First blog, dont really know what to write but i'll give it a go.
This week has been very hectic but one that I dont think i will ever forget. At the moment I am part of a touring show called "Crime of the Century" this is a dance production which is issue based theatre trying to tackle Knife crime and anti- gang violence. This show has been touring for 3 years and is now just touring schools. In the show i play the "victims mother" which is a very hard part to play as in 2008 i lost my cousin Shaquille Smith to knife crime.
On Tuesday we went to a young offenders prision to perform the show and do a workshop with them. I can honestly say I havent been that nervous for a performance for a very very long time. When we was waiting in the hall waiting for them to come in, i was thinking about all the worse case cinareos which could happen. Then when they did actually walk in the fear which i had of performing infront of them completed melted away and what I saw was 15 children walking into a space, and i could only imagen the stories and the experiences which these young individuals had been through. They reacted to the show so well and were one of the best audiences we have ever had, they showed total and utter respect to the show which is dedicated to my cousin.
During the workshop they were very reluctant to talk initally- and couldnt gage what "Chickenshed" was or who we were to them- we quickly showed them that we were not any type of authoritative figure, nor someone preech to them about the mistakes which they have made in the past. We just wanted to talk to them and find out their view on the issues- which were the reasons why they were in prison for violent crimes.
This experience has pushed me further to continue my research on the power of theatre and performing arts in direct relation to issues, and the disscussion of these issues.
I have also started the Module One Task Reader- "Professional Communication Technologies"- initial thoughts when i started reading this was that it had no relation to what i wanted to do in the future. But then forcing myself to continue reading i found that actually it is very much relevent to my life and my future career. Its quite interesting to know how we take social networking for granted now as it is so easily accessible, not thinking about the stages in which it has taken Web to get to this point. Anyways im still a little bit confused with what i am reading and what my "developed thoughts" will be so when i finish, we'll see what happens.
Thanks Jojo good description of your experiences regarding the type of performance work that you do. Your evaluation of your responses to the theories and practice of social media are also helpful. Social media is now so much into the background of what we do it is hard to unpack in order to understand how it affects our practice. I was on Linked in last night and was thinking the very same things - I am using the medium but not effectively - I changed some details last night for example and added a few links - but often I am overwhelmed and do not seem to fit it into my working day. I and others are looking forward to hearing your points of view.
ReplyDelete