Millie-May Directing Blog 1

With the growing experience and talent of some members, Tanushka and I have started giving directing opportunities to the young actors. Take a look at what Millie said about her first attempt.

Last week in drama I had a go at directing for the first
time - believe me, it was hard!

Once you’ve got a picture in your head of what you want the scene to look like, it's quite hard to actually get it out of your head. You just have to accept that it's probably not going to turn out how you thought it would. You have to remember that actors aren’t dolls and you can’t simply force them into a position without them feeling uncomfortable in that position and able to move freely.

If you direct your actors to add a little look to the audience so they can understand what the character is feeling, it doesn’t always go as planned. I found that in performance the audience laughed, when actually the character was experiencing a tiring, backbreaking job. I guess they liked it, whichever way they took it, and that’s the main thing. The audience have to like it.

It's often difficult to know exactly how an audience will react to the scene that you've directed and only through experience that you can get a pretty firm grasp on the feeling that you're creating through the performances and the blocking. Millie managed to put together a gorgeously sweet little scene. That's all I'll say on it for now. If you want to see how that scene turns out then come and watch on March 24th!

Josie Lambert - Walking Through the Smoke

Yet more amazing writing from our group. This time, it's Josie Lambert's turn to write a poem inspired by the Butoh exercise. Josie is 10!

Walking through the smoke,
Covering my eyes,
Soft ash on the floor,
A civilisation dies.

Expressionless face,
A planet on my head,
Struggling with the balance,
Slowly being lead.

The planet's weight is painful,
My screams as silent as this night,
I cannot keep moving,
Not falling is a fight.

As I lay in the darkness,
The dust of a month, year, century,
My eyes are open but I cannot see,
This world was never meant for me.

The warm duvet of dust,
I'm as peaceful as a sleeping baby,
But still so tiringly awake,
Until a strange light hits me.

That light pulls me up,
From the point it touches me,
Getting lifted to the surface,
The light was the key.

Now I'm walking through a land,
Filled with blinding lights,
Weird machines called 'cars',
And people breaking into fights.

I ask where I am,
They can't see or hear me,
My answer is blank faces,
And the knowledge I will never be free.

The Ash - By Ellen Boucher

Ellen, aged 9, is a member of the afternoon group of Windmill Young Actors.

THE ASH

The ash was falling, falling from nowhere. I stared into the nothingness. I didn’t want to walk but something was pulling me. Perhaps it was the restless spirits that lay under years - so many years - of ash that always fell, always would fall and always had fallen. I was carrying something, it felt important. It was on my head. I couldn’t carry it anywhere else. Something wouldn’t let me. But it was so heavy. It weighed me down. Then I was sinking. Now it wasn’t just a thing on my head, something was pulling at my legs. The spirits were luring me into the underground world, just the way my entire civilisation had been taken. Then I stumbled. I was on the ground. The spirits had taken me. I couldn’t get up. I just lay.

A light was shining on my face and my body was numb. An entire millennium under the ash and now I was free. I’d forgotten how to move. I managed to rise. I kept rising. I was in the air. But my body was as light as air. There was nothing left of me. I was a spirit like all the rest of my people. I wasn’t free. I was gone. Now I was just a spirit desperate for revenge on my evil death.

Guest Blogging

As you know www.bringactinghome.blogspot.com is now the primary source for information regarding Windmill Young Actors. If you haven’t already subscribed please take a couple of minutes to do so. The easiest way is simply to put your email address into the ‘Follow by Email’ box. You’ll receive an email asking you to confirm the subscription and that’s it – you’ll get updates when they are posted. Don’t worry though, all essential information will still be going through Cicely and you’ll always receive an email from her but if you want to make sure you don’t miss out, then sign up now.

The blog details all essential information but I also want it to work as a bit of a forum for ideas and thoughts.

This term and going forward we are offering the students of WYA the chance to be a guest blogger on the site. Perhaps you would like to write about a particular workshop, maybe you want to write a poem inspired by the work as Millie did last year; occasionally you might have some great ideas or thoughts about acting and would like to write about them. This is your forum to do just that!

Blogging is an essential part of online marketing and social media in the 21st Century. Some blogs have literally tens of thousands of followers simply because they talk about a particular subject in an entertainingly informative way. Some people simply find that writing thoughts down is much easier than speaking them aloud. Also, having the title of ‘guest blogger’ is great for the CV. This is your opportunity!

Whatever you feel you want to say, write it up and send it to benmurraywatson@gmail.com. I will edit it and post the best pieces of writing on the site.

Thanks everyone and I look forward to reading your work.