It may be the Summer Holidays, but at the Artz Centre, our students and staff have been busier than ever. Alongside a summer-full of rehearsals for our pending Autumn Show Season, the Artz Centre had the opportunity to deliver a fully-funded, 4-day holiday camp to a large group of our students; thanks to the local HAF Initiative.
The camp, designed and delivered by Mark, James, Claire and Joe, focused on acting and improvisation skills: how we can use these skills to create better performance, and perhaps more importantly, how we can use these skills to be better people.
From advertising the Camp, to filling the entirety of its 38 places, took just over 2 hours on Wednesday 11th August, for a camp beginning Monday 16th. The turnaround was tight, but our students where raring to go and ready to take on the challenge; some feeling a little apprehensive at the enormity of the phrase “improvisation” but all ready to give it their all.
And so, the 4 day intensive camp, dubbed “The Master (Un)Plan(ned)” began, taking 38 local young people through 16 epic workshop sessions in acting, music and dance; with creativity, improvisation and ‘play’ as the driving force. The group, aged from 7-18 gelled incredibly well, sharing an awful lot of laughter, imagination and even the odd set of tears throughout the week. The challenges certainly pushed the limits of our students, from perfecting a dragon’s den style pitch for a pointless item, to playing out improvised scenes with unknown characters, objectives and settings. A lot of the week’s classes saw our students way out of their comfort zones, and once they took an initial leap of faith, it was an honour to see them thrive.
One parent even commented about her daughter’s involvement: “I thought that [she] had lost that ‘sparkle’, thanks to Covid and ‘the teenage years’ I thought that fun element of her had gone; but tonight it was back, she was just brilliant, I could have cried it was so funny, I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done”.
The 22 hours of jam-packed, high quality, sessions, were facilitated by a number of professional practitioners, from members of our Artz Team, to specialists from the performing arts industry. We welcomed James Reilly and Paul Woodward (ALRA MA Alumni) to coach the group on acting; the brilliant Sophie Clarke (Phil Winston’s Theatreworks Alumni) to guide the group through improvisation in dance; and the incredible Jay Duxbury took the full cohort through a session in improvised music and junk percussion.
The week was a huge success; friendships were built, new skills earnt and memories made throughout the entire group. The “improvised” and the “unknown”, two entities that seemed incredible daunting at the beginning of the week, became fun and even enjoyable concepts, as we navigated through a plethora of improv-fuelled tasks and activities with the group.
The 4-day camp culminated in a showcase that, to the initial horror of our students, would be entirely unplanned. No scripts, no master plan; nothing like anything that our students, or our staff, have ever experienced before. A structure was set for the evening; of games, tasks and challenges that our students would participate in as teams, and the audience would decide on their favourite, stand-out moments. In a very “Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ style. A winner would be crowned, and one of our teams would go down in history, whilst raising the “Improvisation Teapot” our coveted trophy, high.
Come Thursday evening, our students battled it out in 4 teams, treating our audience to a rollercoaster of comedy gold and ridiculous scenarios; alongside contrasting pieces of thoughtful, quiet and poignance. The audience where invited to participate by our show hosts at every turn, from selecting characters and worlds for our performers, to awarding points and ultimately crowing our winner: the brilliant BLUE TEAM.
One of our first shows back since lockdown, engaging 38 students and over 15 members of Artz Team and local Volunteers; the week was certainly one to remember.
About Thursday night’s production, Artz director, Mark Ashton, commented: “A brilliant way to end a challenging but brilliant week. An intensive camp of improvisation, with committed students and outstanding practitioners all culminated in a inspiring and hilarious show. I hope the audience got a taste tonight of how and why we do what we do at Artz Centre”.
Artz Students can be seen taking to the stage THIS WEEK, with the senior production of Once on this Island. Don’t miss out!!