Wales script is go!

A working version of the Wales script is now completed and should be winging its way around the world this weekend. Some work still needs to be done on the last scene, but otherwise I think it's looking pretty good. Well done to everyone who helped create it and especially to Peter and Cadi who supplied all the missing bits and pieces.

We went about the script this way: a lot of initial improvisation and discussion of ideas led to me suggesting a basic outline. During our intensive week we began collectively writing, mainly through small groups tackling individual scenes then performing their scripts. As part of this process we looked at parts of Under Milk Wood, newspaper articles from 1926, the BBC docusoap Coalface, and other research material. Some scenes were also improvised, the results recorded, and transcripts made.

For most scenes we now had at least two scripts, and I meshed together the best parts of these. I then looked at the play as a whole and identified which parts still needed work - it's not so hard to write an individual scene, much more difficult to keep in mind the needs of the play as a whole. Cadi and Peter then wrote in the missing parts, I edited these bits, and we arrived at a script which has basically been entirely written by the Wales team, with my editorial help.

I'm now really looking forward to seeing the other scripts.

Like a virgin !?

Hey all so some of the Wales criw have just been to see a play called Like a Virgin in the Ammanford Miners Theatre (where we will be performing!!!). Lets just start but giving them a round of applause!!! It was amazing every last detail have been thought through! from scene changes to the way the actors portray their characters! I was blubbing from the start when the main character sung a song about things 'they' used to do? leading upto an arguement between her parents and they split up! You see her as she grows up and decides with her best friend to create a Madonna Tribute band! She sadly contracts leukemia and eventually dies. This is all showed with great sensitivity and real emotion. The set was cleverly used to show the main characters life, It was her bedroom all pink and girly full of things that meant something to that character (i.e. there were 2 stereos, her clothes scattered around and other bedroomy stuff) Throughout the play the mother gradually tidied away the bedroom into the draws, the bedroom representing the daughter and the stuff in it representing her daughters life and how is slowly emptied and eventually became the hospital bed in which she died. It was set in sheffield so you had the usual loud and bold characters like her friend Maxine who to be honest was rude but found herself towards the end and my favourite character Monkey who didnt say much other than Alriiiiiiiight. They interacted with the audience aswell although i feel it kind of took away from the realistic side of it. The were only 4 actors so they multicharacterised and changed the set. I think it had us all buzzing with emotion and how we could all relate at some point to something in that play and it has given us lots of ideas for set and characterisations and the rest!
Well i have noticed that people have been putting pictures of themselves up so will i !!!! lol Well now its a long wait till next tuesday to see The Producers in Cardiff!
SCRIPTS COME TOMORROW YAY!!

Toodles

Alex

Jeff

Hey guys! this is the character monologue that I wrote ages ago and promised Peri I would put up here, but .... anyway here it is!

Jeff is a 43 year old man, he wears boring, dull business suites and carries a black briefcase. He looks old and tired, he dislikes most things and often has a distracted look on his face as he dreams of the other places he would rather be in.

"I am Jeff - a manager through and through. Coal sits on my mind like it sits underground, waiting to be discovered. I sit in my office filling and calculating, keeping the silent cogs of the coal mine running. I know more about coal than you would ever know, and more than I ever wished to know! Mining lives in my heart and the deepest pits of my soul. The coal of the mines seeps into my mind like the water into the dark, dank passageways. I live, think and cough coal. My workers hate me yet my peers look up to me. The mines are the dirties places on earth, yet I see not a speck of dust from my office to my home. The coal runs every aspect of my life and so many others, yet at the end of the day I close the gates and leave that life locked in my office.

Yet no-one sees the utter contempt that I treat every money grabbing gram and truck load that passes through those gates and pays my fortune. I never wanted this. I never asked for this life of hell. But everyday I live with it, pasting on a smile and signing every order form dumped in front of me. This is the life I lead”

Speak again soon! Pete xx

p.s i would LOVE to hear of any other characters you guys have thought of!

SLANG GRAFITTI WALL

HEY STRANGERS

Lets do that thing we discussed about having a slang off!!! Wales Criw, Slough Posse and NZers - use the comments box to express your favourite slang (not swear!) words and if we don't know what they mean we have to ask or guess in the comments box!!!

Lets do it!

Click on the comments box where I'll start the ball rolling...

PERI ;D

1 of the Welsh Crew...*Owain*

Hi every1....

It's been a very exiting week this week. On tuesday night at 6:00pm a few of us had met up for a meeting disguising a christmas event (this has nothing to to with strangers), then we went down to Strangers were it was amazin last night as there was a photographer there to take photos of us. Then we sang S CLUB 7 songs for the rest of the time we had left. It was fun.

I asked the man to take a photo of me on my own and it's lush (well i think anyway) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Tomorrow we are going to see a play called 'Like a Virgin' and next tuesday we are going to Cardiff (our Capital City) were we are going to see another play called 'The Producers'

CANT WAIT!!!

Owain

Hey - just dropping in and thought I would leave a post...

Well - quite alot has happened recently...
Firstly its the boring stuff like school and work (yup - Im working now! haha) and of course! my new drama class! Its going quite well at the moment... we're doing a big performance piece in two weeks with some other drama classes across Moreno Valley and Riverside - I'll try and get a video to put up...

ALSO! Im going backpacking across California with a few friends for a couple of months! Its going to be so cool - we're starting off in Moreno Valley and working our way through Corona and just going wherever we want to go - NO RULES! we're leaving on Saturday so Im trying to get as much money as I can so we wont be without... and I am hoping to save up enough money when we come back to go back packing across Europe! We are already planning on where we want to go and we are going to start off in good old Slough - and go around england - and we totally have to go to Amsterdam! Thats where everything happens! But it should be good! AND im going to be a stranger AGAIN! lol. I absolutely hate being a stranger at the moment but Im beginning to adapt more and at least I wont have to stay here for much longer! woohoo.

Anyway - thats pretty much all the happenings so far, apart from a few personal things which dont need to be mentioned... dont worry! nothing too serious! haha

Hope everyones OK and I cant wait to see everyone again!
Melissa
xx

FILMING IN SUNNY NELSON!

We've just spent a tiring but brilliant day filming in sunny Nelson. The group decided to shoot a rehearsal film of the parallel run away journeys of our 2 central characters. Percival in the 1890's and Julie in 2007. The shoot was inspired by the film Run Lola Run... and was a lot of fun!