National Youth Theatre Epic Stages Course

31.07.17

From Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire to Sidcup, South East London. Second night here. My diary that I have wrote in has been leaked on by a big bottle of water soooo let's do this online.

Currently, I am sat in the kitchen of my accommodation while the girls I am living with are eating their dinner or cooking (my pasta is on the hob). The halls are so so nice and my bedroom is lovely and big with a desk and shower room.

Today was the first day at National Youth Theatre, and I am not going to lie, I am absolutely knackered! It was a fantastic day where everyone's names were learnt in the group (just over 30 people) and I think I have the names down, this is where learning the names of children that I teach fast has helped me with my first challenge here. In addition, we played a lot of icebreaker games that really got me thinking and thinking fast... you hear the word 'games' and feel relaxed, these were not relaxing. The games tested us mentally and physically, all the time improving our bond as a group.

At the end of the day, we got put into 5 groups of around six and we were to write down on an A3 sheet of paper our talents. One guy could fit his fist into his mouth, a girl could twirl ribbons very well, another girl was a gymnast and did a fantastic cartwheel into the splits, one could do a break dancing pose, another could do the lizard walk and I said I could sing operatically. Among putting these skills together, we were to have a smooth transition into each one and also work on different speed and duration. In addition, we were to incorporate two songs that were a guilty pleasure and so we hit the 90s and gently sang 'all the things she said' by T.a.t.u and as a finale 'Babycakes' seemed appropriate (it worked alright). During all of the acts in our group we had undertones of vocal sounds from the group which was very ambient and allowed for the performers to feel as one in the ensemble. You know when you break out into "opera diva" and sing 'all the things she said' in an operatic style hitting top Cs randomly that you are in your crazy, unpredictable and challenging element that you thrive of as a performer.

After dinner and a lovely chat with the girls in the flat I am very much ready for bed. Looking forward to tomorrow. Night x