Telling stories

Unfortunately, the physical workshop has been postponed for next week, so I’m happy (no exercise for me!) but also, I wanted to do a physical workshop because it would have made a nice change up to the workshops. To be honest, I thought this week’s workshop was going to be kind of boring. (Don’t worry; this blog is not about boring drama workshops!) However, I can’t dwell on that so too bad! Anyway, as the physical workshop has been postponed, Ned had a trick up his sleeve to rectify the problem and keep the session going. (And keep us entertained!)

As usual, we had to do the stretches and games, (you know, to get us warmed up and in our ‘theatrical’ mode) but then told us all to sit. (Sounds really dramatic, huh?) Here comes Ned’s little trick up his sleeve. Ned had expressed his interest in real life stories about ourselves, which happened before we lived, which may have made us who we are today and wanted us to get in pairs to share a story or 2.I was thinking oh no, I have no good stories and will probably have to make up something that sounds good! However, when listening to my friend’s story, it was really interesting to hear because it’s a bit like hearing a tale from a book that hadn’t been written. I eventually remembered a story as well, and despite thinking it was kind of boring, it was nice to return the favour and tell a story. We then had to get in a circle to hear other stories and contrary to what I thought at first, the stories people told ranged from funny, to insightful to serious and were anything but boring.  It only gets better from here on, as we picked 2 of the stories to make scenes out of, in groups of 8, so we could see it in a more artistic light.

Devising the scene was definitely the most fun part as it allowed us to be creative with a true story, without clouding the message behind it. I generally find devising hard, as you have to start off with little, but making a scene out of this story of ours was not only easier than I expected but fun as well. When performing the scene and watching the other scene, I really felt we had done the stories justice by keeping it real.(How many times have you heard that!?)

Anyway with the session ending, the physical session (hopefully!) should be commencing next week and I’m looking forward to it now even more. See everyone next week!

P.S Happy Chinese New Year!!