I now look out there in the world of my practice and see what links my ideas to those of others. So far I have been playing with the idea of reflection on myself, but another useful reflective practice is for one to be able to critically reflect on the ideas and works of others. My inquiry takes me to four individual people, some I have met, some close friends and others I would love to meet, all with one thing in common, we seem to share the same idea within our practice.
As a pupil at secondary school, my first and for most ambition was to be a drama teacher, I ended up falling away from this and becoming an actor. Catherine Cook was my Drama and English tutor and looking back, I really felt inspired by her. She seems to be present in my writing and within my work the theatre. I came from a non theatrical family, I feel it was her who became my support figure to pursue a career within the arts. As an actor she supported me in many performances and now it seems fitting that as I make my journey from actor to drama teacher, it would be her that is a major link in getting there. When I began my career change venture, I was informed that I needed a substantial amount of school observation experience. Catherine is head of the drama department at Jo Richardson Community School, she was more than happy to have me on board as an observer of her classes and of other teachers. This is where my passion for bringing drama into schools really grew, this idea that these children don't want to be on stage or TV, but want to learn skills for life excites me. Giving them tools like confidence, communication and reflection will enable them to become fine young people and those skills will encompass everything they for the rest of their life's. What an amazing thing to be apart of? To be able to create an inspiring platform for young people to grow and flourish. It is in talking to Ms Cook, that this very passion I believe in began to emerge and we share the same passion for the importance of drama in schools. When watching her classes, I find it fascinating how she almost has a different teachers mask for each year group, the pupils would never know, but with each individual level, there is a subtle change in her approach, a skill I hope to develop. I enjoy observing and learning from her and I think this is because we share the same enthusiasm for the theatrical arts in schools.
Website: http://www.jrcs.bardaglea.org.uk/drama
I am the co-director to the new Take Flight children's theatre school. My business partner is Stevie Tate-Bauer and we met ten years ago at drama school. After ten years of working, we sat back and noticed a hole in the theatre school opportunities for children in are area of south east London. The school was opened March 2011 and we couldn't have anticipated how well the project has done, the reception has been very positive. We noticed that most all of our customer base was financially comfortable families, children lucky enough to have both parents working and earning enough to pay for extra curriculum. However there was a substantial amount of customer enquiries that just couldn't afford to send their child to us, from single parents to unemployed, quite rightly after school clubs are out of the question. This made us so sad, it was heart breaking that if you were born lucky you got to come to our theatre school. This idea didn't sit well with us, but what could we do? We couldn't just say, "don't worry, if you can't afford it, come along for free." We got on to the council, we were invited to a committee meeting and after much negotiation, we now have a grant system in place, supported by the council. This is to cover the fees of any children we feel deserve to join us but struggle financially. It was great to share this sadness with my business partner Stevie and I am so glad that after all the hard work, that sadness was transformed into a really great thing. Exploring this further, what other art/theatre schools out there also share this passion? What are they doing to support this idea?
Website: http://www.takeflighttheatreschool.co.uk/#!
My next person, I have only met once. It was in passing at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End, London. All I could say was, "Hello, I'm Danielle's friend." "Hello, Danielle's friend," replied Julie Walters, I was star struck. We share the one most important thing to me and my work, be it teacher, company member or actor, we both love to make people laugh. There is something about capturing a group of people and engaging with them in laughter, it's such a wonderful gift and comedy keeps us alive. Julie Walters for me encompasses the kind of actor I am/want to be, even though of course she is a national treasure and I am still yet to be discovered. It is this idea that there is life and there is theatre, both important but there is a time when one gets home and stops performing. I love she doesn't take it all too seriously, she knows what she does well and she just gets on with. I have always said, I enjoyed being an actor and then I decided to make a career of it. It's the pressure that goes with making money from your art that can be detrimental to it, removing the passion or love it becomes about dates and figures. Julie Walters helped me make this realisation, I decided to not to neurotically obsess over my so called career and bring it back to what really made me happy, making people laugh. It was this notion that gave me the bravery I needed to finally pluck the courage and devise a comedy cabaret act. I would have never agreed to put a dress on early on in my career and call myself Andy Winehouse, it was all about the right character role at the right time. I threw all of this up in the air and decided to make them laugh, but more importantly, make myself laugh. It would be interesting to find out if comedy and teaching are linked in anyway? Are the skills I have learnt on the comedy stage, transferable to the classroom?
The following website is an interview with Julie Walters and the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/oct/31/julie-walters-actor
My next task was to search my practice for that of which I don't understand, when I reflected on the first three people, it was obvious within minutes who that person would be. Finding something I don't understand and sharing this with someone proved hard. It happened accidentally whilst discussing the theatre industry with a group of old friends/work colleges. "Wizard of Oz was awful," said Grace Harrington. She talked us through the show and claimed it was a disappointment, this was because the wizard was played by famous TV astrologist Russell Grant. This opened the flood gates for a heated debate, what was this obsession with our industry and celebrities? The show Chicago seems to have started the trend, it opened to a honest west end cast in 1998, but since then the show has become an obvious stepping stone for reality TV shows. From Xfactor to Dancing on Ice, celebrities make the cross over from TV shows to the glittering West End stage. We discussed that Bonnie Langford, a well established actress in her own right, couldn't even get an audition to play Roxie Hart in Chicago, the very second she got voted out of Dancing on Ice, she announced, live on air, that she would be joining the West End cast. I don't understand what's happening? Why do the British public prefer to see a compensated performance by a TV celebrity, than a West End professional doing the job they are trained to do? It leaves us professional with the insult that our experience and skills are of no value to the theatre industry, someone can sit in a televised house for six weeks (Big Brother) and be considered over you, for a job you've trained to do. It might be interesting to see how producers feel about this? Is it just about money? Or do they have integrity? Celebrities maybe the way to get bums on seats now, but myself and Grace Harrington still don't understand it...
Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7444254.stm
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