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!
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