Story Makers: Space Tortoise- Week One: 'Characters.'

Story-Makers is back! After a relaxing hiatus it was wonderful to start off a brand new term with our story makers: Sundays have felt empty without it. With a new term comes a new story and a few new faces to the group, and this time we have a pretty cool space theme to go alongside all of the drama. This term we are looking at 'Space Tortoise,' a story by Ross Montgomery about a tortoise who sets out to reach the stars in the hopes of finding other animals. As always, each week we have a particular focus and to get us started we looked at characters.

Characters are an important part of any story, so it seemed a good point to begin with. In a similar fashion to our Chameleon Group, the aim with the story makers is to inspire the development of creativity, but also form the foundation of how to create and tell a story. We began the session with some fun moving games- these were low stakes games, essentially to building up the confidence for both newcomers and long-term story makers. With a new group it is always important to give them time to get used to the feel of the sessions, as it is for those who have not taken part in a while. The Anthos Arts approach is to get everyone comfortable through games. Once everyone starts laughing most nerves have been forgotten.

The games we played focused on moving. The group always enjoy a game where they can move around a lot and be a tad silly. The exercise I prefer is the opposites game, where the group have to do the opposite of what they are told. If they are asked to walk, they stop, if they are asked to jump, they clap, etc. It's a familiar game to those who have worked with us before, but effective and, importantly, amusing. We next moved onto a favourite game played by entry level dramatists and experts alike. The group have to pretend to be something from a specific place; for instance pretending to be a bed in a bedroom, or if the setting was a garden, something found there. There are always a few wild card dinosaurs here and there, but the aspect of the game that is important is having everyone involved and pretending. There's no wrong answers in our group!

Onto the story then and we read it together. Afterwards we discussed characters and what a character was. Some very good answers came from the group and we agreed that a character "was someone in a story." Some members of the group even gave examples, such as a narrator. The challenge for the story makers then was to create a character card. When deciding how to explore characters, character cards seemed a sensible route. Again, it was something accessible for the group that everyone could enjoy, but not something demanding (as it was only the first session back) of them.

The story makers could create a character card from the story, or create their own character. We had some fantastic creations, both of the tortoise from the story and some completely original ones. Featured in the lineup were Puss in Boots, Elsa, a space-kitty and, outstandingly, a space-bin. All fantastic examples of characters and great to see. We sat as a group and asked everyone to share their creations with each other. Another step in building confidence is to create a space where everyone feels they can share ideas.

Lastly, at the end of the session, we sat down to meet Anthos Arts latest friend. For a project about a space tortoise, it seemed fitting that we should have our very own turtle to help us week to week. The group were asked to name him and we had some incredible names put forward. In the end it was decided that he would be Timmy the Turtle (though it was a hard decision indeed.)

A wonderful but wild first session. It was great seeing our story makers from last term and meeting our newcomers. The group suddenly feels a lot bigger and our room much smaller. Over the holidays I had forgotten how much energy and creativity these guys had, and am super excited for this term to continue. The story is a great one and there are sure to be lots of fun sessions exploring it ahead!

The Girl and the Fox- Week 5: 'The Big Mouth and the Featherpeople.'

A very special week with the Chameleons as it was rehearsal number five; meaning we are officially halfway into the project! The group have been working so hard this term so we wanted to mark the occasion with something special and decided to have a pyjama day. Drama in pyjamas. It was as comfy as it sounds. The Chameleons all came in pyjamas, onsies, slippers and comfy clothes and we celebrated their hard work with some nice swiss-roll, party rings and pringles. Meanwhile, there was still a show to be made and the journey of The Girl and the Fox continued amidst the bedtime backdrop.

This week we had added some colourful characters to the play. Some required movement, while some required teamwork to bring to life. We started off the rehearsal, thus, by playing a quick round of shape making. We wanted the group to work in units of three (and later six) in order to create various shapes. In some cases the shapes they made had to both move and make noise; an extra challenge for everyone.

When it came to scenes this week, we divided the group in two. The first half worked on scene four, where The Girl falls into the lake and meets the Whale, which she aptly names 'Big Mouth.' Staging the underwater scene was fun; we utilised the chorus as colourful underwater creatures. Sometimes something small can have a big impact- our Chorus used small finger lights to represent the fish under the water, which dance with the Girl before the whale appears.

The Whale itself was another challenge. We wanted whatever mechanism we used to present it on stage to be simple and easy for our Chameleons to use. We opted to use pillows to represent different parts of the whale, emphasising the need for our Chorus to show how it moves through the water. We also talked about what the whale might sound like and the importance of it being a voice one can maintain on stage (without laughing...it was pretty funny).

The second half of the group went to work on the following scene, in which The Girl and the Fox encounter the Featherpeople: a race of bird-people who live up in the mountains. Some wonderful acting from our feathery chameleons in this scene. It was great seeing the group take on their roles as birds physically and vocally. With their queen; Lady Brightbeak, we focused on how to present character. How does a queen stand? How does a bird stand? How does a bird queen stand? Again, some wonderful work went into this one.

As mentioned earlier, we also sent some time aside this week for games and cake. The story of The Girl and the Fox is a lot of fun, but the plot is big, the characters diverse and the challenges of turning it into a show have been bigger than our last projects. It was important for the cast to have some time together to have fun and stop to appreciate the work they had put in. We have asked a lot from them this term; Inuit culture is fascinating, but not something they are familiar with. In five weeks we have asked them to embrace and learn about this culture while making a show. Not easy at all. This week was well earned by the whole group and was lots of fun!

With yesterday's session behind us, we are now officially over halfway! Tickets have gone on sale for the show to family and friends and now it all seems very soon. The fun continues next week as The Girl comes face to face with the villain of the play and we learn just why the Featherpeople warned her about the dark forest. Until then, here's some snaps from rehearsal this week.

The Girl and the Fox- Week Four: 'The Fox, the Owl and Nanuk the Bear.'

SNOW! It snowed this week in the city of Exeter and for a real moment it seemed as thought we might get snowed out again (flashback to The Three Musketeers anyone?). In a play that centres around a mystical blizzard, it would have been a harsh case of dramatic irony for certain. Thankfully the snowed cleared up (in Exeter at least) and the show went on. Big thanks to those of the group who came in through the cold and warm wishes to those who didn't make it to us yesterday. Back in the rehearsal room, our Chameleons were busy at work with the next phase of The Girl's journey, including meeting the titular Fox. We even had some costumes starting to appear. Exciting times indeed.

First we kicked off with a few games to get everyone warmed up. The shape game made a return this week after an absence for the last two and had a topical theme. Creatures from the north that feature in our story- including polar bears and walruses. Our group had their work cut out for them as they created these shapes, and what fantastic creations we had. The group really throw themselves into this and it is great to see.

The first thing we practiced was the opening scene, which we worked on last week. It is always good to backtrack and work on previous scenes, we find. In the long run it helps everyone to remember what they are doing and also how one transitions into another. Some of our Chameleons are already putting their scripts for scenes down too, which is brilliant to see.

Moving on we had the first meeting between The Girl and the Fox in the snowy forest. Having two Chameleons as the Girl and the Fox respectively makes for a lot of fun. We get to see what each of the performers brings to the role and then put it all together to form the character. It was fun having the Fox on stage; we talked a lot about what type of creature it is, how it glides over the snow and how it holds itself on stage. The recurring 'paws' between the two Fox performers is a nice touch. Also featured here was our wise owl Ataninnuaq, who sets the two off on their journey together. Some wonderful acting and character development from one Chameleon, who has really brought the bird to life on stage.

Having split the group to rehearse the scenes, our second group worked on the first obstacle that The Girl encounters; having to cross a canyon. We wanted to use puppets to portray this scene, as we felt it was a good opportunity for the group to learn how such effects could be achieved without high-budget visual effects (maybe one day). Featuring in the daring trapeze scene were our wonderful puppet and beautiful arctic fox, seen above. On a side note, we gave the Chameleons the challenge of naming the fox this week, but more on that later.

Within this scene we also have the first of Kova's many stories. This one involves Nanuk the Bear; a famous figure in Inuit mythology, especially to hunters. In our play is the tale of how the bear turned into stars after being chased off the edge of the world. It is one of the nicer tales from the culture and seemed appropriate to add to The Girl's tale, given that we wanted to really embrace these stories with the project. The Girl comes across a hungry bear on her travels, which prompts her to explain the story she remembers regarding a similar creature. 

It was such a fantastic rehearsal yesterday and the show is looking great. The Chameleons are really pouring a lot into this mad tale we have set out to make. As rehearsals continues it is wonderful watching it all come to life. A fun task was set this week too; we have a number of weird and wonderful items in our prop store at the moment-but no arctic foxes until now. This project is about the Chameleons as it is about the culture we want them to learn about and portray, so we felt it right that they get to name the Fox we will be using in the show. The task was to come up with ideas for names and then at the end of the morning we would name the fox. In the end we settled for calling him Storm. Above is Storm sitting proudly on the set for our AYC show.

We are so, very impressed with the group this term. Next week cannot come fast enough! In the meantime we will close with some more snaps from the rehearsal. Pyjama week next week to celebrate the halfway mark of the term, which means everyone can come in pyjamas or comfy clothes. Should be fun.

The Girl and the Fox- Week 3: 'Casting and Introducing the Village.'

A quick blog entry this week as it's a bit manic on our end. We had an exciting week with the Chameleons this week as we both cast and commenced work on the show! Given the slightly shorter term this time we decided to dive right in, opposed to our usual format of casting at the end of the session. The story of the Girl is filled with a number of colourful characters, puppets, objects and creatures which our group will be bringing to life over the next seven weeks.

The first part of the session was dedicated to taking the cast through their characters and where they fit into the story. Then, once all the serious talk was done we thought it would be best to play some games to get everyone warmed up. Lots of running games this week to balance out the intense sitting of the rehearsal's first twenty minutes.

Then it was straight into scene one; revisiting the story of The Girl and reminding ourselves of how it begins. We open in a village and our aim was to make the village feel as alive as possible. The Chameleons had to form different parts of the village, showing us what kind of people lived there and what activities they get up to each day. Some great ideas from the group about how to put this on stage and the village feels very rich indeed. Within this we were also introduced to The Girl's friends and explored the quirks that make them individual and unique from one another.

With our Narrators we explored what kind of characters they could be, and how would impact their telling of the story. The narrator is such an important character, especially in a story such as this one. Finding where in the world of the play they slot in is always a good challenge and there were some really creative ideas from the cast about what they should be.

Finally we were introduced to Kova; the father of The Girl. Kova appears throughout the play to tell stories, as is his passion. Developing his relationship with the villagers was also good fun, as we wanted to emphasise the kind aspect of the character, which The Girl admires so much. Making this clear in the acting is vital to presenting the character on stage.

As stated, a much shorter post this week. Next week we will be continuing work on the play and using some cool puppetry elements to bring the next phase of the adventure to life. Until then, have a nice week everyone.