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!

MIMING IN BRYNAMAN FILM

Hello All,

Just thought I'd write a quick post about our filming weekend which starts...TOMORROW!

The film will be about a minute and a half in length and will be about the history of the local area. During the historical facts, you will see mime artists portraying what goes on in the community as someone has misinterpreted "mining" for "miming". Very surreal we know but when we practised our basic mime techniques in a workshop led by Alex - who used to be in a mime troop in England - everyone looked fab and with the practise makeup session, I just know that the results tomorrow will be awesome.

So, if any of the Welsh criw are reading this before Saturday then remember we've got heaps to get through and the film criw aren't familiar with the area so we're all going to need A LOT OF PATIENCE as film shoots always take a long time. Make sure you've got food and money with you and a warm coat for when you're hanging around waiting. I'll txt all this anyway.

Right, miming in Brynaman...can't wait! ;P

Missing Script..

Gwen Luvs John

First Neighbour
Did you hear about Gwen?

Second Neighbour
Everybody’s heard about Gwen!

Third Neighbour
What’s she done now?

First Neighbour
Odd Job John

Second Neighbour
Not on his own

Third Neighbour
Curtains drawn at noon OH poor boy!

First Neighbour
Likes a bit of danger

Second Neighbour
What a rebel

Third Neighbour
Low cut

First Neighbour
Short skirt

Second Neighbour
Well that’s just a skirt!

Third Neighbour
Pressuring my grand daughter

First Neighbour
Bullying my niece

Second Neighbour
What a madam!

Third Neighbour
Parading those flip-flops

First Neighbour
Birken something’s!?! Of course

Second Neighbour
What?!?!

Third Neighbour
Slapping on that make-up with a trowel

First Neighbour
She looks like a clown!

Second Neighbour
Thinks she creative

Third Neighbour
Her tri-coloured spray can

First Neighbour
Gwen 4 john

Second Neighbour
Oh poor odd job john!

Strangers Slough Lizzie Checking in!

Hi all,

Lizzie here! The Slough Sarah and Peri.

With tears in me oyes and a song in me harrt (cheesy) as I scroll through the amazing images, words and sentiments shared by you all on the project.

It's wonderful to hear so many stories from everyone that are not just the creative ideas but about how Strangers is making friends of us all. I have met some great people doing this and can't wait to SKYPE again. Sorry it's taken so long to get on here. (Head hanging in shame but its a long and complicated story that will be boring on here).

I'm totally inspired by what you have achieved creatively in Wales and NZ and am so full of admiration for the Slough Strangers group too, of course. We'll be blogging much more from now on. Won't we guys?!

Your songs, rehearsed improvs, your stories and monologues are all ticking away in our heads and hearts and helping to shape what we're creating in Slough.

We have a suitcase! An obsessive donut eater; a 347 yr old scrapyard guardian who talks in riddles; love, loss, betrayal and hope. And a couple of cantankerous old people you don't know whether to love or loathe. Our story is simple. Set in a scrapyard (Slough, part finished, part not, a real mixed bag of cultures, languages, crazy architecture, a bit ugly in places with a reputation for being depressing but with a villagey community feel mixed with London suburb shabbiness thrown in for good measure.) All who enter trhe Scrapyard must at some point cross paths with Mr Scillar the ancient yardy. He will help or hinder (he reps the Heart of Slough). All characters are running from or looking for something. Our main Character, John, is looking for his lost identity, he will find this through finding his family. We follow him on his twisting and turning journey, meeting lots of colourful characters along the way, some with suitcases and some without, sometimes in the cinema and sometimes on the high street. Essentially telling the story of Slough through these characters.

We've got rehearsal later on today and I'd love to weave in some of the ideas such as the neighbours bickering, the sounds of the langauge through the game:fruit/country, the reggae beats popular in NZ (in Slough the group tends to be a bit RnB and hiphop or Lemon Jelly hippy tunes when under duress from me), the stylised movement sequences that NZ did for the arts festival.

I've included here a short scene by Inderjit that I think is lovely and poignant.

Mr Scillar may be portrayed by a huge shadow puppet with prerecorded big voice and then he'll have a normal size and a miniature representation as well. (perhaps?? was our last thinking wasn't it Adrian, designer?)Some background to Scillar: he cannot leave his job as guardian until someone else volunteers to take over. Rosalina has arrived from Poland but is down on her luck and wishes to find a way home. Through the story she eventually comes to realise that home is where the heart is and that Slough can give her what she needs.


Script Idea by Indy
Rosalina and Mr Silla

(Mr Silla enters stage left, is walking his dog and at the same time Rosalina, enters stage right, is dragging her suitcase along and crying. They crash into each other)

Mr Silla :( Shouting) WATCH OUT!!!
Rosalina: (crying) So sorry!
Mr Silla: Oh dear, I’m sorry! Why were you in such a rush, anyway, it’s not safe at this time of night for a young lady to be running along the streets alone!
Rosalina: I’m fine (Sits down on bench)
Mr Silla :( sits next to her) It’s alright! Has someone hurt you?
(Rosalina sighs, then nods)
Rosalina :( Sings softly in polish)
Mr Silla: Such a pretty voice! (Sighs) Now are you ok?
Rosalina: (looks up and nods)
Mr Silla: Whenever I feel bad I look at my dog! (Points at his dog)
Rosalina: (looks at the dog, she starts to smile)
Mr Silla: As long has he’s smilin, I’m smilin! I‘ve been here so many years! He’s the one thing that’s kept me going, that and knowin that whatever I need is right here! My home.
Rosalina: (stares at him) you no feel like you no at home, sometimes?
Mr Silla: I do sometimes, but dreams take their time as do most good things

(Rosalina considers this and then stands up, Mr Silla gets up with her and they walk off the stage)

More later,

Peace and Love

One of The Welsh Crew!!

Hi guys...the thing that we did on Saturday was really fun (sorry Peri i forgot the name lol) :P
All you guys you make Strangers worth going to lk! (and you Peri) lol......Well im going wid Peri to Trinity College tomorrow to do a workshop...so we will have a lot to talk about lk lol.

I have also made a song up for our play..i know I'm not in it but if you lk it we could go and record it and put it as a voice over. Its a bit cheesy...but all of us that go to Strangers are cheesy lol.

Well c u all 2moz!!

Cariad

Owain
xx

New Stranger to the Welsh Crew

Hello everyone! Peri asked me to do this and I've finally got round to doing it! I'm Cadi, I'm 15 and I'm the newest Stranger to the Welsh Crew. I found myself starting in the full out Stranger week, and like Alex said, it was intense and amazing. It was slightly daunting to begin with, new faces, trying to remember names and feeling a tad shy, but they're such a brilliant group of people it was probably one of the best half-term holidays I've had in a long time. It was fantastic to have Alex our designer along on some of the days to talk to us about different approaches to set design and masks. What with that, having a chat with you guys in NZ about your fantastic ideas that you have, throwing ideas back and forth with the film crew and doing various interesting writing work shops with Jon I have to say I was literally bouncing at the end of the week. It's amazing what a few words and some research can do to get the ideas flowing.

Just popping in two monologue here that I made up. One of our ideas is to have various characters from the past and present having mini monologues being spoken. This was inspired after reading some of Dylan Thomas' characterisations in "Under Milk Wood". I have written two - a Travelling Baker Lady and a Librarian and I'll post them here for you to see.

Travelling Baker:
"I am Anwen - a baker born and bred. Flour runs through my veins like blood. I travel to different villages in my van, see their cultures mix and rise. Brown bread, white bread, soft and crispy, cold flan, shortbread, cake and even sweet items which result in a blanket of wasps as my constant companions. Baking is my very core, my very living, breathing life. People buy my goods and I give them an open ear to stories from their woven worlds in return. Gossip, rumours, truth and twisted tales follow my every step. I travel from Ammanford to Brynaman; I see and I hear the young and old, the likes of Mrs James gossiping about the neighbours cat; and I bake my bread in an honest silent routine."

Librarian:
"Books. They smother the world around us, my world. Even my name, Betsy, is found in a book. Every second of every minute of every day of my working life is spent with them. Fiction, biographies, fantasy, non-fiction, history books, books on wars, on animals, on countries, books about books. I see them every day, I touch their battered crumpled spines as if comforting them. People see me and they see a woman working in an environment she loves, whispering words to dog eared old tomes. Yet they are wrong. I, the Librarian, have the darkest secret of all. I hate every sheet of paper that make the books within my Library. I hate the works they whisper, the songs they sing. I loathe and despise how the words imprinted on the fading paper can change a person. I, Betsy, go about my work and treat the books I look after with an air of enjoyment, of serenity and pleasure. Yet it is all a falsity. So, let this be our secret, okay?"

Right, I'm now looking up the screen and seeing a rather large amount of writing ... So I'll stop here with the last few words of sending my thanks to all you guys in the Welsh crew who are officially amazing at making me feel welcome!
- Cadi -

Refugee song mix!

hey hey there; I've done a very rough version of the Slough/Nelson refugee song. The Slough group performed an acappella version of a poem they had written on video. Tom at Real Time extracted the audio and emailed it to me in NZ. The Nelson team then put it into Reason and Digital performer and jamie recorded a guitar track and helped us with some harmonies. We decided to add a dub-reggae feel as this music is very popular over here (check out Fat Freddy's Drop, Katchafire and Salmonella Dub for NZ examples). I've left a couple of gaps with a more urban loop underneath and would like to see what you guys in Slough and Wales want to add. Unfortunately I work on a Mac and the blog site doesn't let me upload stuff on Safari so I need to upload the files later at work. hope I've whetted the appetite!

More Coalhouses!

Just reflecting on the week's work - I'm really happy with how it went and hope everyone else in the Wales team feels the same. It's been a real team effort and as I hope I made clear, the play will be all your own words - I'm just helping with ideas and structure. Now the writing team will hopefully get to work polishing up the script - we'll be doing all this by email now.
It was also great to see everyone getting on so well and enjoying themselves!
It really would help if as many people as possible can get to watch episodes of Coal House - there's actually a lot more of these than we realised. If anyone can record episodes that would be great.
The schedule of Coalhouse programmes is here.
Greetings to all in Slough and New Zealand - I did at last get to speak to Jamie in NZ this week. Looking forward to coordinating our efforts.

Holla Again

Hey lol Just me back from one of our strenous days with peri and john lol i feel this week has been the most productive since strangers started for brynaman in february! We've got the basis for the scripts, set and 3 of the characters that we really like Gwen, Rhydian and Stranger. We've done loads of role play scenes of neighbours gossiping and stuff like that. We recently skyped with new zealand as peri has said, It still feels weird talking to people across the globe but i shall adapt lol Becki (but no alex lol like before), Danielle and sarah briefed us through their play and all that they've been doing We play lots of games like the banana song and Penguin!!! We seem to have a tight group of friends already so its nice to see that we were all strangers before this started but now were all good friends! we even share lunch lol! Its been nice to see and hear from the helpers like Alex, Clare, Roger, Elin, John and Sarah as i feel all the youth can now see a play forming !! Ok now im rattling on.
Hope EVERYONE ALL OVER Slough and New Zealand are well

Lexx

( i would like to point out how many alexs so far we have in our production 3 So it must be a special name)

Nelson Performance Clips - lots of video!

These are clips from a recent reading of the scripts at the Nelson Suter Gallery, part of the Nelson Arts Festival.

Nelson video clips

This is a performance of the Refugee Song, a shared composition between Slough and Nelson.

Day 2 in the Pensioners Hall...

Woah, What a day we had in Wales today!

Only day 2 of rehearsals and so much to think about! Criw Cymru (Wales Criw) were all ready to Skype NZ before 8 am this morning and the film crew were making a documentary of us at the same time. (FOR DETAILS SEE COMMENT BOX ON LAST POST) We all had tea and toast (some with honey..!) and then made our way down to rehearsal for 10am.

After singing with the NZ team we were all in the mood for more songs during warmup and were very pleased when Alex the designer and Roger and Elin joined in the funky chicken, penguin AND banana songs!!! Then we did a cool memory focus game using place names and Welsh surnames in the circle (Sars- the fruit/country game) We managed to get into a really good two beat rhythmn by the ned and I think its something we can come back to as it really evoked the patterns and sing song nature of the Welsh language and accents.

We then discussed film ideas in the circle and John told the filmmakers about the narration style hitchhiker guide to brynaman. During our creative conversations we've developed some cracking ideas around surrealism, monty python-esque randomness and lots of fun I feel!

Loads of food for thought to mull over till Friday when we develop the ideas futher with Roger.

In the afternoon Alex ran a design workshop and showed us loads of really cool masks and puppets to give us a sense of where we really can take our ideas especially regarding the themes of journeys, masks as strangers and loads of other things! We discussed what NZ had told us about their play in the morning and thought about Slough's ideas too and looked at places we could set our play - how to create "Brynaman" and ensure we tell the audience our really important story and share it. Ideas for the screen varied greatly - which is always best at the start - from laundry on a washing line to a pathway leading upstage and splitting the screen in two. So many variations on this and other ideas that there's just not enough time to share them all...Aaaargh!

So there's a taster for those who weren't there and a reminder for those who were ;)

To complete the session we listened to the intro of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milkwood" and relaxed and lulled with a cup of tea ready for a day of devising, acting and creative writing tomorrow....SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!! I've got to choose a new smiley...

Peri xxx Cool.

Strangers Connecting!

Hi Wales Strangers/Hi NZ Strangers

Heres the skype agenda for today:

Sarah to open skype in NZ.

Welsh group hi/NZ group hi.
Each group member introduce themselves.

• What our plays are about
• Nelson to ask Wales about talking stick convention. Plus respond with own ideas
• Wales to ask Nelson about suitcase convenion. Plus respond with ideas
• Share ideas for using masks.
• The friend song- to be taught by Peri with support from Welsh group.
• Discuss refugee song
• Ideas for connecting and disconnecting gestures
• Discuss using the blogg more effectively.

Welsh group goodbye/NZ group goodbye

Hope that is ok

C U SOON!

Sarah- Director NZ

BRYNAMAN ROCKS!!

Hi All!

Peri here :) Just had to blog after our first day of intensive rehearsal week in half term in Wales.

Alex, Jacob, Haddy, Tess, Cadi and Sophie - you did some amazing research today and it will all be so worth it when we come to our creative writing this week.

Think about all the descriptive words we can try out to really evoke the atmosphere of the Amman Valley and be bold! Think of all that anthracite rock/coal (hard to light, then never goes out;)) which is very unique in the world and we are lucky enough to have some!

I learnt loads this morning, especially when you guys were all being fount-of-all-knowledge professors and also by watching Jon's video of the reality tv show "CoalHouse". It really made me think about life in 1920s Wales.

I've just been talking to the writer and director Jamie and Sarah in NZ and they're really interested in all the ideas we've come up with today. Looking forward to the early morning skype with NZ YPs. I'll pack the honey and toast now ;)

See Y'all

Hear me talk!

P.S. - click this little ghost of Brynaman!

Wales team - don't miss this programme tonight (Sat 27)!

Research made simple - see it if you can, 5.55, BBC2 - Coalhouse.

Ideas for Wales

Hi all
Really looking forward to the big creative week next week - I've been looking at the work of Wales's most famous writer for some inspiration, which I'll draw on for the workshops. The keen ones among you might like to have a look at an online script of Under Milk Wood, which was written about Laugharne, not so very far away.

And we're off

Kia ora ra everybody

I've arrived back to Wellington from Nelson and i am amped. The scripts that Sarah and i have recieved from the crew in Nelson, are fitting together and we're on the right track to having a complete script. I can't wait to get the Uk scripts so we can play around with them and have a complete show. I just wanna say big ups to the Nelson crew! Keep up the good work, and Big ups to Sarah for being the bomb and making this happen for these dudes in Nelson.

Ka kite ano

Jamie

hey :)

hey im tash and only a couple of weeks ago me and a group of friends got involved with strangers in brynaman south wales. We found out about it from our drama teacher and since then we have been dedicated to the project! I've only been to 3 lessons now but im going to carry on going coz its a great way to meet new people and improve your acting. Peri rocks which makes it better coz shes nt borin lk sum drama teachers........ :s

We all saw a show called vortigens kingdom which was interesting and wer goin 2 cardiff soon 2 see the producers so lkin 4ward 2 tha!!!!! only 2 days till strangers!!!!

xXx

Congratulations Nelson!

Hi All

I just want to say a huge well done to the Nelson group for working so hard over the last few weeks getting ready for the rehearsed reading of our script yesterday. The scripts you've written are really interesting and the story we have developed very exciting. Big thanks for giving up your weekend to finish odds and ends and well done for the performance yesterday. Get blogging to let us all know how you think it went and everybody watch this space for some edited highlights of yesterday.

Slough and Wales groups I promise to get some more info up here about where our script is headed too. Also it would be great to find out more about what your doing and maybe see some of your writing on here soon. During our performance yesterday we shared some of the Slough poetry and your ideas for the refugee song which went down really well. We'll have a clip on here shortly.

Jamie (Nelson writer)-thanks for all the work this work on the script and for running some brilliant workshops across Nelson this week.

Talk more soon,

Sarah (Strangers Nelson)

Latest Updates :D

Hey Peri and everyone in the Strangers Project :D
Im still working on some ideas, but there not quite done yet so be patient and they'll be up soon :D Nearly done though.

Its all a bit weird over in the US at the moment - as you know I've started Highschool over here now, and Im now taking Health Class.
Well, this weekend I have to look after an electronic infant which acts just like a real baby and its driving me totally crazy! Its fine during the day but then when it gets to night it wont shut up! lol. Its evil!
Its also very weird because as I get to know people from around the area and at school they all realise that I have an accent so they're always asking me to say stuff, but they love the way I talk, and they want to know all about England!
And even though Im getting used to the area, its still really scary having to meet new people because you dont know anyone and Im no longer in my comfort zone - so Im not as confident as I used to be. :(

Oh yeah!!! I've finally signed up for a drama class!!! woohoo!
My first session was on Thursday evening and they all wanted to know about England and so I dropped the Strangers Project into the convo and they all find it really interesting and they are going to have a look at the blog!!! Yay

Anyhoo, thats the latest so far :D
Talk to you lot later :)
Mel
xx

RECAP...it gets you in the swing!

Hey everyone!

I've just spent the last 20 mins going through all the comments boxes and recapping over September posts as well. Its really good to recap as it reminds you how things are developing...and so far so good! The only way is up! And with the Slough half term next week and Wales half term the following week there's gonna be loads more stuff to blog soon!

Keep those comments going as well - its really cool when someone answers your post! lol

Hope everyone's having a funky weekend - Wales criw - get posting!!!! ;D

Peri

Hullooooooo

Hey I'm Becky, from the Nelson, NZ Strangers team thingy ... I'm sitting here with everyone at the moment and waiting for more people to arrive to do script development stuff so I thought I'd post my first blog thing on this! So hello! Here I am! I'll write more later when i have more time :)

Hi everyone!
My name is Comfrey and I'm part of the group working in New Zealand. I live in Nelson but I was born in Wales and it's been great working with new people and being able to talk about my ideas.
The scenes that I have been doing are the first day at school and the Sargent's diary entry(it's the same Sargent that is in Danielle's scene). The first day at school one is about a girl who gets into a fight at school and and gets detention, she has to do detention with the girl who she got into a fight with and they find out their not so different.The Sargent diary is about a Sargent who has a lot of trouble with his men.
By for now,
Comfrey

Hi from New Zealand! My name is Danielle. I'm 14 years old and i'm in the Strangers programme in the Nelson region. I was born in Nelson as with my parents and my nana. But my family has lived in New Zealand for several generations. This strangers programme has been really good for me, to meet new people and to try something new which is playwriting. I'm into music, i get singing and keyboard lessons. I think this is a great programme, linking in with Wales and Slough countries. It'll be cool to see how we all link up and our productions all fall together.

My scene that im writing is about a boy (Percivall) who has run away from the orphanage. He can't go back and he is desperatly looking for a place to stay. He finds a place to stay for one night. He is inside talking and looking around the husbands and wifes home (the husband is the Sargent from another scene) when he knocks over and breaks something precious of the Sargents. It becomes a bit awkard.
This scene basically shows that Percivall has nowhere to go and needs somewhere to stay since he's run away form the orphanage.

I'm really enjoying being part of Strangers and i can't wait to hear form everyone else and to see your scripts.
bye!!! :)

Jamie McCaskill

Tena koutou katoa

My name is Jamie McCaskill and i am the writer/facilitator of the Nelson branch of the Strangers project. We're going great guns here. I have recieved the first part of the scripts from the group we are working with here in nelson and they're primo. A great place for us to start. I'm in nelson at the moment with Sarah about to go out and do some recruiting and working with our crew as well. Loving the project. Loving Sarah and looking forward to collaborating with everyone where ever you are in the world.



Hei konei ra

Jamie McCaskill



PS picture coming

Greetings from Jon Blake

Hi to everyone - I'm Jon, writer attached to the Brynaman team. I'm mainly known as a writer for teens and children (my website's at www.jonblake.co.uk) - but I also write tv, radio and stage drama for adults, as well as a lot of songs (one of which has already been forced on some of the Brynaman regulars). Most of these are at Soundclick. Really looking forward to soon meeting the Amman valleyites I haven't met yet, as well as making contact with the writers and others in Slough and New Zealand (can't say I've been to NZ, but I have stayed in Slough!)

Hello!

Aha, ok.
So I'm Rosie. I'm quite a shy person, and I've joined the Strangers project in South Wales. It's perfect for me, because it's in Brynaman and just down the road from where I live. I'm quite nervous when I meet new people but it turned out that everyone was really easy to talk to and I made some new friends!! Yay! And I'm really looking forward now to future rehearsals, but I'm still really confused about how all the plays link up between us, New Zealand and Slough!
Anyway, I'll see the South Wales group on Tuesday,
Byeeee!! xx

NZ media bits

kia ora people!
I'm the person involved in the video and music bits in Nelson - other professionals will be contributing as well over the coming months, and my role initially is to film the documentary. I'm also helping with the development of the Slough song 'Refugees' which was recorded after a skype session. We hope to add our own ideas to the song this month.
The lovely photo was taken at Craters of The Moon near Lake Taupo/Rotorua last year, when it was cold and rainy!
I've been in Nelson for a year and lived in Reading for 12 years before that where, amongst other things, I worked with Real Time who are coordinating the video elements of the project. I work at The New Hub, a youth recreation centre and venue, where we hope the Nelson performance will take place in February.
In the next few days I hope to edit a sample of stuff I filmed at the last workshop and stick it up on the blog.
Looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds.

Cheers

Chris

OUR CINEMA

Sitting in the balacony
Friday night the seats are busy
Or its Orange Wednesdays
81 years of films and people
Young and old, boys and girls
Courting, romance, weddings, families
Miners saving all their pennies
We remember days gone by
And thank them for the memories

PLEASE ADD MORE VERSES THROUGH THE COMMENT BOX

Interviewing the ladies of Brynaman about the cinema in days gone by

On Friday night, 4 of the Wales Strangers, along with Peri and Julianna, went to meet with a local Welsh language ladies group called Merched y Wawr (ladies of the dawn). They are really like the WI (Women's Institute) and bake cakes and make lots of tea and come together socially on trips and events.

We went to film an interview with the ladies about their experiences of Brynaman Cinema as research for writing our Wales script and found out about some interesting characters and what went on in the back seats! ;D

The biggest change for young people of the village from the old days to today was that there was youth club every night of the week with different chapels where the young people of the town between 14 ad 25 years would gather in groups of over 100! There was no need out hang about on the streets as there was always something to do. These days the youth club is only open on Monday nights and is currently closed for refurbishment until the new year :(

People would queue for the cinema for hours and whilst one audience came out of the doors after "first house" the queuers for "second house" would be in their way!

Two very interesting characters were Betty Ben Tips the usherette and a man who worked there called Phil who was big and could neither speak nor hear and all the young people would behave when he was around...Peter is going to look at writing a scene about them over the weekend ;) Nice one Pete!

The ladies also confirmed that there used to be operas at the Public Hall and Owain's nan used to play the piano at those events.

Another interesting thing was that if you were over 15 you had to pay more to come in so the girls would spend ages trying to "dress young" to look 14 or under to save money. These days young people tend to dress up older to try to get into 15 certificate films! Very ironic don't you think?!

There was loads more info we discovered but this is just a taster to give you an idea.

Diolch i pawb yn y Merched y Wawr am yr atgofion a diolch i'r pobl ifanc sy wedi neud y cyfweliad yn digwydd.

LONELINESS MACHINE
5 people standing in a line across the front of the stage, facing upstage.
One girl sitting alone on the ground behind them facing the direction of the audience but looking down, humming a sad and lonely tune, and playing with her fingers on the ground drawing lines etc. She is seen by the audience through the other people’s legs as if they were jail bars or something similar.
The people in the line have their heads hanging down to begin with, but raise them up to be facing the back wall whenever they speak (so the audience knows who is speaking).
Person 1 I just don’t know what to do with myself since he left me for that other woman …
Person 2 I miss my mum … life just isn’t the same without her …
Person 3 Off to school again … there’s still no one I know there though …
Person 4 I don’t fit in here, I don’t know why I’m here … I’ll just keep laughing along with the rest of them anyway …
Person 5 I would like to have someone to love, but I just don’t have time … its just too much effort …
Person 1 Was I too boring? Too annoying? What did I do wrong that she did so right? I’ll always compare myself to her now …
Person 2 It’s just the little things that remind me of her, and every time I see that photo it makes me cry …
Person 3 No one will talk to me at lunch because of how I look … I’m just the same as them but they can’t see that …
Person 4 There’s no reason why I should feel like this – I should be having fun but it’s just all a bit superficial …
Person 5 Running a business like this gives me no time for any of the things I’d really like to be doing … I should be happy with all this money but I’m not …
For the next section now, each of the five people standing turns around as they speak to face straight out to the audience, addressing them. They start in a cannon in number order, each saying their bit about 3 – 4 times before stopping suddenly all at once as if they’ve just heard something.
Person 1 I know they won’t last long, I can see what she wants … he’ll regret it … he’ll come back … I wish he would come back … I miss him … what went wrong?
Person 2 The way she always told me to wear a hat in the sun … the cup of tea at 6.30 in the morning and stomping down the hall yelling ‘wake up’ … her enthusiasm about vegetables and healthy food … always helping with school stuff … the funeral …
Person 3 I wear the same clothes … I live on the same street … but I come from Zambia and they don’t know how to talk to me … I sit by myself … I eat by myself … I work by myself …

Person 4 The drinks are on the table … music is playing … everybody’s laughing, and I’m laughing, but it’s not funny … I don’t know why I can’t relate … it doesn’t make sense …
Person 5 I don’t know where to start … I’m distracted on the outside by everything I have to do … maybe I’m just too old for this … I’m out of practice, it’s been a while … where do I start?
Everyone is silent with their heads tilted slightly as if they’re listening to something. The only noise is the girl still sitting and humming behind them. She looks up suddenly at the audience and says
Girl I thought I was the only one.

First draft by Becky and Tammie Nelson Strangers Group

Fab!

Hi all,

Most of you won't know me, but i work for Communities First in the Upper Amman Valley and was in on the workshop this week with the Wales group. I just want to say that it was fab and i loved your ideas, especially about using a love spoon to symbolise our 'wakapapa' (hope i spelt that correct)! Great! Looking forward to Friday and interviewing Merched y Wawr :) Hope you lot in Slough and New Zealand are having a great time too, can't wait to see what else you come up with and see the performance!

Martyn and Charlie's Interviews . . . Look closely - they are there!

Alex and Peter's Interviews after watching the Welsh play "Vortigern's Kingdom"

Seasons greetings (not really)

HELLLOOOO!!!! I'm Tammie, I'm from the NZ Strangers group, haven't used this before so just thought I'd see what happened if I went "post blog" like you mean it.. and ja ;) blieb giel und so klingt des kamine kerars glux melodie! keep your nose on the joy trail x Tam

Hey from the USA

Hey guys its Melissa.

Im originally from Slough and thats where I started with the Strangers project - and where I met Peri :D She rocks! But she had to go back to Wales no matter how much of our persuasion techniques we used to try and get her to stay. lol

Anyway, I moved to California just over a week ago and its all a bit weird at the moment - I've started school and Ive been making friends and going to wrestling matches, but Im still missing my friends back home and I cant wait to see them again.

ALSO - this is the big one! They dont do drama on our school curriculum!! How weird and unusually cruel is that?! A school isnt a school without a drama class! If it wasnt for the strangers project I would have gone totally crazy!!!! lol

Anyhoo, people to see, places to go :D
Missing everyone from the Ghetto Slough!
Missing Piece of the Pie theatre group and SYPC :D

Keep it real
Mel
xx