The Girl and the Fox- Week 7 & 8 'The Edge of the World & Journey's End.'

Welcome back; once again we reach the point of the term where sessions with our Chameleons heavily focus on rehearsing the show, and sometimes (as with the last couple of weeks) it is best to combine the goings-on of our bright young performers into one longer blog post than two smaller ones. The past two weeks have been great fun. We have challenged the Chameleons to knuckle down and work closely on aspects of the show, but finally we arrived at the end of The Girl's journey: the tundra at the edge of the world.

Last week we looked at the ending of the play and the characters The Girl and the Fox meet at the end of their adventure. Again here we went back to the ideas discussed in week one about perspective and how to make something seem bigger on stage than it is in real life. The Girl comes across a particularly large creature here and it was good fun (as always) playing around with the puppets.

We also played a new game, which seems to be quickly rising to the top of the group's favourite list. The game is called simply 'don't laugh.' The group stand in a circle and someone is in the middle; this person has to make people laugh. Anyone who laughs, or smiles, or snickers, or covers their face is out and the most serious face wins at the end. It is a great focusing game as everyone tries extremely hard not to laugh at each one...which is much harder than it sounds.

Lastly we worked on our epilogue. Some of the group didn't know what an epilogue meant, so we took some time to explain the concept. Our stories favour epilogues- where the dust settles on all the action and the story is brought to a calm close. Some final interactions between the characters in the village have really brought the scene to life. Our Inuit village feels full of energy and the scenes set within it are great fun to watch.

Moving onto this week: it was time to practice our socks off! We started off the morning with some zip-zap-boing and shape games, where Ben had to guess the theme given to the group for shapes in each round. Whilst the group played, different people were getting into costumes. Now that it is almost showtime we wanted the group to practice with their costumes as much as possible. It helps them get into character and is plenty fun too.

Given that it has been a much shorter term, the task of creating a brand new show has been a tough one. However, the Chameleons have done a wonderful job. The scenes we rehearsed look great and there is a fantastic energy behind their work. Our biggest challenge was keeping quiet off stage. With a group that have such loud voices this is always a challenge, but they know what is expected of them during the show (we run a tight ship).

Both the characters in scenes and the puppets used are looking very strong. The cast have really committed themselves to the show and it was good fun to watch. Their memories are so impressive, both in remembering their lines and all the actions we have asked of them over the past seven weeks.

SIDE-NOTE: The break was particularly interesting today as we debated who had more flexible hands and fingers. A weird and wonderful topic of discussion to have over snack food. Much to the delight and horror of the group; everyone unveiled their own unique flexible quirk. Be it bendy hands, fingers or double jointed ankles? They are a hilarious bunch.

The Narrators enjoyed their new costumes, among other things, and took great pride in spinning around. Our Narrators are such important characters. In addition to telling the story they have a deal of depth to them. This time our four Narrators split themselves between elders and spirits, the two greatest examples of storytellers from Inuit culture. This decision was made by the Chameleons in these roles and is an admirable example of how they have embraced the culture.

All in all, it was a wonderful rehearsal and we even managed to almost do a complete start to finish runthrough; which would have been possible had we not devoted time to trying on costumes at the start. The aim always was to have the dress rehearsal next week and to spend this one getting ready...which we did! We finished the day with some team shape games. Start with an imagination game, end with an imagination game. A great mantra for life. Next week we shall have our Chameleons in costume and making final preparations for the performance! The term has gone so quickly and it is strange to think the show is in two weeks. More fun us over the next couple of weeks with a round-up post for the term's blog. Until then enjoy some final rehearsal shots.

The Girl and the Fox- Week 6: 'The Sorcerer' & Inuit Mask Making

A busy week for our Chameleons! We had our usual Saturday rehearsal this morning, followed by a fantastic Arts Award workshop. We shall try and summarise it all in a brief blog post, but a great deal happened (all of it fun).

The morning started off with practice for the show. This week The Girl and the Fox reach the wicked part of the world, filled with evil spirits and evil people. The group split up to rehearse as usual. The first team staged a scene where the Girl is attacked by dark spirits, represented on stage using green ribbons. The scene was filled with some excellent movements and reactions from all performers.

Meanwhile the second group staged The Girl's meeting with an old man in the dark woods. After talking a while she realises his true identity is that of a wicked sorcerer and finds herself his prisoner. This scene is a long one, as it also includes the story of a lost boy and how Siku came to be banished from the tribe many years ago. It is also the scene in which we meet the Girl's mother, as a spirit animal. A busy scene indeed, but an important one on her journey. Once both scenes had been created we came together and shared them, offering feedback and working on the material we had.

Following the session, we moved to another room for a follow-up workshop. This term we have quite a few people taking part in the Arts Award, a certification for young people celebrating involvement in the arts. The aim of the workshop was simple; to design some Inuit themed masks for the show, as this would help to achieve some of the marking criteria for the award.

Nearly all of our Chameleons joined in and got making some fantastic masks. We focused on animals, as these are what the dark spirits might usually look like. There were also some character masks however. We learned the important role that masks played in storytelling and how sculptors would emphasise on certain characteristics to convey what kind of character it was. For instance, an evil one might be grotesque.

Our Chameleons made some fantastic creations which will hopefully feature in the final show. It was great to see the group there supporting their peers in achieving the award. That will be all for now though (keeping it brief). Next week we aim to finish the play and begin getting ready for the final performance. It's half term this week so we hope everyone has a good rest.

Story Makers: Space Tortoise- Week Two: 'Costumes'

A very foggy morning today, but that didn’t stop us! Week two now of our ‘Space Tortoise’ project, though the move to bi-weekly sessions makes it feel like forever since our Story Makers were last together. This week was also half term, and what better way for it to come to a close than by looking at costumes?

The aim of this session was to discuss the use of costumes in stories and how these help to tell it. We talked about what kind of costumes would be needed if we were to put on a production of ‘Space Tortoise.’ Some of the Story Makers suggested turtle costumes (a solid answer indeed), while others suggested space suits. In the story, the tortoise creates his own space suit in order to reach the other animals in space. Ours would be slightly different, but the group were excited at the chance to make the costumes themselves.

We discussed the idea that costumes can be made from lots of different, sometimes unexpected things. To craft our space suits, we used tin foil. A whole. Lot. Of. Tin foil (60 meters to be exact). Working in groups, one person would make the costume and the other would wear it, then they would swap and create a costume for their partner. This involved a lot of trial and error, with the first few costumes falling off shortly after going on. As the session progressed, however the group began to get the hang of sculpting the foil and these later versions managed to (mostly) stay on. 

For those who didn't want to create space suits, we had space hats to make. Simple to do; just find a paper bowl and cover it in cling film. The trick, our Story Makers learned, was remembering to place a hole underneath for someone's head, or else the helmets would not stay on. With more time, string and pipe cleaners can be added to these to help them stay on and look good. 

In the end we had a colourful array of different space suits and hats. As always we ended the session by sharing what we had made. Some had gone a step further and begun to make space shoes to go with their suits. All in all, it was a simple craft element this week, but hopefully got the group thinking about costumes and how they can be made. Next week we will be looking at scenery and creating a starry sky to use as a backdrop.