Placement at Bird College

Hello everyone J I know I haven’t blogged in a while but here I am. Better late than never as I always say.

In this blog, I am going to talk about the new placement that I have just started at Bird College, which is a performing arts college based in Sidcup. I am in the fifth week of my placement now and I am enjoying every second of it. As you may already know (if you’re a regular reader of my blogs) I am currently taking my PGCE in the Lifelong Learning Sector to be able to teach Drama/Acting to college students. Bird College is perfect for me as it specialises in my chosen subject, opposed to a college that just offers Drama among thirty or so other programmes.

So first of all I will just tell you a bit about what I am doing at the placement so far. Currently, I have been put into three different acting classes, one of the classes are looking at duologues, at the moment they are rehearsing scenes from A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney, which I studied in both the second and third year of my Undergraduate degree. After Christmas they will be doing duologues from musicals, and during this period the class will be split into two and I will take half of the class to help them with their scenes, which is really exciting as I am a huge fan of Musical Theatre. In the other two classes, they are just rehearsing plays for their end of year performance. One of the classes are looking at 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane, which is one of my all-time favourite plays. Below is a poster of the show that was performed at Royal Court in 1999.

As you can see from the poster, it is quite a dark play, which is kind of why I love it so much. In this class I have been given two scenes which I can design a lesson plan for and complete as part of my teaching practice. My mentor from Bird is coming to view me on 3^rd December and then my Tutor from Greenwich is coming to view me on 7^th January. So that is quite soon, so I’m a bit nervous, but I think it will be fine.

The other group are currently looking at The Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo which is quite a funny physical farcical performance, which is great. It is quite similar to Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, which I directed for my third year performance last year, in terms of the comedy and physical aspects of the performance. A timetable has not been devised yet, but I will also be given scenes from this play that I will direct as a part of my teaching practice.

Another thing that I am really looking forward to in my placement comes in the summer term. Most of the classes at Bird have their final examinations in March and the summer term is left to the staff to create a scheme of work based on the student’s needs. I have been offered a six week period where I can create my own scheme of work and teach between 1-6 different classes the same scheme of work. Which I think is amazing as it gives me a six week period at the end of the year to act as an actual teacher.

That’s all for today, I just thought I would talk a bit about my placement. Until next time, ciao J

Outing in Central

Hello everyone, I know I haven’t been blogging regularly, it’s been quite a hectic summer with full-time work and then trying to get a place on a PGCE and then getting a place and sorting out finance and somewhere to lives, this list is practically endless. However, all that has calmed down now so I have enough time to sit down and write my blogs.

In this blog, as you can tell by the title, I’m going to talk about a trip I took to central. I began my day on Oxford Street with my friend Amy (pictured below), where I visited a few shops. I did plan to do a lot of shopping as I have just received my Student Finance but then I forgot that going shopping midday on a Saturday in Oxford Street is not the best idea I’ve ever had L So in the end I managed to go in Primark and HMV before feeling completely claustrophobic and departing to head to Charing Cross.

As I mentioned earlier I have just received my Student Finance and when this happens it usually means I’m going to see a West End show… or two. I have always wanted to go and see a Matinee performance followed by dinner followed by an evening performance; this is exactly what I did.

The first show I went to see for a Matinee performance was Forbidden Broadway, an Off-Broadway revue parodying musical theatre, particularly Broadway musicals. It was created in 1982 and has spawned 20 different versions of the show (West End being the twentieth). Forbidden Broadway took the current West End shows and mocked them, the show was performed by four actors (Including Christina Bianco who you may remember from her diva impressions for the song Let It Go: http://www.mstarz.com/articles/17891/20130813/christina-bianco-diva-impressions-adele-cher-britney-spears-aguilera-more.htm) . This show had me wetting myself, it was literally one of the funniest things I think I have ever seen. I advise anyone to go and watch this, even if you don’t know much about musical theatre then I still advise you go as you will still find some laughs in it.

The second play I went to see was Speed-the-Plow at the Playhouse Theatre in Charing Cross. As you may have heard on the news or on the internet, this did star one of my favourite people ever… Lindsay Lohan. I was quite excited and nervous about seeing this performance, I had heard mixed reviews on the play, so I really didn't know what to expect. I did see an article on the Daily Mail website that had gathered loads of reviews and made a report on the show,  quite a few Theatre reviewers that I had studied on my drama course had rated the show quite high, so that made me feel a little bit better about going to see Lohan’s performance.

In terms of the show itself, at first I did not rate the play at all. The performances were great, Lindsay Lohan, Nigel Lindsay and Richard Schiff all did fantastic in their performances but I just felt like the play itself was a bit boring. However, as a drama student I thought I would still buy the play text and give it a read as some times I find that the play is really good but then a production of it could be quite crap. I was right, when I read the text on the train home it was actually an alright play.

So that’s all that happened really. Obviously the highlight was seeing Lindsay Lohan because she is one of my favourite people in the world. Speak soon. J

A Change of Career!

Hello everyone, sorry I haven’t been blogging in a while; I’ve been so busy with life! This blog is going to explain why I’ve been so busy J

Firstly, my summer full time job is now over and I’ve gone back to part-time which is quite sad. I had such a great time over the summer and I met a lot of great people and formed bonds with people which was lovely. In my last blog I posted a picture of Team Denise, those people are amazing and I love them all. It feels weird now that I am working and not seeing them every day, as I just said, it is really, really sad.

As I also stated in my last blog, I had just applied for a PGCE Lifelong Learning Sector to teach Drama in Sixth Forms. Looking at the title I bet you can guess that I received a place on the course which means a big career change for me.

If you’ve read my other blogs then you will know that my dream job is to run my own theatre company or to be a television of film actor. So why the sudden change? Well, I have always had a thought in the back of my head that I would like to go into teaching and I feel that I can do it now whilst I’m still young(ish) and still learning the way of the world as it is so much harder to leave education and then get back into it years down the line.

I am currently in week four of the course and I am enjoying it quite a lot. I do admit that there is A LOT of work and it is scary to look at all the assignments I have to do, but I can tell that they’re quite fun assignments. As I come from a Drama background I am new to all the Education terminology, for example, I don’t know any Theories of Learning or any Theorists and that is what one of our modules is all about. So I’m currently trying to get in some extra reading and some extra study hours in order to get up to the standard of the other people in my class who have an education background.

I am quite looking forward to what lies ahead and I shall keep you posted on any updates. Speak soon J

The End of Summer 2014!

Hello everyone J Sorry I haven’t been blogging lately, work has been soooo busy and any spare time I have is spent sleeping.

So first of all I will start with Clearing 2014! I have had the best summer ever (which is odd considering I literally worked all summer). Work has been so fun this year, mainly because I got the role of Senior Clearing Assistant, so I was given a bit more authority than I’m used to. It was been so fun helping others and imprinting my knowledge onto them.

One thing that happened at work was the annual Theme Your Team! This year I was put in Team Denise and our theme we chose was ‘MEXICAN FIESTA’ and the outcome is photographed below.

I am the one in the middle with the RED HOT CHILLI PEPPER outfit. As you can see we are all the coolest people ever. Theme Your Team this year was really fun and although my team didn’t win… We were still the best team ever! It was such a good day as well because everyone put in maximum effort to pull the theme together which was lovely to see.

Also, lately whilst being in full time work mode, I have also decided to apply for the PGCE Lifelong Learning Sector to teach Drama. I know it’s a bit of a drastic career change but when I thought about it and took the course into consideration, I began to like the idea more and more. I’ve decided that I really want to pursue a work placement within my old college because I get on really well with the tutor there and I know how the school works so it would be perfect for me.

As I write this I have just complete the Literacy Test and the Interview for the course so the next blog I write may be my last ever blog or a blog saying yaaay, I got a place.

Anyway, until next time J

Human Tetris!

Hello everyone, hope you’re all well! J

As time goes on I find it harder and harder to write this blog as I am working full time at the moment and barely have time to venture out into the world and have a social life. However, a few weekends ago I had my friend’s birthday weekend which can only mean one thing… ROADTRIP! I hopped into the car with my friend Michael, who you may also know as a blogger for the University, and we drove up to Surrey to stay at her house for the weekend.

You may remember in one of my previous blogs I did talk about this trip, well here it is. Myself, Michael, the birthday girl Claire and our other friends all arrived in Surrey on the Saturday in order to start the celebrations. On Saturday, we didn’t really do much it was just a case of catching up and chilling in the sun. Our summer activities included playing Badminton (I came second, I don’t care that it was only three people, second is still impressive) as well as playing board games such as Uno and Cluedo. I will admit that it was my first time playing both of these board games and I had a blast, Cluedo is my absolute favourite (I knew it was Reverend Green with a Spanner in the Conservatory).

After game night we then woke up very early on the Saturday as we were heading off to Church… But not Church as you know it. Basically there is a club in London called The Church Bar, which is only open Sundays from 11am until 4pm. So it is really bizarre being inside the club and having a drink and then coming out and still having the evening to do what you want.

Another amazing aspect of The Church Bar on this particular Sunday was that they were breaking a world record attempt of the largest game of Human Tetris! Which was purely amazing, they had several different Tetris sized costumes that we could purchase to take part and become Guinness World Record Holders. It was actually a really good time and I enjoyed myself, I haven’t been out with these people in so long and it was lovely to see them again and to obviously celebrate one of my best friend’s birthdays. Below is a picture of us in our Tetris costumes. I’m the one in the middle with the yellow Tetris block.

Sorry, it’s only a short one but as I said, it gets harder to have a social life when working full time, but I do try. Until next time J

Summer 2014

Hello everyone J Hope you’re all well.

Considering I am working full time, I’m actually doing quite a few other exciting things this summer. Firstly, I am visiting my friend in Surrey for the weekend to celebrate her 22^nd birthday, which I am so excited about. We’ve done the same thing for her birthday for the past two years, gone up to visit her and had a barbeque and chilled out day on the Friday and gone out the Saturday night. This year I’m a bit more excited than I usually am as I haven’t seen her for ages and I miss her lots.

Another thing I am so excited about doing is going to the National Theatre to watch Billie Piper in a new play by Richard Bean called ‘Great Britain’.

The play is an anarchic and foul-mouthed satire about the press, the police and the political establishment. Billie Piper plays Paige Britain, an ambitious young news editor of The Free Press, a tabloid newspaper locked in a never-ending battle for more readers. I absolutely love Billie Piper in everything she does so I am very excited to see her live. I’ve liked Billie Piper ever since she was a singer with her first single, Because We Want to!

Other than that I am going to the cinema a lot as there are a lot of cool films out at the moment and Orange Wednesdays are awesome and make going to the cinema really cheap.

It’s only a short one today, but I thought I would just let you in on what I will be getting up to this summer.

Until next time J Goodbye!

Becoming a Grown-Up

Hello everyone J Welcome back. Today I’m going to talk about real life and becoming a responsible adult now that I have officially finished University L

June 4^th 2014 was the final day of me being a student, which is quite sad considering I have been in education for a full 17 years (6 years primary school, 5 years secondary school, 3 years college and 3 years university). It’s really odd because I started education all the way back in 1997 when I was just six years old, so really education is all I’ve ever known and now I’m being forced out into the world to become an adult and a part of the grown-up society.

I am the sort of person who will freak out at the slightest hint of change. I like to know what I’m doing with my life and when I am doing it, but at this point in my life I don’t know what to do. I’ve never experienced being a responsible adult before. The good thing is that I have received my Degree Classification and I will be graduating with an Upper Second Class Honours Degree (2:1) which I am over the moon about and it just means that I have more options when it comes to looking for graduate jobs which is fantastic.

Another thing I’m not looking forward to is having to leave my job at the Enquiry Unit, I have worked here since March 2013 (which doesn’t seem that long ago) but when you work every week it seems like a lifetime (in a good way)! Once my reign as a University of Greenwich student ends in October, so does my reign as a University of Greenwich employee which is rubbish because I love this job. When I first applied I wasn’t looking forward to it because of all the information I would have to learn and when I first started I didn’t like speaking on the telephone. Now that I have been working here for over a year and am just about to enter my second year as a Clearing Assistant I really enjoy the telephone and I’ve been trained on various other things such as Emails and our LiveChat system. But I am so happy with the experience I have gained over the past two years and I look forward to using that in my future job applications.

Anyway, that’s all from me this month. My next blog will be mid-July where we would have just begun Clearing 2014 J

Thanks, Terry

Rhinoceros

Hello everyone, I know I haven’t blogged in a while but I have been SUPER busy with rehearsals for Rhinoceros J But I’m back now!

I know I always talk about the play I was directing but this will be the last one as the show is now finished L After a seven-month rigorous rehearsal period, I can now lay back, put my feet up and relax. The show concluded on June 4^th at Greenwich Theatre, and what a show it was! I am so proud of my nine cast members and nine members of the crew, they all did amazingly well in their own ways! Here is a picture of me, the crew and our supervisors.

As you can see we were quite a large bunch, as a director I can tell you first-hand how hard it is to try and control and calm down a bunch of hyper-active students! They were a pleasure to work with but what a lively bunch they were J

Both shows went amazingly well! The final night was such a treat for me because I felt that it went the best it could have ever gone and for me to sit back and watch the masterpiece being created was such a joy. It was quite emotional watching my baby come alive (the show) after all the hard work myself, the cast and the crew put in to make this show a success.

I know this is a very short blog, I just wanted to share with everyone how proud I am of all the people involved with the show.

Speak soon J

Bathway Theatre Festival and No More Coursework

Hello everyone, welcome back, in case you haven’t noticed most of my blogs are about my Drama course or about the fact that University is coming to an end. This blog is going to be no different.

Firstly, I wanna talk about the fact that I have officially finished all written work for third year! It was a struggle but I finally got there.

I had a 3000 word research project, 3000 word log book, 2000 word research essay and 4000 word placement report all due in within the same week! You don’t know stress until all your work is due in at the same time! But it’s all over now so no more coursework ever for me! But now that all the written work is done I now have my end of year show to focus on.

My show is the 4^th and last play within the Bathway Theatre Festival, so far I have seen Love and Information by Caryl Churchill and Road by Jim Cartwright. Next week is Red Noses by Peter Barnes and then the Festival concludes with the play I am directing, Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco.

I know I have mentioned it lots before but tickets are now on sale at www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk and it would be brilliant if you could all come see it in support of myself, my wonderful bunch of third year actors, the amazing first year technical crew and the University of Greenwich’s Drama department.

I am very excited for the show and we have 400 seats per night to sell, which is worrying, but I’m staying optimistic about it.

That’s all for now. Speak soon J

Here Comes the Sun

Hey folks,

So for this blog I chose the title “Here Comes the Sun” for a few reasons. Firstly, it is one of my all-time favourite songs from The Beatles and secondly the sun has come out a lot lately, although it’s still breezy from time to time the sun is definitely on its way. J

So this blog is basically going to be all about how much I love the sun and things I like to get up to when the sun is shining down. The sun is one of my favourite things EVER because it rarely is hot in this country so when it does come I do tend to get really excited like a kid at Christmas.

This year I think it is going to get very hot, I don’t know why I think that, I just do. So if the sun keeps up it’s good work this summer then there are lots I plan to do. Firstly, I plan to go and visit my friend for her birthday in Surrey, we’ve done it for the past two years and it’s fun as we just chill in the garden and have a barbeque and play a bit of badminton… Then the sun goes down and the party animal in me comes out J As I said it’s for her birthday and birthday’s aren’t complete without a party. Below is a picture from me and my the birthday girl two summers ago when she had planned to have a fancy dress birthday party and as I am notoriously rubbish at dressing up, I simply found a witch hat, a black wig and a cloak in her house and pretty soon after that the Witch King was invented. 

I honestly could not tell you what I was thinking… All I can say is that it was a night to remember. Also this summer I want to go to London Zoo as I’ve never been and also spend a lot of time either at a beach or at a park. All whilst working full time for clearing 2014… Gonna be a hectic summer… But a fun one!!!

Speak Soon folks J

Last Week of My University Experience!

Hello everyone :)

Today I’m going to talk about my last EVER standard week at University of Greenwich!  I know a lot of my blogs lately have been regarding the end of Uni and what the future holds, it’s just because it’s a big thing on my mind at the moment and it’s kind of life changing.

So it’s going to be quite a long week, it kicks off with my exam on Monday, which is for my course Other Stages. Last term we did an Avant Garde piece so it was really weird and strange and this term we are doing an African Theatre performance equipped with African drumming and African dancing, which I am looking forward to A LOT.

Then Tuesday I’ve got Rhinoceros rehearsals which is going to be a long day, but a fun day none-the-less. Wednesday is my only day off so like all days off I will be doing coursework (YAAAAY!!!) :( Then on Thursday it is back to our Rhinoceros rehearsals, which I'm so excited about because we are doing a full run through of the show, I understand it’s going to be very basic but at least we have something to work with.

Friday will be completed with a lecture/seminar for Contemporary British Theatre which is in the same room as our first ever lecture was in first year. So it is like we are going full circle, which is nice :)

So yeah, that is a brief account of my final week of University :) Speak soon :)

Future Career!

Hello, hope you’re all well J

Today I thought I’d talk about my future career and what I plan to do once my degree is complete.

Well first I would like to start with saying that right now I am very unsure on what to do but here are my options that I would like to go into. Firstly, I would love to try my hand at film and TV acting… but mainly I just want to be in Eastenders J The reason for me wanting to do a bit of work in TV and film just comes from my enjoyment of watching a good film that makes you feel about five different emotions within the space of half an hour. I just think it would be so fun to be a part of a TV series or a film.

Another thing I would like to go into would be more of a backseat of the acting world, and that is Directing and Stage Managering. In my first year I did an assignment called Making Theatre in which I stage managed for a third year production of Fear and Misery of the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht and this was my favourite course so far at University because I enjoyed it sooooooo much. Also, this year I am directing a production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, so I have had my fair share of experience within both of these fields and I have really enjoyed them. Therefore I would love to experience more of this at a more professional level.

My ultimate goal in life is to run my own theatre company, I have been involved with various theatre companies before such as Second to None Productions, where I was lucky enough to perform in the musical Rent which is actually my favourite musical of all time. I have also been involved in Royal Road Productions where we did a modern musical version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a humanised version of The Jungle Book and a production of The Little Mermaid which was all fun and gave me the opportunity to co-direct with the Founder and Director of the theatre company. The reason I would like to run my own theatre company is just because I enjoy theatre so much but more importantly I enjoy bringing out the best in people and watching their confidence grow as rehearsals go on and to think that my support has helped them grow as a performer and a person would be a brilliant feeling.

So that’s it really, TV/film acting, directing, stage managering and running my own theatre company is what I aim to try my hand at in the future. It’s going to be hard work but I plan to put my all into it and hopefully make something of my life. Speak soon J

Drama Productions & Graduation

Hello again J I can’t believe that we’re now in March, it seems like just yesterday I was opening my Christmas presents. It seems as I’m getting older the years are flying by me L

Anyway, I thought I’d talk a bit about Drama Production as I haven’t really mentioned it in a while, so just a quick recap, I’m directing Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros as part of my degree, which is very exciting! Luckily, my group was picked to perform at Greenwich Theatre, just near our campus, which is an amazing opportunity for myself, the nine members of cast and the nine members of crew that will all be hitting the stage come June 3^rd & 4^th. Here is a picture of the auditorium in Greenwich Theatre:

As you can see, it’s rather large, which basically means A LOT of tickets to sell, 400 per night to be exact. Every year one of the third year shows gets picked for Greenwich Theatre and it never sells out, this year I want to put a stop to that and my job as well as the actors and crew is to sell 800 tickets, which makes me feel a bit sick when I say it like that! But I like a challenge and this should be quite an exciting challenge J

Another thing, I’m quite nervous about is the upcoming Graduation! I’m the sort of person who hates goodbyes and I don’t respond well to change, I've just received an email about the Yearbook which makes me very sad! Don’t get me wrong Graduation Day is going to be AMAZING! But very sad, very, very sad! Especially as once I finish University I need to become a responsible adult and the worse thing is, I’m only realising this now! Booooo! Oh well, at least my career path will be underway J

Until next time J

P.S. Have a nice pancake day!

The Luxury of Living in London

Hello again J

Hope you have all been well and enjoying this very cold winter we are having L Anyways, I thought I would just talk about what I consider the biggest luxury for a drama student living in London… Theatre is everywhere! Only recently have I decided to abuse this little fact, as I am in my final year, so I may have gone on a spending spree and bought a few tickets to see some new and classic shows that are out there in London.

As you can probably guess, I have been to see Les Miserables, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Mamma Mia! Well, I can tell you that all three shows were amazing! I loved every second of each and they were so well put together, when you think about seeing a show your main thought are the performers within the show but in a show like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I was so amazed with the setting created on the stage, it was literally like the film! Every scene had a new setting and it was amazing!

So I was a bit naughty and may have bought more tickets. In the next few months I will be going to see Wicked! (For the third time) Blithe Spirit, I Can’t Sing, Sarah Millican, and the X Factor Tour Live! So the next few months are going to be the best ever!

Also recently I have had a birthday, which means I’m one year older. Most people get sadder as they get older and more worried about age, I get excited. One more year means one more year of experience and one year older to being an old man sitting in his armchair without a care in the world. So now that I am 22 and I am officially three years away from hitting a quarter of a century, I celebrated as all students know how… A nice drink and some food from Weatherspoons :D

That’s all from me for now

Speak soon :D

Theatre and 100 Happy Days

Hello everyone and welcome back J Not much has happened since my last blog, however there are two things that have happened and I feel like they need a mention.

First of all, a few days ago I went to see a play at the Harold Pinter Theatre, the play was called Mojo and starring in this play was none other than RUPERT GRINT! Yes, I am a huge Rupert Grint fan and he was AMAZING! The show overall was just superb, I would definitely go and see it again without a doubt. But not only did it star Rupert Grint, among the start was also Colin Morgan, the guy who played Merlin in the TV series, Brendan Coyle from Downton Abbey as John Bates and my personal fave Tom Rhys Harries, who was just amazing! So as me and my friends were such huge Harry Potter/Ron Weasley/Ginger fans… Oh yes, we managed to get a picture!

Okay, it’s quite bad quality but still, you can tell it’s him. He is much smaller in person.

Secondly, my manager at work suggested something called ‘100 Happy Days’. For this you need to take a picture every day of the thing that makes you happy on that day and by the end of the hundred days you are supposed to see a pattern of what really makes you happy in life.

I would like to share my Day Eight with you. I got to go home for my Nieces birthday party which was very nice as I got to see the family again. So this is my Nieces birthday cake. As you can tell, she is a Hello Kitty fan. Anyways, it was only a short one this time (Basically I just wanted to brag about Rupert Grint) But until next time. J

Happy New Year!!!!

Hello everyone and welcome to 2014 J

I always get excited by the New Year, mainly because I set myself New Year’s Resolutions every year which can be very exciting. Usually it’s the standard… Exercise more, eat less junk food, be more careful with money… Which all remain this year. However, there are some new additions to the heap of goals I set myself. This year I want to live a bit more and be a bit more out there with my life.

The reason this has come about is it dawned on me that I am graduating this year and I am beginning life as an adult. I have been in education for the past 17 years without a break, so it’s going to be weird adjusting to a life without the standard education set up, and I am really going to miss it. I was the weird child who loved school and when I was in primary school I actually used to ask my teacher for extra homework and every week she used to give me and extra file of homework (How weird is that).

Also, this is the time where I am supposed to know what I am doing with my life… I don’t. Which is very, very worrying, but also quite exciting? I do have one option which I am most probably going to pursue, last year my friend went to work on a cruise ship around the USA for six months, where she taught Drama to kids whilst their parents were off having a holiday, so I think applying for this would be a very good step in my career.

It’s not only University ending for me this year it will also be my jobs at the University which I am going to miss, such as the Enquiry Unit and as a Student Ambassador. At least if I meet any people on my travel I can talk them to death about the University and what courses we can offer them J

So until next time, enjoy the start of 2014 everyone J