The Lion King Review

We went to see The Lion King on Thursday 21st January 2010. The opening was phenomenal with the puppets and dancers coming down the aisles. It is a clever performance with the set and puppets. Although I felt a bit bored as knew what was going to happen as seen it once before and the first time was a better experience due to it being amazing, unbelievable and breath taking. My favourite character was Rafiki who spoke in Click, danced and added humour to the piece. I wanted to get up and sing and dance with the actors sometimes as knew the words. I wouldn't go back to see it again though as thought my expectations were too high and was brought down by disappointment.

18th-22nd January 2010 This week

Well it's been a hectic week. We started delegating roles for 400th birthday party at Ham House. I'm doing design because am interested in costume. We had a year meeting followed by a D.I.C. meeting on Monday and told what the plan for Ham House was which made me a little more relaxed about the project and started to think about who we might include in the 400th birthday party. A carnival procession with eight plots of grass as stages was a great idea. We heard how our colleagues got on in Spain with Spiral. We are going to develop ideas based on the carnival theme. I thought we could incorporate schools by encouraging them to perform something. For example in a past lecture, we had to create a performance based on "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time" and would like to teach children our lesson plans so they can do a performance relating to the book. We've been asked to start getting in contact with schools or community centres. The people who went to Spiral had a great idea of different banners being created by the children that were draped out of the windows. I would like to use idea as I think this is important as the children then can feel like they've added something to the 400th birthday party. I feel excited but nervous at the same time about Ham House's 400th birthday party.

20th December 2009

Into the Hoods

On Sunday I went to the Southbank Centre to see Into the Hoods which is classed as hip hop theatre. The plot is based on all different fairy tales but they have been put into the modern day, i.e. MC Rapunzel and Lil Red. The hip hop dancing was impressive but I don't know why but I expected an outstanding quality and it didn't come up to my expectations. The people had obviously rehearsed and I couldn't fault the dancing but the storyline didn't seem to flow and the plot seemed quite stilted and wooden. As for the acting, well that was bad but they were focusing on the dancing. It was very interesting to note that they only used recorded music and voices and not any live music or live voices. The set and technology was very complex with projections and moving pieces of scenery and projections of writing coming up as the character is writing it. It did have an impact on me but I wouldn't go back.

19th December 2009

Saturday was very hectic to say the least. It was non stop. I was roaming, then face painting and then back to roaming again. Only 7-8 people were in and it was a very busy day as we had about 500 people come through the doors. We all knew the routine inside out by now and to be honest I was getting bored of my story. Again, I'm so sorry to the children I was attempting to face paint. It was a disaster but I know I'll feel empty and lost without Ham House. The creative collab performances were so impressive and inspirational.

13th december 2009

Well this was going to be a very busy day as there were only a few of us in. I was roaming for an hour in the freezing cold then facepainting and then back to roaming and it was so cold. I felt my character had developed into a pantomime dame, I was so loud I was told to keep the noise down. This was the busiest day. I think about 600 people came. I'm finding when I tell the story to children, they either get bewildered and confused, understand or love the story. They sometimes just walked away in the middle of my story but I find it much easier to concentrate as I direct my story to the children with my eyes and gestures.

12th December 2009

Saturday at Ham House. The start of our second weekend. It was quite busy and I really enjoyed telling my story. I felt like as I got more confident with my story, the more my character developed and became real. I feel sorry for the kids who come to me for facepainting. I try my best but I feel so pressurized when the parents keep looking over to see what you're doing. The children ask for really random things but I do enjoy face painting. i like to see the children's happy faces at the end.

11th december 2009

In Lesson

What we did:

We had a meeting about next semester. We discussed the different sorts of ways that we could be assessed. We discussed our participation in the 400th birthday at Ham House.

Feelings:

I feel really excited but nervous about next semester. Next semester is going to be a very hectic schedule.

Ideas/Inspirations:

I want to use our "Curious Incident of the dog in the Night time" physical theatre piece in our workshops. I want to do reminiscence theatre and work with people with special needs.

6th December 2009

Second day of Ham House. We got feedback and amended our rota to make ourselves more busy and have less breaks. We talked about what worked and what didn't. Everyone was much more confident. I felt that I really enjoyed Sunday as I really enjoyed telling my stories and I got into my character and dramatized the story. I was pleased roaming outside as you could see the children's reactions. Overall it was a busier, much more successful day.

5th December 2009

First day at Ham House. I think everyone was a bit apprehensive about the day such as with the face painting. I don't think we knew how the audience would react. For the first couple of hours the basement was very quiet. I found it very difficult to roam inside the house so I went outside. I also found it hard to tell my stor to adults as it was more directed to children. I found that my confidnce grew throughout the day. I found that I got into my character as the day went on. I really enjoyed the face painting bit but I found that lots of children wanted tigers. I felt really inspired by all the playtext pieces and all the effort put in by everyone. The whole experience of the first day at Ham House was patchy throughout.