsburg.

We have been working for five months now with the Group on the theatre project Opening doors.
We started with 17 adult participants, 9 people from the institution ‘Het Brugske’ and 8 people from ‘Het Berkenhof’. They all come over to the cultural centre in Leopoldsburg every week on Thursday. We meet each other at 9u30 and work from 9u45 till 11u45.
During July and August the Group was not always complete (because of holidays), but all the participants that started are still in the project and show up all 17 every week now.

Work in progress: what we did up till now.

This is (was) a new group. Some participants had an occasional acting experience, but nobody worked in a theatre process like this before.

First part of the process ( March – April) was pointed on getting to know each other. Who is everybody, what are the personal expectations, what are specific qualities and restrictions of everybody?

Second part we worked on basic theatre behaviour and working attitude such as working in chorus, listening en respecting each other, leaving room for creativity of every participant.
We also started to train basic theatre skills; getting to know and control the body, becoming free in using the body, using the voice and try to experiment, stimulating the fantasy by association exercises.
Every week we use these four different entrances (body, voice, fantasy and chorus) during the warming up.

Part three we worked on more complex drama competences such as tempo, dynamic,
storylines, improvisation on stage, dialogues. We also started to work on scenes with two, with three, with more players, parts of it to work out, other parts pure improvisations on stage.

Part four, we started to work with inspiration out of objects and we did open ‘the bag’ ( DE KABAS, a Flemish dialect word introduced by Ivo ) to pick out four different objects. The participants took them blind eyed out of the bag, we won’t tell you which objects yet.
We did drama and association exercises with these objects and improvised different scenes with always different mixed groups.

Part five; preparations for the presentation of our work in Malta. We worked out a drama schedule as a structure to improvise in with these objects. KABAS is the title of our presentation, so we are having a good time on basic musicimpro (clapping, rhythm, singing..) with this word an the sounds of the vocals.

This week, for the first time, we worked separate with the people who will come over to Malta (you find them on the blog). We fixed the drama line, we improvised on text and chorus work, and we will make some progress on this drama peace during the next three weeks. They surely will enjoy playing KABAS for all of you in Malta.

Best wishes and have a good working time over there.
In the future I hope to have some time to give some explanations about
- how we did this, (goals and method)
- who we involved in the project, and about
- the effects we recognise up till now

Warm greetings from Wim and the whole group of Leopoldsburg.

A little fragment..... (Jessica says Hi!)

Hello,

My name is Jessica Cuyvers. I live in the Home in Kerkhoven and I work in Berkenhof. My hobby is dancing.



Here's a little something I wrote about the project called: A little Fragment...

Johnny and I,

we danced.

I cried.

I played I was pregnant,

Johnny passed out.

Lots of stuff to do!


See you all in Malta,

Jessica

Hello from Headway.

Just a quick hello to you all. We hope you are all well and looking forward to the festival in Malta, I know everyone at Headway/ Seven Stars is. It is great to see so many new faces contributing to the blog and we look forward to meeting you all very soon. Our show is coming on a great pace and now has a title. Seven Stars present "Journey to Everworld" a fantasy adventure.

We are doing a lot of physical drama, using facial and body gesture rather than words. We feel this will help us tell our story and not have to worry about any language barriers. We have watched early silent movies as research and studied techniques used and translated them into the theatre. We have also looked at clowning and mask work which has helped create larger than life characters. We are working with fabrics to create landscapes and visual effects. We have also been using music to create atmosphere and suspense. Practically we are looking at how to get our set, costumes and props to Malta and are working on the basis that it must all fit into one suitcase.

Unfortunately due to reasons beyond our control, Tracey is no longer involved in the project. But we will still have an enthusuastic five strong group of performers.

Anyway let us know how your shows are coming on, and we will speak soon.

Best Wishes

Steve