Physical Theatre - Amy Taylor

Peer Performance Evaluation.

The highlight performance for me was Eve/Lori's group and Danny/Laura's group.

These groups were the highlight because:

Eve and Loris group was completely out the box they actually acted there character out with Lori being Alexander 'Alexander Technique' and Eve being Feldenkrais 'Feldenkrais method' , Also they had props such as the toy skeleton  sweets and a white board with lots of details on and I always work better with tangible things. The detail they put in was brilliant, with that they set it out brilliantly with the detail being at the start and then practical towards the end which kept us engaged which was similar to mine and jades performance.

Also they performed it with confidence and this was important because it helped me to believe in what they were saying was the truth.

From this performance I have learnt that I need to keep my back much straighter to maintain a good posture for the future, this i will practice using the 'Alexander Technique' getting out the chair.

Danny and Laura's group was brilliant in particular because they did 3 workshops which no other group had done before also they related each workshop to acting which was vital for me to understand why we were doing it, the best workshop for me was the 'Downton Abbey' workshop which was related to Alexander’s technique about posture and so on. Also they used us in every workshop and made it a very creative seminar and stood out.

This performance has helped me recognise that my posture is vital for developing different characters and so so important for actors in general.

I enjoyed everyone’s seminar and everyone in the group did a great job but the two above helped me learn and continue with exercises that were done in their performances. I learnt a lot in other groups as well for example controlling breathe which Dannel’s group did, which was a great practical exercise and consisted of breathing out of a straw and helped to improve stamina of breathe which is vital for an actor. 

Thanks to the groups I now have a programme that I do every night I do the ‘semi supine’ Alexander technique which was done by myself to help relax me and improve my posture.

Voice & Speech- Ellie Darvill

Today it was Jonathan and my turn to take the warm up for voice and speech and as we were the first group it added a bit of pressure and nervous because we didn't know if it was going to be right.

However I did know a fair bit about vocal warm ups because of singing and you tube videos.

We talked for the previous week on social networking sites to plan the warm up to see who was doing what and what was going to be said. This was our plan:

Stretch

Breathe

Tone

Warm down

We choose to do it in this order because if we went straight to speaking without warming the vocal chords up it could lead to permanent damage them which could restrict range in the future.

This is the basics on what was said in each part.

-Stretch Tia chia roll down vertebrae by vertebrae so that it releases tension from the neck and shoulders, we stretch because we don't want to pull or strain muscles just like a basketball we and an athlete warms up actors should always do the same so there instruments are at optimum levels

-Breathing exercise, first we breathe in most amount possible count to 7 then we do 8 have a small breathe some might say a snatch breathe then all the way to 12

Before we even say a word it is important that we don't dame out vocal cords our strain them in any way, so before we go on to tone we will trill, this is the best way to warm the vocal chords up.

Tone exercise - It's important as an actor to have a variety of tones no one wants to be a monotone mumbling because you’re never going to get a job as an actor if you do so in your mind pick a word so mine is dangerous now say the word out loud, so well go round in a circle, now say it in a different way completely opposite

Warm down, quickly before the end it is important for your voice that you do a warm down especially if your characters like to shout a lot for example simple say the word sooth and oooooo then just do some simple breathing exercise

Evaluation

Personally I think that these techniques that I have had to learn through research and through my partner have been really helpful with understanding the anatomy of and the way the voice works an example of this is  that I now know that as well as the mouth and lungs but also the trachea, nose and diaphragm effect the breathing and breathing directly effects sound (the voice) because to create a voice it is just air passing over the vocal chords to create sound. As well as this i now know the 6 organs of articulatipn which are      Tongue, Teeth, Lips, Teeth ridge Soft palate, Hard palate Also I feel that after using these techniques it has helped me to develop clarity in my natural voice and I will continue to use these techniques every morning in the order above, this will be my voice and speech programme for the next couple of weeks because in my opinion it will help to create a better accent for my character TUZENBACH in the three sisters play.

Physical Theatre - Amy Taylor

Today was the day Me and Jade performed our 'Physical Theatre' Seminar on Skeleton.

Me and jade set out a plan for the performance before hand and this was the plan;

-Firstly I would talk about the basics of the skeleton like how many bones (206) and the functions of the skeleton (protection, support, movement, blood production/mineral storage and shape)
-Then we would move on to labeling the skeleton which would be Jade. We cut out 20 labels of bones for each student to pick one and label it where they thought it went then I would go through each bone correcting them if they where wrong ( this was to give the students a visual part of the lesson but also teaching at the same time)

-Thirdly Jade would take a 10 minute palates class
-Finally I would take a 10 minute practical on Alexanders technique (Semi Supine position) Which was more about relaxing but also relating it back to an actor because the semi supine helped relax muscles at the bottom of the spine which usually get tense when we are nervous and actors always get nervous weather it be before an audition, filming or a live show.

My Evaluation

As a group I thought that me and jade worked exceptionally well together we bounced or each other.
Jade was a pleasure to work with, she listen to all my ideas she was helpful and would love to work with her again.
On the day everything went smoothly the students absorbed everything, it went ' Perfectly'

Peer Evaluation

They loved it, Eve said ' our voices worked well together'
Leon said ' It showed how much time and effort you put into it, great job'
Jonathan said ' Great teamwork and the way you set it out was brilliant i loved it'

Acting Technique-Paul Garnault

Today was for me a real eye opener in acting techniques will Paul we did Alexander technique Paul gave us some instructions which were to lay on the floor with legs bent with feet flat on the floor, also he told us to breathe into the small of our backs so that our backs would be completely flat (neutral position) then he told us to close our eyes and relax each muscle in term this is a Proprio-Neuro-Facilitation

Then he said go to a beach will sand beneath you and the sea touching your toes (automatically i went to Algarve beach in Portugal where I spend most of my holidays)then you float up and fly across some trees, this I found very difficult to imagine because Portugal algae beach doesn't have any trees behind it, out of now where I found myself picturing a cartoon sea and beach with trees behind it and this was from the Madagascar film I watch a couple of days ago (weird) now you fly and beneath you know is a city ( the city for me was an old roman city, old fashioned cold snow on the floor) now you’re in the city/town you see a person you follow them, at this point I could see a women that looked like Danni Minogue she had a long vibrant blue jacket with dark jeans and black heals with black/red hair, Paul said follow this person so at that pony I followed her she led me to this old house kind of ruins she lead me inside where she sat down in this wooden chair and it smelt like chalk, then she gave me this vase looking thing which at this point I was confused looking back it was probably somebody's ashes, then Paul said go inside the person what are they feeling? What I got for the person was that she was full of love but overriding anger then Paul Sao return to the beach where I went straight back almost as if I was having a dream while on the beach

This is a technique I am definitely going to use in the future as I was surprised how well it works and it also combines Stanaslaviksi’s method of when acting you must feel it and live it and this technique helps this!!

Physical Theatre - Amy Tayor

Physical theatre- Amy Taylor

Starting physical theatre I had no know idea what is was or about and why we had to do it, Amy quickly told us that it was not dance it was a form of expression through movement.

We started off by jogging around the room and listening to Amy's instructions which were (1 right hand down 2 left hand down and so on) this got the blood pumping and everyone was warmed up. We started learning some choreography that Amy herself had made. The choreography was linked to practitioners such as Martha graham,” Graham’s early teaching was based on breathing and the bodily changes that occur as a dancer inhales and exhales.” Janson, M. (). Martha Graham. Available: http://www.dance-teacher.com/content/martha-graham. Last accessed 09/11/2012.

On a personal note I found this the easiest part of the session because of my experience with street dance.

We then moved on to some walking and corner exercises which I found a little more difficult because it was more about straight legs and arms which I had never been asked to do before now. The one I found most difficult was triplets I found this an odd and confusing movement which I struggled to get my brain around!

We also then did some partnered work which our objective was to get to the other end of the room but still touching our partner but without using hands, this I found difficult and slightly uncomfortable because I didn't know if my partner would like me touching them and we have only known each other for 6 weeks which isn't very long!! Then we did the same thing with another partner which for me felt much better because I felt at ease with the partner and so the movement flowed because I wasn't thinking about the personals feelings instead I was thinking about the music.

After this we moved on to doing it as a group shown in the video link below, I found this much easier than with a partner because there were more people to keep in contact and the movements seemed to flow. My evaluation at the end of this was that it was much easier to judge what others were going to do if you had eye contact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6skXIdCvmF0

When we re-joined with Amy we had a lecture about many things such as how performances are made:

                                              

                                  IDEA->EXPLORE->SELECT->REFUSE->REHEARSE

Also the 4 basic movement components such as action, space, time and dynamics/planes, we went over these in detail. The one that was completely new to me was dimensions/planes, movement can be explained in three dimensions (height,width,depth) planes are a combination of two dimensions:

Horizontal plane = width, depth

Vertical plane = height, width

Saggetal plane = height, depth

The choreograph that we have done so far involves mostly the vertical plane as we move side to side and collapse/rise a lot as well.

We also went into much detail about Laban Efforts, we did this by watching everyone's walk in the class and to categories them as a Laban Effort, my walk was wring which meant it was indirect slow and strong. We then went into extremes of all the Laban efforts Amy started at 10 ( the extreme) of a Laban effort and counted down and we had to scale it down and by the time she reached 1 it should be a natural walk but containing a Laban effort

The Laban Effort are:

Punch= direct, fast, strong

Dab= direct, fast, light

Press= direct, slow, strong

Glide= direct, slow, light

Slash= indirect, fast, strong

Flick= indirect, fast, light

Wring= indirect, slow, strong

Float = indirect, slow, light

This was really interesting and will defiantly help in developing a character and opened my eyes to see how much detail goes into making a character believable.

My target is to be able to be able to complete triplets by the end of the week!

The Risk Evaluation!

Evaluation of our performance

Before the performance everyone was nervous because they wanted to do our project justice and show how much time, effort and thought had gone into it. During the performance we encountered some problems which had to be dealt with such as Zoe coming in to early on the bridge scene which meant kev had to improvise some script which in my opinion he dealt with very easily. As a group I believe that we put across our purpose of the play (To teach, to tell a story) very well and this was reciprocated by our audience when we asked them a simple question " if you think we portrayed the story of Alex in a different and in lighting manor could you please pop your balloons" imminently all the balloons were popped.

Lexi- was brilliant at narrating I put lexi forward for this role because i think she is the best at telling a story in the whole group, she defiantly had strong views and contributed well to every discussion.

Danny- was easy to work with always tried to help with putting thoughts into the mixing pot, didn't believe in his own ideas which is defiantly something he can work on because the ideas he gave were brilliant.

Kev- he was very out spoken like myself, always had good strong views and he wanted defiantly wanted to give the audience something unseen which was amazing.

Sinead- also very opinionated like myself, definitely helped move the project along, Sinead was a well come addition to our group and i think made it much better.

Dannel- was very interesting to work with and very passionate. He had strong views for his own character which for me was important because I believe Dannel's character added another dimension to our performance.

Zoe-  defiantly wanted to deliver a good performance, our break up scene we struggled with but i believe we did it justice on the actual day.

It was a pleasure working with you all, i cant wait to work with you again!!!

The making of 'suicide'

the making of the risk project was a very long process it didn't come to us straight away, it felt like we had so many ideas that it was hard to pick, when ever we decided on one, another looked better. However once we settled with the suicide story we all did research and i think the performance we delivered showed this!
In early blog posts it shows the entire making of the project from start to end and the feelings that we as a group went through


Individual evaluation

At the beginning of the performance i was slightly nervous which really helped me play my first scene character which was Alex being a nervous wreck and telling the audience that he loved someone. However the nervous did bring some tensing to the upper part of my body which restricted my voice, this is something i would need to work on in later performances and do a simple serine technique to free the vocal chords.

i believe that mine and Zoe's scene was much better than rehearsed, i think the audience, nervous, tension really added to the performance and in a way helped us to achieve a better and more believable performance. Just before starting my second scene i remember a quote from Stanislavsky actor prepares which was  " When performing a single gesture, only the muscles necessary for that gesture should be used" this helped me to free my mind, clear my thoughts and real delve deeper into my character and create a believable and interesting performance i do believe that the audience believed that too as when i rejoined the group lot of audience members were till crying and after the performance they came to me like Shayne said " you really hit a nerve, you delivered it exactly how its done i know I've done it, i felt as if i was back in the room"

Other groups and there performances 

I really enjoyed watching all of the performances they were all interesting and so different, it opened my eyes and each performance made me think about things. I really enjoyed the bird cage but there was scenes which were much better than others like I believe that Leon s and eves scene was the best and really stood out, so well done to them, i think the message was clear and very well organised all the actors and actresses new exactly what they were doing which as an audience member helped me really to concentrate on what was happening.
The drug party performance was good and very different, i believe the way they got us all to be a part of the performance was brilliant i thoroughly enjoyed the performance, the only problem I felt was that there were significant breaks in between scenes and it felt as if some of them forgot what they were doing!! I believe that Melissa acted her role really well, and so did Lori, them two stood out for me in there performance

Our Performance 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKKeELULL1s&feature=plcp

Last Rehearsal Day!!

Today was the last full day of rehearsals!!!

We started off by playing some games ourselves we did splat and we also did some relaxing and voice exercises which we took ourselves because we wanted to get cracking straight away due to our performance being in less than 24 hours!!

We then go straight into our groups because there was no time to waist, we started off by running it for ourselves, the 1st act of the first scene was completely fine but then still the act 1 scene 2 ' the break up, still didn't have the connection! Zoe was struggling to get into character and I was struggling to find the spark we needed to make our performance believable

We then moved on so the other acts, scene 2 is my favourite scene allows me to really go deep into my role and explore options I had never done before, and as a performer I think my portrayal of an emotional state is much better than any other of my aspects!  However I didn't get any chance to rehearse with props so I will get time to rehearse once with props fingers before the performance crossed it goes okay!!Moving on to the 3rd and 4th scenes they were relatively smooth some forgetting of lines but this was the first rehearsal with no one using scripts so it was acceptable, it was very windy today which meant projection of our voices was a concern!!

Another factor that concerned the weather was our evaluation was planned to giving each person a balloon and letting it go but Sinead raised the point that the balloons could endanger the animals in the lake nearby, and this was a risk we were not willing to take, so we decided on just popping the balloons instead of letting them go.

After this we them concentrated on my and Zoe's scene once more because that was our weakest area!! I felt confident my character was ready but the connection was still missing maybe we are not aroused enough and the big occasion will bring this, but we will find out tomorrow!!

After our break we continued to run through ! It seems as if our play is now running at performance standard with only minor hiccups and we all know what we are doing, where we need to be , just minor details like accessories amongst others like lighting , timing of music and who was going to get the props!

Looking back on the day we made a lot of progress and I think every single person in the group including our production technician new what they were doing through the whole play.

2 days to go!!

2 days to go!!!

We started Tuesday off with a warm called Ninja which was another version of splat. We also played a game called chain tag which was not only great fun but helped with further team bonding and encouraged teamwork.

Then Paul talked with us for a few minutes a bit some Facebook post we should look at which was about Peter brook who is perceived as the ‘Greatest director’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx2qHHFS5Yk

After this we went back into our RISK groups, we got straight into practicing our performance to see firstly how long the performance was because it and to be over 30mins also to see which parts needed the most work. After running the performance through properly I felt that scene 2 ‘the break up’ still wasn’t working as well as we had hoped so me and Zoë decided that we should write a script out together from that scene to see if that helped to spark some connection. We also found that our performance was only 25 minutes but this wasn’t including an idea that Dannel came up with, which was to sing a song.

We then ran the performance again using the props we had such as flash cards and masks, this time however the scenes actual moved smoothly even mine and Zoe’s break up scene seemed to improve!! This was due to the script we wrote helped us to stay on track!!

After lunch we ran the play again because everyone felt we needed to keep running it so that we were best prepared as possible, people including myself were worried that we still hadn’t performed in the Hex theatre which is where we were going to perform it on the day!! After we had run it once more after lunch we concentrated on the music pieces we were going to use and deciding what our evaluation question was going to be and how we were going to do it!

Looking back on the day I think we made great progress, I think that the whole group was happy about their roles and the play as a whole!!

1 week till Final performance!!

At the start of the day we were with Ellie, we started off with a warm up exercise called samurai  this exercise was not only good fun but it allowed us to think about external things like timing and reading others!

After this we were told that today we were told we needed to think how our performance was going to be evaluated the examples were questionnaires, Question and answer session but Ellie finished by saying be innovative and creative!

As soon as the warm up and talk about feedback was over we got cracking with our risk project, we started off by listing to each other’s scripts that they had written last night, one stood out which was Danny’s for scene 3, it needed tweaking but the essence of his monologue was good and the feeling he portrayed where similar to the ones I wanted to portray in scene 1 which was essential because we were both playing Alex!

Straight after this we went straight into acting the scenes out using improvisation with people that hadn’t written there scripts out, we made significant progress scene 1 was smooth and we established that the characters were graduating out of school not uni which was important due to other parts of the performance rely on this information.   Towards the end of scene 1 was a struggle because Zoe was fighting personal experience and the scene touched a nerve but once she got into the character the scene was much better and it seemed believable again!     

Scene 2 still needed more tweaking but scene 3 with Danny’s monologue was brilliant and was nearly finished just minor detail like body positioning needed to be done, for example towards the end he was going to break down while looking at the bridge but due to conditions Danny could not do the action he wanted to but I suggested that he slump over the lamppost this way it would have the same effect and wouldn't be effected by weather conditions!                     

Scene 4 the final scene with Kev and the suicide (will he won’t he) was also going well but he was still correcting his monologue do we got some of the feeling and emotions that the audience was feeling but not all of it while Kev admitted himself .

Finally after running the whole performance we concentrated on minor details such as costumes accessories and who could get them and who already had them.Also asking our production artist Alex to risk access our chosen areas.

Just before the end we finifhed with character hot seating http://dramaresource.com/strategies/hot-seating , this was a great advantage for me Danny Zoë and Dannel because it allowed us to develop our character and our background! This will be done for Kev as well on Tuesday because he did not get the chance to do this because he had to shoot off, our homework for the weekend was to send our scripts to Lexi so it could be written up and to source our costumes and tools needed for our performance and evaluation.

The Risk 10/10/12

Today we started with a warm up that was similar to Pauls TIA CHI exercise, it was more floor base this time and focusing on our breathe coming in and out of our body. Then we did another introducing exercise for Amy’s sake to put names to faces.

Then we joined our risk groups to get cracking with our projects straight way, in the morning we were off to a flyer with fresh ideas from the night before. We started off by putting concert scenes down because we felt we didn’t have a lot of time and we should just decide on scenes. We had a drastic change of plan with the first scene and changed it to a school graduation because Shaniad informed us about a story she read, this is what gave us the idea for ALEX the main character to have a perfectly normal happy life and flip it in a matter of weeks, this way it informs and teaches the audience that suicide could potentially happen to anyone.

After our great start with getting all the scenes put down, we decided look at the venues we had discussed where these we going to happen to see if any other inspiration came from the surroundings. Also to see how long the narrator Lexi, would have to speak for in-between scenes! This then brought us up to lunch

After lunch we were back with Ellie and she talked to us about Harvard referencing to use in our blogs and said some wise words ‘ your mind is like a parachute it only works if its open’ implying we should be open and craze new knowledge!

Then we went back into our risk groups and suddenly stumbled upon a problem which was that we were so focused on Alex’s role and the story we had forgotten to ad sufficient characters into the story so other people didn’t have roles. Danny, Kev and I were to multi role Alex, Lexi was the narrator and Zoe was the girlfriend which meant that Dannel and Shaniad didn’t have a role this was a BIG problem!! We started to think of roles that were suitable for the pair of them. Shanid was really passionate about her story she researched and said she would like to include it in our story so we decided to put it after scene2 during when suicide becomes an option, this left Dannel I had the idea that Dannel should be a guardian angel because he said he would like the angle and devil character to be at the bridge but we decide against it so my idea of the guardian angel would try and persuade Alex not to jump of the bridge in a way FAIT!! This way Dannel can still portray he faith in the story line.

Then towards the end of the day we hit a sort of mental wall, struggling with what to do next so we decided finished the day by telling each member of the group to right up there own script for their character this way we could get on rehearsing the next day!! 

The Risk 09/10/2012

Week 2, started with us performing a Tia Chi (http://www.movementpsy.com/) exercise that Paul introduced us to, this was a nice relaxing exercise that got rid of tension but also got the blood pumping!!

After we split into off separate groups for the risk, we got straight into trying to get a center fold of the performance and the purpose! (http://word.office.live.com/wv/WordView.aspx?FBsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdownload%2Ffile_preview.php%3Fid%3D122786661204745%26metadata&access_token=1851805049%3AAVIRCQV40QcRyNWjM_wjsa5t_i7l1mmKm9KqCNO9zuf-zQ&title=PURPOSE+OF+THEATRE.doc) We choose that it was to tell a story but also to teach! Then we began to think of ideas of where we could do the scenes we didn't waist much time we had 3 venues that we would take our audience on a journey through our story. This then lead us to improvise on what your scenes would contain but we struggled to think of ideas and for the rest of the morning it felt as if we were going in circles around what we would do, there was many ideas that were so good we kept chopping and changing which was quit frustrating for all group members. Then I suggested that we change the first venue from the cafe to the hexagon but stage it as the cafe because the cafe was to impractical to work around, also some group members were not comfortable with the general public being effected by our performance and rehearsals so we all went for the idea of changing the first venue.

The thing we struggled most of all was the script and action we had the climax and what it would lead up to but we did not know how we would get to that point, we decide to finish the first half of the day at that point but still to thinking of ideas during lunch.

After lunch we went to our first singing lesson of the year. Our teacher James was really nice and it was a short lesson but we did some exercises to do with the larynx and opening the throat. We also learned some mechanics of breathing such as that we should breathe through the stomach and not raise our shoulders which causes unnecessary tension and inhibits our voices  I’m really excited about the prospects of increasing my range and progressing my voice!!

After our quick lesson with James we went back to the performance studio to continue with the RISK project, but we were still at the frustrating stage of not knowing which ideas to go with such as forum, multi-rolling and incorporating masks or having a silent play or to put them all in. So we we decided that we should all write our own scene using personal experience and this finished the day off!

Looking back on the day it was very progressive it seemed like me made lots of progress early on, deciding what our centerfold risk was and the purpose we were doing the performance. However towards the end we seemed to get stuck at the same point but here’s hoping that everyone has great ideas for scenes that we speed the process up as we only have a week and a bit until we perform our final piece!!

Day 2 of the 'RISK' project

Day 2 of the risk was again at the MAC and I was very excited to be back! We started the day off by doing someone warm up exercises with Ellie which got us moving and the blood pumping which was good because I was still half asleep due to the early start!

After the warm up exercise we were told to choose a quote that was about RISK which were all laid out on the floor ready for us!

Then we got into our groups and split off into rooms, we started off by reading our quotes to each other and justifying why we chose them,

Kev chose his randomly but turned out to be perfect for him!

Dannel picked his due to his faith.

Danny chose his due to a personal experience of people judging others.

Lexi decided on hers because it was about experimenting and being spontaneous.

Zoe picked her quote because it resembled failure leads to success and this is something she believes strongly in.

Finally I chose mine because it was about taking a chance on my talent!

After this we started building on ideas we had from the previous day and elaborating on them, this got us as far as having the RISK as 'change' we would have the setting in a school class room with one half being an old fashioned class room, this would show how much the law and respect has changed! The school children would be terrified of the tutor and due to the server punishments the tutor could administer. The modern side would be the total opposite where the pupils would have no respect for the teacher and the teacher would be trampled all over due to the children not caring about if they got punished or not! That would finish the first half of the day,

There was a big drama during lunch with Jonathon, a fellow student hurting himself to an extent he went to hospital this is probably very inconsiderate but it did bring some funny jokes afterwards within our group!!

The Start of RISK

Today we were at the MAC center  it took a good while t get there which was a hassle due to having to get two buses but I’ll get used to it.

We started off with another introduction exercises where we chose a partner we had never spoke to before and found out three facts about each other, my partner was Jade we had a laugh talking to each other her 3 random facts where she likes to boogie, she has a dog called angle and finally that she loves converse ha ha!!

Mine where that my favourite colour was blue which stemmed from power rangers which I used to watch as a child, also that I write my own song lyrics finally that I have an unhealthy obsession with Jordans :D

I found that the introduction exercise really helped to get to know the people our class quickly and it was a great way to spark up conversations later in the day to get to know them even more.

After this we were put into random groups by walking around and acting what Ellie instructed, for example when she called out the number 4 we had to get into groups with that amount of people, the finally number she called out was 6 and the people that joined together determined our groups for the RISK project. I would of been pleased with any group but within the first to minutes it seemed our group jelled well together.

We started off by talking about our own person risks, which could have been perceived a risk in itself for some people in our group because they were quite personal but the fact that no one judges and everyone is so genuine meant there was little if any risk!

Ellie then stopped our discussions to focus our attention on a pile of papers attached together on the floor with the word RISK in the center  we were told to think of anything that comes to mind when the word risk is mentioned and write that idea down in a mind map format. We spent about 20 minutes purely on writing words and phrases that came to mind. After the 20 minutes was up there were so many different words and opinions that really                                                                                          helped to broaden my knowledge of what other people determine the word RISK as!!

Once we had the majority of the paper full of words Ellie then said we should write down Metaphors of the words on the paper like Condom for sex and relationships and red & black for gambling and money!

The metaphors especially seemed to help me later on at night with thinking of ideas for our project but again all of the ideas cannot be revealed ;)  

This finished the day at the MAC and by that point my brain was aching due to all the ideas I was giving out and taking in ha ha !

First day comes first impressions!

Ahhh first day! Well it was short and sweet, meeting the whole class was amazing.Everyone was really friendly and the fact everyone is so different with age, hobbies and interests makes it set for a very interesting and exciting 2 years!!

The exercises we did with Paul and Ellie were new to me but I found them brilliant especially the 'Tick Tock' one, they we so simple yet so effective!

We were told what was going to be happening tomorrow at the MAC. We were going to start a project called ‘RISK project’ and the example of the students from a previous year acting out as if Birmingham town center was Berlin got me thinking of ideas but you will have to wait until after the project is finished as I don’t want to give anything away ;)