Alice in Wonderland- Week 4

This morning we had our fourth wonderful rehearsal with our Chameleons for their production of 'Alice in Wonderland!' We are very lucky to get such enthusiastic, imaginative and talented young performers on our projects and this term is proving to be no exception. The cast are working hard, learning lines and how to operate our fantastic (and whacky) puppets.

So what exactly did we get up to? Glad you asked. We got the ball rolling with a good catch up (we were off last week hosting an event at Exeter Library-which was brilliant) and found out what various things everyone was up to during their time off. We have a very busy cast, it seems, as everyone had an exciting story. After that and the usual bout of Boal and Captain's Coming we got down to shapes; everyone's favourite game.

Ben came up with some very abstract shapes this week, including a squirrel (which raised many an eyebrow). The aim of these shape making exercises is to encourage the group to come up with creative solutions to challenges together, and to listen to one another. The shape game features heavily in our projects because it is successful in doing this. The group made some fantastic shapes; including their very own monster!

The big talking point of the week, however, was the introduction of even more puppets! Joining the Caterpillar and Little Alice are the Doormouse and Big Alice. The cast set to work with these, coming to grips with how to move and control them within a scene. We started out with one of our earlier scenes; where Alice meets the talking Doorknob and is convinced to taste the juice and cakes there. Unfortunately she ends up growing larger and smaller as a result.

Both our Little and Big Alices are involved in this scene and we spent time rehearsing the transition between these, and how they could both interact with other characters and props in the scene. It took some trial and error but the Chameleons were patient and creative in the approaches to this challenge.

Next up came the famous Tea Party scene; which the cast had been excited for. We were particularly excited to take Emma's fantastic Doormouse puppet for a spin. The scene itself is particularly wordy (and is particularly mad) so it was one that always posed potential difficulty. We explored it in depth, thinking about how we could portray the scene on stage in a way that the audience could engage with. The puppet worked well alongside the cast and the scene was both appropriately mad and funny to watch.

So that's that, another stellar rehearsal. This week also marked the halfway point in the project- which is hard to believe; but they say time flies when you're having fun. Next week there will be more fun and games as Alice's adventure continues and we move ever closer towards the performance. Until then, take care and enjoy the half term!

Alice in Wonderland- Week 3

The fun continued this morning as the Chameleons had their third rehearsal for 'Alice in Wonderland!' What an action packed week it was; we really tried to fit a lot into our usual two hours. but it was a whole heap of fun and we made some fantastic work! Ben was away this week so we were joined by the lovely Emma, who is also helping us work on some fantastic puppets for the final performance.

We had our usual round of games to get warmed up and ready. We had a focus on physical activities this week and our games led into a slightly varied version of an activity from last week. The group have to walk around the space and become different shapes and objects, working together to create these using only themselves. Whacky shapes for the week included a bicycle, a washing machine and a house.

Last week the group worked together to make a dragon. Keeping with the theme this week of having the Chameleons work together on a single creature: they were asked to create a Kraken. The Chameleon's Kraken needed to be able to move around the room and attack a passing ship. There was some good ideas put forward from everyone and the group ended up with a fully functioning monster.

The group were also asked to create their own unique creature. It could be anything they wanted. Everyone walked around the room and slowly became their creature; they had to think about how it moved, where it lived, what it sounded like and whether it was a friendly creature or not. We had some lovely creatures by the end of the exercise including a Dancing Kitten, a Poisonus Frogfly and a hybrid of a fish and a butterfly.

Next came time for some more puppetry. Alice and the Caterpillar made their return. This week the group was divided in two; one half of them set to work on bringing the caterpillar puppet to life while the others controlled Alice. The task the group was given was to create a scene in which Alice interacted with the Caterpillar.

Emma was on hand to give some expert puppetry advice and a fantastic scene was produced with one very sassy Caterpillar. The group worked together to make the puppets move and talk and it was nice to see such decent teamwork from everyone.

We then set to work on some scenes. The group was divided into two once again and each was given a scene. One group had a scene between Alice and the Doorknob, the first wonderland creature she encounters on her journey, and the second scene had Alice meeting Rose, Lily and the rest of the flowers in the flower forest. The Chameleons were asked to think about how they could show characters who were not human on stage. For the flowers it ended up being lots of physical movement, while the doorknob was a combination of two people; one person's head and one person's hand.

Finally everyone received their characters! That's right the cast finally know who it is they will be playing in the show! With this great revelation came the introduction of our Arts Award logs. Each member of the cast has a log containing their script and space for any other contributing evidence that will go towards obtaining the award.

To close the session everyone got to work at decorating the front cover of their logbooks. It was a fantastic week and some incredible work was produced by everyone. The group are becoming more and more confident with the puppets; which is good as more and more will start appearing over the coming weeks. There is no session next week as we are holding our brilliant 'Discover Storytelling' event at Exeter Library. Come one, come all to the library next week for some lovely storytelling games and a whole lot of fun! There are sessions at 9:30am and 1:00pm, be there or be square. See you in a couple of weeks!
See our website for details about the library event: www.anthosarts.com

Alice in Wonderland- Week 2

Yesterday we returned to Roborough Studios for our second fun week of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. This week we were focusing on movement and character; how can we move to signify a character on stage that is not human? How can this be done not only on your own, but working in a team? There was also a whole heap of puppetry that went on, it was very exciting!

Once we had finished our usual bout of warm ups the Chameleons were asked to move around the room to the soundscape of a jungle, underpinned with some harmonic music. The exercise they did started off with us asking them to become different animals. Some small things such as a cat or a rabbit and some large like an elephant. The group were then asked to work together in pairs and eventually a large group to create larger and more complicated creatures; such as a spider, a horse and an octopus.

The real challenge came last when they were asked to create a working, moving dragon. The dragon needed to be able to accomplish several actions, such as eat, sleep and fly (and also fight off villagers, as per group request). Working together the cast managed to bring to life a dragon using only their bodies. Arms for wings and a tail and synchronised walking, along with a fearsome roar to complete the picture.

It then came time for Alice to meet the group. Alice, or 'Little Alice' is our guest performer, a small puppet who will start in the Chameleons performance during the points where Alice shrinks down and becomes small. The group was also introduced to our prototype Caterpillar puppet; a three person machine with one person acting as the head and the other two using the body.

In groups the Chameleons had to bring these puppets to life and have them walk around the room. Everyone was very creative and came up with some lovely ideas for how this could be done. Everyone had a turn with both the puppets and we are very excited to see how the group manages to cope with more puppets as rehearsals progress.

Finally we brought out some small sections of script for the cast to engage with. There were two groups, each with a different scene. One scene featured Alice's important first meeting with the White Rabbit and the second featured her conversation with the Caterpillar. The task was simple, to bring these scenes to life and then show them back to the group. Everyone worked hard with their scripts and produced some very lovely work.

Overall it was a lovely, if busy, second week for our Alice project. The Chameleons once again rise to whatever challenge we give them and it was brilliant to see what work they created. Until next week, see you then!

Alice in Wonderland- Week 1

We're back! This morning we launched an exciting new term for the Chameleon Group! It seems like forever ago since 'The Princess and the Goblins' was performed and we were eager to get the ball rolling on a brand new adventure; namely Alice's adventure through the rabbit hole to the crazy realm of Wonderland!

It was fantastic to see so many new and returning faces amidst the group! Plus it was nostalgic to be back at Roborough Studios, where our first youth groups originally began a year and a half ago (though it feels like an eternity). Our new chameleons quickly made themselves comfortable and it was brilliant watching everyone take part in the warm up games! Adding to the nostalgia, several warm up games returned from our previous projects for another round. Captain's coming was particularly fun, as we added brand new rules to it as we went. Everyone had a chance to contribute.

We then launched into Ben's favourite game; create a shape, where the group had to work together to create various shapes such as circles, triangles and even a star. Our good friend Augusto Boal and his opposites warm up (one of our longtime favourites) also made a comeback. The group first had to walk, stop, jump and clap and then do so again with the instructions reversed and rearranged.

 We then got onto some light-hearted acting work. The group played 'what are you doing?' which was a nice way to ease into performing for some of our newer members. The game appeared on many weeks in our last project and involves performing an action and telling the person who comes on next what action they must perform. The one after them must then come on and copy, after which they will receive an action to follow too. We had some fun suggestions today; such as being chased by bees, leading a jewel heist, feeding a cat and figuring out an arm-movement based language for talking to dragons.

Next the teams split off into two groups. At their request it was boys and girls. In their teams they had to create a scene that went with the title 'A Knight on a Quest.' Some fantastic ideas were put forward and we ended up with two brilliant short pieces of work. The boys chose to tell us a tale about a knight who is sent by the King to defeat an evil goblin and claim his one million gold prize. The girls told a tale of two knights who were always too busy fighting over who would save the damsel in distress to actually save her. The poor maiden ended up falling from a tree and getting lost in a rose bush by the time they were done bickering.

Finally the group came together to talk about the main theme of the term. We wrote down what everyone knew about Alice in Wonderland and then talked about some of the things we will be doing over the course of the next eight weeks. Once we had finished our chat the group got to their feet and performed a 'speed run' of Alice's story. It was manic but hilarious, and five minutes later they had completed a very brief version of Alice in Wonderland!

All in all it was a brilliant first rehearsal! We're excited to continue next week when we will look more at what our version of Alice in Wonderland will be like. More fun an games ahead, but for now it's great to be back!