ticket

hi all,

in our international production meeting, nelson asked if i could come up with a ticket design. i've been mucking around with this image for it, with a boat voyage feel, but it could always work as train ticket or maybe a weird tube ticket, to cross over the 3 shows. needs more info on it, price, destinations, etc, but hope you like it.

alex r

designy things

hi all,

finally figured out how to use this thing, ish!

from the wales end of the project as you may know, the design has gone through some changes, mainly due to restricted use with the theatre we are in.

so, that acting as an opportunity to focus the design into another area, we've come up with this, a playground of objects to be manipulated into the different scenes we need. it has slough's junk yard feel, but from the workshops last year the Wales Crew came up with the strong idea of lines and suitcases representing the journeys involved. lines especially tie in with the tube map idea of a journey and coloured lines on the floor, representing individual scenes will guide where we move set objects to represent (hopefully sketches below will illustrate this), from a street pavement, to a nelson boat arrival. i think this set offers a lot of play and activity to the large number of performers we have trafficing out stage. post your thoughts and stuff, hopefully this crosses over well between the other 2 shows.

all the best, alex r

Costume Design in Upper Moutere

More Nelson Video

Nelson Video Clips

The cast introduce themselves.

Mr Scilla's Song

Kua mutu for me

Kia ora tatou

Well the scripts are done and mulched together and i think it's awesome! I've had a fantastic and challenging time putting this script together with my peeps in Nelson; Sarah and the writers Jen, Danielle, Alex, Ryan, Comfrey, Becky, Chrissie, Tammy and Jarred. Also I had a primo time working with the actors last week, the group is really talented and it was great to see the words finally come alive and to experiment with different styles within the play. It's gonna be massive! My many thanks to Sarah and Peri. Peri i hope to meet you one day and good luck to you and your crew! Big ups to the Slough crew too I hope the show goes off!
Nelson go hard and i'll see you at your dress rehearsal so you better be good!!!! Just jokes. Have fun and always enjoy!

hei ko nei ra

Jamie McCaskill

Hiia everyone.

just want to say me and tasha had a wicked time when we met Llew. hes osm!!!lmao!!! we've translated a lot of the script with us. and it was nice to find out what he thought of out play. he said he really enjoyed reading it. i cant wait now!!!!! its so close!!!! only about a month or two!!!!! yay!!!! well i havent got much left to say!!! but i'll see some of you on tuesday!!!

From

Laura xxxx

The Maori Song

The Nelson Cast (video)

meet the Nelson crew!

Hi all,
How are we??? My name is Julie and I am working together with the Strangers cast to help us all bring this brilliant performance together!! I am going to be mainly focused on the backstage elements of the process and will be using lighting to help create the atmosphere of the Welsh and Slough performances right here from our Nelson stage! :)
How do you all feel about smoke?

hiya people! im jenn (Gwen in the Welsh script) i havn't had internet access so this is my first blog and my first actual look at the site it good to see so many bloggy thingys... Iv'e been with the project since July as a writer so its great to see the performance finally getting under way we've started to talk about costumes.. just wondering what the writers of the Welsh script think that Gwen would wear and if there are any key items of clothing that she might have to represent herself...

Hello from Nelson!

Hi. I'm Danielle from the nelson strangers script. This has been so cool this week to see how the three scripts have managed to form one. I play Isabella in the first settlers scene and Julie when she is in Slough (someone else plays Julie every other time). This week we have been doing heaps of improvisations to find ways to portray things such as Mr Silla and his throne etc. We've got some cool ideas, Mr Silla is actually many different people, and same with his throne. We've started rehersing certain scenes as well. I'm really blown away with how we have managed to put together such a cool, exciting production...especially since we didn't know what half of it was! But i've seen your scripts now and they've been put together with ours and they are really awesome! I'm really looking forward to seeing how much further it will develop and to hear all the new ideas that will be discovered!

oh yes, if anyone fancies the technical and stage management side of the project, please please please let me know!! How the blazes do i get a big title on my post like everyone else has? Hmmmmm

x

SM HELLO

Hello everyone! This is Tasha (SM for Wales) signing in for the first time EVER on a blog! (applause please!) I just wanted to say that I am so VERY excited about the whole thing. Peri, Alex Designer and I had a meeting on monday and it was amazing how much we discussed and how far the plans progressed! We saw the venue too and we have loads of ideas about how it's all going to come together. It's all going to go pretty quickly from now on so I hope everyone keeps their heads up, their thinking caps on and the smile on their face! Hopefully thursday's international production meeting will throw up lots of new things to think about so if i can brave the internet again i will post again V soon!

naTashaSM

Happy new year

Just to say happy new year to everybody from sunny Cardiff. Hope the rehearsals go well - really looking forward to seeing the end product(s).

Hiia everyone

Hiia Everyone!!!!!



Peri has finally added me!!! lmao!!! well we're meeting up again soon so i wont write much. i just hope everyone had a great christmas (and got everything you want!!!) and a happy new year!!! its only about 2 months now!!! i cant wait!!!

well ive got to go but hope to see everyone soon!!!



Bye Bye



Laura

xxxx

Excited Jubilantness!

Hi all!

I just thought I'd put a final post up here before I'm forced to return to the drudgery of school! uch! I can't believe we're now in 2008! eek! only 1 month left before we crash onto stage and perform our masterpiece! It's gone soooo fast! I still remember the first rehearsal I attended! it should have served as a warning! I think we were skyping Slough and it was mental then! I should have grabbed my coat and run as fast as possible! But I'm glad I didn't! I don't know whether it's just me but I can't wait to get into the final stage of rehearsals! YAY!! We restart after the Christmas break on Tuesday and I think we're getting the FINAL merged script! it's certainly been on a very interesting journey! WOOOOOOO! Very exciting!! Can't wait! Hope your all well and had a fab Christmas and a great new year!

Speak soon!
Pete xx

P.s we've now hit the 100 posts mark! yayness!

My first howdy!

Howdy. first time on the blog. been ropped into playing a part so thought i better check out the blog. horrible lack of internet in my house so don't expect regular...posting? is that the word?? Ummm....it's good!And yes im the cling ffilm ninja with the purple mask!

Im the stranger in the wales play. Can i speak to the other strangers? like the character... I have o speak lots of Welsh and look confused, how will you guys do that? (Do you have to do the Welsh stuff??) I get to have some famous Pobl y Cwm welsh soapstar help me and Laura who's Gwen to translate it from English to Wenglish and Welsh

Anti howdy.. Bye bye Tashy

Another day...

Alex Haddy tash and peri have just ben shopping in swansea for wonderful delights for our party.! Pink paper and masks! hardcore and now were messing around with peri in the community centre!!! !!
In this blog you get to meet our local superheroes. The Bubble Wrap ninja (Green), The Cling Film ninja (Purple) and Tin Foil ninja (Blue) they are super cool so do not mock!!










Anothers hard day work in Brynaman!

'Stay in school kids and dont do drugs' MACCDYS SUPERHEROES!


Lots of love and kind wishing upon your new year!!!! (haddy says face)

Alex Hadd and Tash!!!

New year... how grand!!

Hello

Adrian Designer of the slough section here.. sorry its been too long, but i am here and ready to go.

OK, so design ideas so far, Lizzie has already said some, but just a few morw ideas, costume wise, we have been discussing black and white, i think it will give it a really clear and crisp edge by which the actors can be seen clearly against what may be a black and white based set (more later)... so most of the basic costumes in black and white, reflecting slough in its many forms through the ages, so a mixture, of street, sotemporary, with a variety of clothes from days gone by, a real mix, but based in balck and white so still very subtle, then these will be acessorised with items of characters, turbans, sari, shawls etc.. we have been discussing using masks as ensemble moments, groups scenes to create a whole, almost none discript, common mass, as groups pof people in slough, wales and new zealand... so colour will come through the accessoires.

The set.. at the moment.. butobviously these may change considerabley... all ideas more than welcome...

using the ideas of journeys we have looked atmany options and have come to the idea of many lines, like a map, where there are different lines for different places, roads and rivers, even thicknesses of line for the value of the road.. so we have the idea of haveing a grid made of lines creating ever different sections on the floor in which we can light as small sections to reflect differnt areas and time, and also to create a large open space for larger ensemble moments..lines will also go vertically up from the stage at the juctions of the lines where the differnt cloured lines on the floor will then be represented on the poles going upwards.

These vertical poles will give us more ways to hang cloth and gauzes on which to project at different times within the performance,

A large screen / fabric / gauze on the stage will hope fully become a costume, making it very fluid, and cinamatic, fast paced and exciting... we hope.

At the moment the ideas are very much still on the table, and much help would be gratefully appreciated, we are really ecited about combining the three pieces visually and verbally..

Hope all are well

Adrian

Liverpool Nativity

Hi all!

Firstly Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a great day and Santa was kind!

Anyway! I was surfing through the channels last night and saw the Liverpool Nativity on BBC 3, i watched it and really enjoyed it! I thought it really showed how we could use technology in our shows, if you didn't see it, then they basically re-enacted the nativity story all over Liverpool and used internet linked camera's to beam the different scenes to one main stage, where the bulk of the audience were situated and the show was led by Gabriel who kept the audience clued up about where the scene was to avoid anyone getting confused. They used a modern version of the nativity where Joseph was a migrant and Marry was just a normal girl from Liverpool, it looked really good and seemed to echo the kind of concept that us in Wales (I'm not sure about New Zealand and Slough) were thinking of using. If you can i would search for it on Youtube and see what you think, although i don't think the whole thing is on there. If you have any ideas or comments on it please let me know! I would love to hear what you think about it! It certainly showed me how multimedia projects can work really well and look great!

Speak soon and much luvness!
Pete xxx

Hey Strangers!!

Hey all you strangers out there... Damn, I feel like a stranger from this site! I haven't been on in a while...

I just wanted to say that I am so shocked and happy about the progress that has happened SO quickly with this project! Keep up the good work!

On another note - I'm going away for a while on a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation course... which I am not looking forward to AT ALL! ... So I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and I hope that everyone gets a great start to the New Year! When are the performances starting?

ANYWAY!
Have a good Xmas and I cant wait to hear how the performances went and hopefully see a video on the blog...
Mel
xx

Newest strangers

Hey all mr silla and eva introducing our newest stranger Rudolph the Red nose stranger!!!! say hi all

Off to rehearsals now!!!!!!!

Haddy and Alex

hiya peeps!!!

Helloooo I'm Haddy yayay
I'm not a new Stranger but I am new to the blog!!! ^_^
how are y'all !!!!

woooo im really happy coz im playin Eva yayay its sooo cool because ma grandma is polish! its like fate brought us together lol teehee! I can't wait to talk to other Eva! I'm looking into finding a polish folk song thing for Jacob (piotr) to play. its gonna be sooo koolio!!!!

lots of lurvvvvnesss
Haddy bbz

Hello:)

Hi everyone!

My name is Charlotte and I'm in the Nelson group of Strangers. I'm really excited and looking foreward to the performance...I so love all of the plays, where did you all get these ideas from?

Have a nice Xmas,
Charlotte:)

Peri and Juliana in jail!

Hi all! I discovered this photo while trawling through a pile of photos for a Mess Up The Mess presentation and i though i have GOT to blog that! Just in case you can't tell what it is, it's a picture of Peri and Juliana in jail! For stealing from the theatre??
No only joking, this was taken while BASE and MUTM were filming the 'Choices' alcohol dvd! They do actually look quite scared! I wonder why???........

Speak soon!
Pete xx

Hello Lovely People.

I can't stop smiling when I think back to my visit to Wales last weekend to work on the Play in a Day. It was so fab to be in the same physical space. I know we can't have that yet with the NZ lot and have to continue loving you all from afar.

So, lots to respond to here and I'm not sure I'll have the time to address all things right now but will do some more in the morning. Actually, I think I'm mainly saying 'hi' to The Strangers Massive!!

Design, yes, we've had lots of thoughts and when poor lovely Adrian gets out of his sick bed I'll ask him to share his fab thoughts with you all (Alex). We are hoping to go along the lines of generic costumes in neutral colours or rather base colours of black and white with accent colours, in basic style but with added detail pertaining to characters specifically. E.g. t shirts with a palu (the scarf worn with a salwar kameez in Indian dress) or a simple dress with a 19th century style bustle at the back. Kind of a fusion of the contemporary with the traditonal, the timeless and placeless with culturally specific signifiers. The hope is to keep budgets low but to add some interest through these added details. Does that make any sense? Also hoping to get some talented local person to create a graffiti style design that when transferred to lots of tshirts lying next to each other will be reformed when people wearing the tshirts stand in the correct order.

I'm not at the 'we've cast' stage yet. We actually are now looking for more performers because quite a few of our group have fallen by the wayside due to exam commitments here. I know you know that one, Nelson folk. Very excited that you have cast though and that is inspiring me in my choices here in Slough. It will be great to see you connecting with your overseas/overborder counterparts wouldn't it?! I have some ideas as to who will connect well with whom but until my decision is final you're all still in the dark. Sorry, I'll get a wriggle on. I can see you as Mr Silla Alex! (Our mr Silla is going to be played through shadow puppetry, (we think) and through voice over by our sound guy from the tech booth. We wanted to have him as ethereal a character as possible because of the unliklihood of a man living to 347 not washing with our audience. It also leaves lots of room for our disabled members to move and dance in their way without the pressure of learning and delivering dialogue which can be daunting.

Next Thursday we are taking part in Slough Young People's Centre's traditional Christmas cabaret. Remember Jermaine who left a lovely message some weeks ago, and of course, Sarah's old haunt? Well, it's a gorgeous, fluffy, creative, foody event and we'll be doing a rehearsed reading of some of the scenes to share with the rest of the young people and their families. That'll be fun.

We are also working for four afternoons over Christmas hols, which will hopefully allow us to catch up with you guys in Wales and Nelson, as we are a bit behind I think.

Funny, it's been like that from start hasn't it? One group leading the way for a bit then the other taking lead and another waiting in the wings 'til they see what the others are up to. It's very cool.

Ok, so i've rambled in Lizzie style. Soz Moz

Will address the merging issues in the morning, but really loving the Mr Silla is Charles idea. When he was created by one of our crew back in May, he was hotseated and he told us he was from New Zealand. So, why not have another incarnation of Charles in the form of the 347 yr olds Scrapyard guardian?

Not sure how you might use talk stick. Any further ideas on this would be cool.???

Love to all,

Lizzie xxx

Nadolig Llawen

Borre Dah (im trying to use the little welsh i know)

So yeah tuesday was really cool Gemma was really nice and just joined in she felt like a stranger (how weird does that sound)
And we have all been cast i think all the cast would agree that peri has done a fandabbydosey job of deciding (hint hint i got Mr silla and Charles)
Well i guess this is last thing ill say till christmas

Happy Summery Christmas to New Zealand (think of us with our cold cold cold wind)
Happy Wintery Christmas to Slough
Nadolig Llawen Cymraeg criw?

Alex

Merry Christmas

Hi every1,

Owain ere. What a good night it was tuesday. As peri sayd Gemma from Cyfanfyd came in to inspect how cwl we were and c if we were gd enough to go in the book.

It was also very cwl as WALES CREW has now got there characters...unfortunately for me i cant do the show as im Skiing in Austria. Dam It! : [ Oh well...cant do anything bout it.

I just feel gd that i can help Peri (the most wonderfull director in the world) organise and keep everything sorted untill i go.

Its gonna b gret!

Well only 12 days till Christmas Day now HWRE!!! that means 11 Nights! Yey!

Well Merry Christmas Every1

Nadolig Llawen :]

Owain

xx

Wales CAST the net

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to announce that Criw Cymru (the Wales Crew) has now been cast into our wonderful bank of international Strangers characters.

Last night in our regular rehearsal space at the pensioners' hall, we read through the scripts, discussed ideas for linking common themes and characters and by the end of the evening all performers were cast into their roles for the performance.

WOW! Things are moving sooo quickly now. Next week we shall start work on some ensemble and a handful of key scenes, amalgamation ideas and planning before breaking up (no tears now!) for a two week Christmas Hol.

When we return we shall be meeting so often that no one will ever tear us apart again!

Anyway, last night was also very exciting because we were "observed" by Gemma from Cyfanfyd (whaich means "whole world" in Welsh) It is a Global Youth Work Organisation and Gemma is very interested in using our very own Strangers Project as a Case Study for their handbook...WOOOOAAAAH - how cool are we?!?!?

I received an email from Gemma today telling me how much she enjoyed being part of our rehearsal and to congratulate us on the amazingness of our project across the world...watch this space... ;)

We also have the opportunity to spread the word of Strangers in a community Christmas Experience next week on the 20th in our local rugby club, and Peter has already started work on a powerful and poigniant power point presentation. Well done Pete!

Right, just looked back at this very long post and hope you're as excited as I am when you read about all the amazing things that are happening because of all you amazing young people around the world.

If anyone in Slough or NZ is able to post up a few photos of your work on the blog or email them to me at messupthemess@hotmail.co.uk before Tuesday we can fit them into the presentation... and that would be SOOO cool....

Get in touch if you need help with that...

Merry, Merry Christmas and holidays to you all!!! (and that's surely not the last time you'll hear those words on this blog!)

Peri ;)

Christmas Hello!

Hey Guys!

I hope you're all ready for Christmas and looking forward to a well deserved break from work! (I know i am!) I can't wait for next year! it won't be long until we're on stage!

Just to let you all know the Wales script is now finished! and ready to go! i hope you enjoy performing it as much as we all enjoyed writing it!

Have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Pete xx

Set Design

Hey all as far as im aware wales have not really talked about set design (cept the week thing we did with alex) or costume. I think maybe as a group we could discuss something? ? Erm yeah so ill throw that open? Have New Zealand or Slough had any ideas?

Do you see what i see was really good btw !!!!!! i would write a review like i have done before but i wouldnt be there for long as it was soo good!!!

Lexx

Play in a day

Hey Guys!

This is the link to the Carmarthenshire County Council Press release on the play in a day!

http://www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/eng/index.asp?locID=3451&docID=15632

LINKING IDEAS I'VE HEARED ON THE GRAPVINE!

What do you lot think of these?

To use the talking sticks to switch between stories
For Julie and Percival to meet characters from other plays as they run away
For Gwen to interrupt the start of the NZ play looking for her flip flop
To explore and exploit parallels between Anahera and Charles/ Inder and Sukhi
Maybe look at Gwen, Hope, Julie parallels
To have characters from all 3 worlds looking for each other in the scrap yard
Is Charles Mr Silla?

Put your ideas up here and thoughts on how they could work!

So i was thinking....

I was in my room thinking...... if i were to go on a ' Journey ' what 5 items would i take with me and where im going?
so i decided on

1. Mobile
2. Money/ wallet
3. Pictures
4. Clothes
5. Soap!?

And i decided i was running away to somewhere peaceful?

THEN i was thinking what characteristics would i take with me on an Emotional journey??

Anyone else fancy debatins or talking about this?

Lexx

NZ SCRIPT CROSSES FINISH LINE

Hi All

The Nelson script is finished. I'd like to say a big thanks to Jamie for sticking with us through the difficult NZ exam period (exams unfortunately are more important than scripts!) and for coming out the other end with a complete script from what began as a patchwork of ideas back in July.

If you've had a chance to read our script you may have noticed that it is a touch long. Somehow it has become epic in scale but we are proud of our words and the world of the play we've developed is a wordy one. However you are more than welcome to cut what doesn't work for you and replace scenes with the action contained within the dialogue.

If you get a chance have a watch of Jamie's interview where he describes the process that has led to our story. It has been a fascinating and experimental one. A huge amount of learning has occurred for us during it from young people learning about developing narrative to me learning about letting go!

I'm not sure how we came to tell a story about an orphan, a new girl, European settlers, suitcases, time travel, Maori heritage and the impact defining moments can have on our future but this is where the theme 'Strangers' has taken us.

I've enjoyed reading your scripts and am brimming with ideas for pulling them together from sending the characters from our play into the scrapyard looking for each other to Gwen stomping into the middle of our opening waiata(song) looking for her flip flop!

It would be great to hear your ideas so start posting them up here and get commenting on others!

We are reading and casting all the scripts next week so watch this space to find out who is playing who!

I'd like to finish by congratulating the Nelson group for all your enthusiasm, creativity and for being so open to new ideas and so unprecious with your own. Its been difficult to stay as focused as I'd know you'd all have liked during exams but hopefully now that's over you can give this your all and let the script amalgamation ideas pour forth!

Bye for now,

Sarah

Interview with Jamie - writing facilitator in Nelson

Nelson Video 2

The rest of the group interview in Nelson

Some of the Nelson group talking about their scripts

It's Me! Jermaine from sypc!

Hey to everyone who is involved with the strangers project!
my name is jermaine and i work at slough young people's centre, i'm the drop-in worker here and i am proud to say that my organisation has a big involvement in itself with the project, as some of the drama sessions will be held here at sypc!
the project is amazing and on such a big scale, everyone involved will learn a hell of a lot, most probably go through the stresses and strains of doing a theate piece, but will agree with me that it will be worth it.

my intrests pan from music to games and sports to drama so i'm keen to watch this project grow and cannot wait for the end product when it arrives.

keep up the hard work guys, you're an inspiration!

love JermZ x

FROM THE PAGE TO THE STAGE...

Hi there,

Lizzie here. Well this is exciting isn't it? The scripts have started to wend their way around the world for all to enjoy. Now we can start this business of making theatre.

We in Slough are going to have our first read through tonight of the Welsh and Slough scripts and start playing around with how we can weave them together. Have had a few ideas but nothing set in stone yet. thought we'd do a bit of spontaneous patchwork, responding sensitively at first to the scripts to see what instinctively goes with what.

It's a bit like standing on the edge of a cliff and nervous to take that leap lest you've forgotten your glider. I know that we will all support and reaspond to each other as we make that leap into devising and rehearsals. That's vital at this stage int he game.

Come on Slough Massive!! Peri's sent you an invite...no excuses now. We need to get talking and have as clear a voice as Brynamman and Nelson.

One of our group, Kailey, had this idea some time back about breaking the fourth wall and inviting the audience into proceedings but perhaps running some kind of ..."guess who, or whodunnit " type of thing. They could be left with a question about the play at the interval and a poll taken or summat? Just one idea of getting them discussin the play, the characters, the themes rather than just having a beer at the break.

Adrian has a fab notion that we in Slough have leapt at, that Strangers Performance will be a theatre experience from the monent the audience arrive to the moment they leave. We'll achieve this by having grid lines along the floor and up walls that people can follow and at the end they will be, for example, a poem written by one of the group (from any Zone). That way, as much of the work created can be presented to the audience without the play being super long. I was thinking also that there may be couple of vignettes, a short scenario involving two minor characters from earlier development work that could be played in invisible style theatre (is it theatre or are they just stranger people having a public conversation?) in the foyer or outside or in the bar at interval. What do you think?

Love to all, you're amazing.

New Poll Ideas

Hey Peri! I was thinking of a new idea for a poll when it came to me!

*PING*

how about asking the guys about whether they want to interact with the audience or keep it a totally straight play with no actor / audience interaction?

Up to you?

Speak soon!

Bonjour

Bonjour team.

We are just editing our practise films. We have also just read through the blogg and seen everybodies excellent scripts. We've started talking about staging the Welsh play and whether or not we will need to get good at Welsh accents! Sarah read some of your scripts out loud with a shocking Welsh accent. Have a look at the footage!

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!