Modern Christmas Stories, Pirates and Boris Johnson … Oh My!

What a term it has been at Growtheatre! Another fun filled term with three completely brilliant groups. The lead up to Christmas has been particularly busy preparing the two younger groups for their Christmas sharing and working with the Seniors to decide what their next pieces of work will be when we return in the New Year!

This Term our Juniors have been focusing on the theme of Pirates! We had a few super sessions whittling and designing our very own pirate weapons! We had swords, daggers and even a trident! They worked very hard to make them perfect, ready to be used in their Christmas Sharing pieces. We decided that it would be fun to explore what would happen if a pirate was to meet a VIP character … like the queen or even Boris Johnson! Each group created some fantastic ideas and they were very funny! We are very lucky having such a dynamic young group that aren’t afraid of any task put their way!

The Intermediates have had fun exploring the role a narrator plays and just how important they can be! The Intermediate group always bring fun and laughter to each session and are a very friendly group, we knew no task would be too much! Their Christmas pieces explored typical Christmas stories but not as you know them! We had a very modern Mary and Joe meeting Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, Scrooge and The Grinch teaming up to steal Christmas AND a story about a ghostly girl who got locked in her school many many years ago and no one saw her since! We are incredibly proud of the middle group and we are looking forward to seeing what the next term brings!

Politics seems to be a running theme across all three groups, but the Seniors in particular focused on Global Warming as their theme this past term. They are a very thought provoking and considerate group that created such wonderful and sometimes hard hitting pieces about why it is so important to look after our planet earth. No matter what this group is presented with, they never fail to amaze us with their skills and talents!

On behalf of all at Growtheatre, we would like to take the time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

-Paige

Seniors and Politics!

For the past few weeks in the senior group at Grow, we have been taking our ideas on politics and the world around us and using them to create a piece of drama. For example, one week we listened to a song given to us by Rachel all about Global Warming, and in groups we developed a short performance based on the idea of Global Warming and how it affects us right here where we live. We spent 2 weeks developing our ideas and our performances.

After the two weeks we then shared what we had created to the rest of the group. One of the groups focused on how actions that seem small to us, can have a big impact on others and that we need to be aware of where we live and how to look after it. In the performance they showed simple everyday actions that lots of people do that has a negative effect on the environment, E.g. driving to work/school every day or littering. But halfway through the performance they began showing us what we can do to improve the way we go about those actions like, using public transport more and recycling as much as you can.

In a different group, the focus of the piece was the Sheffield floods in 2007. The group devised a piece of movement based physical theatre using the original song that we listened to, to show the ways in which the floods affected families all over, whether that was because of homes being destroyed or even something as tragic as loss of life.

In recent weeks at grow, we have been beginning to think about what we would like to do for our Easter show. We all came together as a group and began to brainstorm ideas for what we will be working up to in coming terms. We wrote down some ideas, themes, different types of productions we would like to work on and even specific roles we may enjoy like directing, set building or lighting. We wrote all of our thoughts down on a big role of paper so that we can come to a decision of what we would like to create!

Written by Greg – Growtheatre senior member

Community Fridge

Here at An Even Better Arbourthorne we have been working really hard on opening the second Community Fridge in Sheffield! We have made some great partnerships including Aldi, Coop, Tesco and Fareshare Yorkshire. We have a brilliant team of volunteers that help run the Community Fridge and as a community, we are combating Food Waste!

We have been fortunate enough to be joined by two brilliant students from University of Sheffield that came to write an article on the Community Fridge and the work we have been doing on the project! Please give it a read here!

We are really grateful they took the time to write such a fantastic piece and are thankful of their hard work. We love running our Community Fridge and we are looking forward to seeing what lies in store next!

-Paige

Musical Half Term

This Half Term, the senior group have been working with music and exploring how it can create effect and change the atmosphere of a scene. We developed our understanding on music in performance by practising using games which Paige and Rachel had prepared. For example, for one of the games we were split into three groups then and given three different songs (Park Life, Mission Impossible, Funeral March). From this we we had to take it in turns to go up and create a scene using improvisation and the music we were given. We were advised not to use dialogue and not to plan ahead. This made us focus on the music and the character we were creating. We then had to go up one by one and either add to a previous section or create a new scene. We had to freeze in position before we left the scene.

We then used what we learnt to create a performance in groups. Our brief was to include music and the theme of truths and lies. In one group, we used the Funeral March as the music to start the performance. This was because of the slow and sinister atmosphere we wanted to create. In our performance we were a group of pathologists about to perform an autopsy. We decided to use a little bit of dialogue throughout and tried to focus on the on the tempo of the music. Our twist around the stimulus of truths and lies was that one of our pathologists was under cover and actually was there to steal the body.

In another group we decided to use the song ‘Park Life’. Our piece focused on a stabbing that occurred in a park. We used this plot as we believed that it could link successfully with secrets and lies. At the beginning of the performance we created a ‘park scene’ by incorporating ideas from the the game we had played before. Whilst the song was playing, we all portrayed different movements and gestures to communicate to the audience what setting our piece took place in.

Blog Written by Gracie and Beth – Growtheatre Seniors

What a term! We have had a fantastic term with Growtheatre, it has been filled with fun, laughter, and most importantly adventure. This Sunday saw our Junior and Intermediate groups perform their Summer Sharing, assisted by a handful of our wonderful Seniors giving the audience a taste of what they have been working on.

Small but mighty is the best way to describe our Junior group. They have worked extremely hard this term and created a brilliant piece of work that explored the poems Ivy, Magpie and Conker from the Lost Words book. They also spent some time beautifully crafting their own costumes to wear and we think they did an amazing job!

The Intermediates put on a show stopper performance which not only allowed their audience to jump into the pages of the Lost Words, but took them on a journey as they used the woods to explore their chosen poems. The Intermediate group work so well as a group and really took their time to make sure every scene was perfect!

Last but not least a massive Thank you to the Seniors who have provided us with lots of laughter and creativeness this term. As this group performed at Easter, they were allowed to choose what we explored every week, from improvisation to stage combat and even having the honour of working on an original play by one of Growtheatre’s very own, we have had a fantastic term with them and they never fail to amaze us with their ideas and enthusiasm.

I can’t help thinking #childhoodunplugged when I think of Grow Theatre. I strongly believe you are providing something very special, and in a similar vein to The Lost Words, you are offering beautiful experiences and opportunities that are being lost – or have already disappeared – from other avenues. Parent of child that attends Growtheatre.

We are very proud of all three groups and we can’t wait to see what next year brings! – Paige, Rachel, Sophie.

This newspaper’s made for … wearing?

What can you do with a newspaper? Our seniors had a fantastic session where they took your everyday entertainment item and transformed pieces of paper into magnificent, extraordinary characters!

The group manipulated, cut, shredded, twisted, shaped, tied and stuck parts of newspapers together to create characters and paraded them in their very own mini fashion show! We met a wonderful pirate called Red Handed Roger, a fairy with beautiful constructed wings and a queen that LOVED heinz ketchup?!

Each group did an amazing job, taking stories from newspapers, bringing them to life through their characters and creating ensembles that possibly could give high end designers a run for their money! See below for the fantastic creations!

Is there anything they can’t do? – Paige

Warning: Extreme amounts of praise and electronic applause ahead!

At the Youth Theatre this week, our Senior group had their sharing. Families and Friends were invited to come and watch their work which they have been working extremely hard on for the past few weeks. And what a night it was!

The session was filled with a wonderful script, lighting and directing by 3 very talented members, and performed with the highest of standards by a wonderful cast of senior members. A comedic section of improvisation that opened up the floor between the actor and the audience, and had the whole room stunned with the level of improvising these members could do on the spot. And a wonderfully choreographed physical theatre piece that transported their audience behind the four walls of family life, and through the use of movement, explored the lives of 6 characters, who showed struggles families can approach sometimes.

I know I speak on behalf of myself, Rachel and Sophie by saying we can not congratulate the Senior group enough for the work they have created, we are very very proud of you and you should all be so pleased with the pieces of work you created! You are all such a talented and lovely bunch of young adults, an absolute pleasure to work with each week! – Paige

What a week!

We have had such an exciting and over whelming week at Growtheatre! Our two youngest groups have had a wonderful time outside in the woods this week! Not only did we manage to be explorers creating in the woods, but we also welcomed loads of new friends to our session and it was very lovely to be able to bring a friend to share our fun theatre activities!

We are working from a wonderful and beautifully illustrated book called ‘The Lost Words’, and is a book that has been created to save words that are being taken out from the Children’s Dictionary.

We have been taking inspiration from one of the wonderful poems, Magpie, and exploring how we can bring the words off the paper and bring them to life through the use of freeze frames, physical theatre, speech and sound! Both groups have worked fantastically and it has been brilliant to be able to develop their ideas whilst using nature and being in the woods!

7/2/19
This week we worked more on our group projects (I’m in the physical theatre group), after playing some games. 
Paige introduced us to a new game which was fun. One person begins a mime to set the scene and then someone else comes in, establishes a relationship, and then creates a problem. Then someone else comes in a fixes it. Repeat!! Each week we have learnt a new exercise for improvisation and I’ve really enjoyed it. 

Another game we played is called Guess The Leader, where someone is leading actions and the person in the middle has to guess who. Rachel encouraged those of us in the physical theatre group to have a go at leading. It’s hard to think of lots of movements but it’s definitely good practice!

Then we moved on to group work. On Wednesday evening I watched a school show involving lots of physical theatre so I felt inspired! We started devising our first scene, thinking how we could include little physical bits. I think it turned out really well! My favourite bit so far is the main character is getting increasingly stressed so we are all banging on the table to make it really unbearable and then we stop at the exact moment she puts her headphones in. It works so well! I’m really proud of our group this week and I hope it goes this well in other weeks too. 
– Maya, Senior Youth Theatre Member

Improvising with The Intermediates

Improvisation? Hard? Not for our Intermediate group who had a fantastic evening exploring techniques and exciting exercises that developed their skills as performers! The group has worked so well as a team this week, especially when they have been working on exercises that they create on the spot! They were so accepting of each others ideas and had so much fun thinking of new and imaginative characters! The group took us to a party with a werewolf, a car ride with a vampire and managed to beat a personal record in one of their favourite games!