On the Homefront Week Three

It gives us no pleasure to announce that this was an unfortunate week. To begin with, the Anthos team would like to acknowledge the horrific events which took place just down the road from the community centre. For those unaware, a fire broke out very early on Friday morning. Despite the best efforts of the emergency services it claimed several buildings, including the Clarence Hotel (the oldest hotel in Britain). The whole team would like to send thanks and support to the individuals who fought the fire and those who now continue to work towards making everything safe again. As a result of these events, most members of our brilliant cast were unable to attend this week's rehearsal.

HOWEVER! There were some cast members who just wouldn't be stopped and so the show carried on. Though we may have been down on numbers this week, it didn't stop us from getting the most out of our rehearsal! This week we also had Mads with us, who co-directed our fabulous production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' last term.

The original plan for the week quickly discarded, we launched into some new improvisation work. Again, at the forefront of the exercises was the idea of creating different characters who would have lived during the time of the Blitz. With guidance from us, the cast began to explore different avenues and create their own individual characters with their own personality traits and backstories. It was wonderful to watch them work and develop these characters from merely a few words and also to discuss them afterwards. Over the course of the session these characters engaged with each other and a variety of different situations to allow the cast different opportunities to fully explore what they had created and think about what worked well and what didn't.

While it may have been a tough rehearsal, we are very impressed at the professional manner of the cast and, to those who were able to be there, for carrying on as best as we could despite the circumstances. Next week we will be starting to look at the final narrative for the performance and draw together from what the cast has created to begin forming what will be their final product.

On the Homefront- Week Two

TRIP WEEK! 

We were very excited this week to be going on our first ever Anthos outing with our talented AYC members! After playing a quick name game we set off from the community centre and ventured up the road to the RAMM museum. Inside we found the exhibit on World War 2, which featured a colourful range of information about the war and even an actual Anderson shelter! The cast found it interesting to actually glimpse what it would have been like inside one while the air raid siren blared and the bombs fell. We also learned about St Anne's church and how it was bombed during one particularly destructive raid, as well as some of the fashion at the time. 

Once we returned to the community centre we wasted no time in getting stuck into the week's activities. As usual, the week featured Ben's obligatory 'make a shape' game. This week we saw pentagons, a pair of shoes and even an iwatch. Next we moved on to some more improv games. This week the cast (and Jake) were given different stimuli which they had to use as the basis for creating a scene. They were split into two groups; one group was given the word 'freedom' as their stimuli and the other was given 'struggle.' 

Both groups worked hard and produced remarkable scenes that respectfully engaged with the stimuli they had been given. The first group focused on the 'freedom of creativity' and featured two office employees who try to convince their boss that their business ideas are worth his investment, while the second dealt with the 'struggle of addiction' and looked in at a local therapy group as they expressed their addictions and their struggles. 

Finally we dived into the war. Using the ideas and suggestions we came up with last week we mapped out some characters with our cast, who then adopted them for the following task. That task was an extended improvisation in which these characters would go about their daily lives in the war. The characters included:

An evacuee from London.

A Devon local, who wasn't too fond of the evacuees and people who were not local. 

Two brothers, one old enough to join the army and the others much younger and slowly coming to terms with life in war-time Britain. 

A girl who went to work with her mother in a factory. 

With prompts from Jake and Ben, the cast searched through piles of rubble for scrap to sell for food, explored their relationships to one another and took cover in an air raid shelter  as the siren went and the bombs began to fall. In total the improvisation lasted nearly half an hour and afterwards the cast discussed the details about their characters which had emerged during exercise. It was incredible to see how well thought out they all were and how grounded they were in the facts we had discussed around the topic. 

The final exercise of the day was to split the group up. One of the brothers was placed in one group, who had found their way into an air raid shelter, but without the other brother, who had wound up taking shelter in a church with the girl from London. 

This improvisation played on the strengths of what the cast had created the first time, using the relationships they had established to form new stories, scenarios and challenges for those characters. The results were two very heart wrenching scenes the brought new levels and depth to the characters which would blow an audience away if placed on a stage next week. 

The cast undoubtedly produced some incredible work this week and we're very excited to see where they can go from here! 

On the Homefront- Week One

INTO THE FREY! 

Saturday saw the start of an exciting new term for Anthos Arts youth theatre division. We launched our Chameleon Group project in the morning and were met with enthusiasm and support from both our talented seven to eleven year olds and their parents. However that was not all that happened; we also had a fantastic launch of the AYC's newest outing; 'On the Homefront.' The premise of the project? For the cast to pull their knowledge on World War 2, use this knowledge to create their own unique characters and then weave a narrative journey for them. The overarching themes that we gave them were simple: the story is set in Exeter, during WWII, and is about characters the same age as our cast members who are unexpectedly thrust together one night during an air raid. It's fair to say that this term's challenge was a big one. Many people would falter, but did they?

Nope. Not for one second. The cast took to this challenge with a incredible enthusiasm, not slowed for even a second. But let's backtrack for a moment and talk about the session, which started with a long overdue catch up for some and a hearty welcome for others. As is the nature of our projects, some of our members move on, many to bigger and greater things (for which we are immensely proud) while others decide against what is probably better judgement to actually step into the madness once more. Of course we wasted no time in getting everyone stuck into some fun and familiar warm up games. Among the iconic warm ups were Ben's favourite; make a shape, where the cast have to create various shapes (usually with hilarious results) with their bodies. This can range from basic squares and triangles to more complicated ones such as a washing machine or working bicycle. To prove nobody was safe, even Jake got involved (spotted in the picture above). Also on the return was the legendary 'Who Killed King John?'

The theme of the week though was all about improv. When the games were done it was time for the serious (well, sort of) stuff to begin. We gave the cast various different improvisation exercises, providing little or sometimes absolutely no guidance or stimulus for them to work with. This was on purpose; the characters for our play will be crafted over the next few weeks using a broad range of improv techniques and so we wanted to throw the cast in at the deep end to see how they fared. The results were fantastic, the group responded brilliantly and came up with some excellent characters and scenes which made us all question motives and cry with laughter. 

Perhaps the biggest exercise of them all was one called 'park bench,' a game where the cast perform in pairs, with one person providing a character/situation for the other person to play off. The aim of the game is to avoid 'blocking' the other person's direction. Leave it to our talented cast to adapt to a wide variety of situations and produce some brilliant scene work. We had secret agents in the park, passersby who were a little more monstrous than they initially let on, and even a glimpse where Batman really buys is gadgets. 

Finally, we moved onto the main topic. The Second World War. Pulling all of our knowledge we created a chart of facts we know about the war, what happened, what life was like and what elements we could focus on in the performance itself. With guidance from Ben and Jake, the cast waded through their pool of knowledge to discuss some of the more prominent matters that they felt should be addressed. Slowly but surely, the foundations for the performance are being set. 

Next week is very exciting; Anthos will be going on our first ever trip! The AYC will be visiting the Ramm museum to look at a real life Anderson shelter and learn a bit about what happened during the war. More hi jinks to come! Stay tuned!