Belfast

A One-Day Trip Out of the Blue. 

 

It all started out with a casual comment in passing from our director. “I am going to go to Belfast to meet some people. –You could come as well.” Really, it was more like an afterthought; I doubt the possibility of us actually agreeing even occurred to him. However, we did. In the end, only two people in my class did not go. 

But let’s rewind slightly: The show we are doing this term is a devised show, which means that the  in Belfast. This is all a part of the Troubles that technically has been going on in Northern Ireland for the last 500 years. Long story short, one part wants a unified Ireland, the other side wants to stay in the UK, and the conflict is not always peaceful. 

director chooses a topic/event, and we improvise all the content to create a play from scratch. What our director decided on was the 1981 hunger strike in Long Kesh prison (also known as the H Blocks)

As research, our director had planned a trip to Belfast to talk to some people, and so it was that, because of a simple suggestion, fourteen of us boarded an EasyJet flight 12.20 Sunday the 25^th of January. 

Officially, this couldn’t be defined as a class trip, as we had to pay for all of it ourselves. There was no way the university would have the money to get us there – not to mention they would never allow us. Travel was a full £96 counting busses and the flight, then there was the food on top of that. But while it definitely was a heavy blow to my economy, I am glad I went. 

Belfast is a very interesting, and truly, very beautiful city. It is smaller than you expect. Walking around a neighbourhood I

suddenly realised there were green hills in the background. The city centre is just like any other city, welcoming and vibrant in its own way. However, walk only a few minutes out, and a completely different atmosphere greets you. You suddenly realise the Troubles are not over, a tense undercurrent running like electricity under the very pavement, making the hair on your neck stand on end if you stop to look and listen.

 

Separating the two different factions is a high, long wall, called the Peace Wall. The gates leading

through close every day at five at which point children from either side gather to hurl abuse and whatever objects they have at hand at each other.
These are children that don’t even know each other. The top of the wall has been recently added on to make it harder to throw things over. The next picture shows the wall from the inside where the houses lining it all have mesh cages to protect them from petrol bombs.

Either side of the city is decorated with wall murals, honouring their people. It is hard to get your mind around. Within this tiny city, men are celebrated as freedom fighters on one side and as terrorists on the other. 

 

Saturday we were left to our own devices, exploring the city as we pleased. A few hours were spent    walking around with some of the lads in the class, we stopped by a small museum, and dinner was had at an extremely nice pub. A pint and a burger for £7? Yes please. The rest of the night the majority of the class went out drinking, whilst I stayed at the Hostel we were staying at with the rest,playing board games.

Monday we met up with our director at 9.30 outside a pub. Now came the reason we actually travelled here. Through some chain of contacts, our director had gotten a man to agree to meet us for a talk. The pub was opened just for our sake, and for two hours we listened to a middle-aged Irish man tell us details from the inside. 

To me, it still hasn’t quite sunk in how lucky (if you want to use that word) we were to meet this particular man. Not many in our position would get that privilege, and it is something that should not be discussed loudly in public places. 

Then it was all over. Monday evening we were back on a plane and returning to Southend.

So Many Things

so little time

I have decided the best way to deal with this is a simple list system, therefore, without further ado, I present to you the “recent” (most important) events of my life:

                SFX

The basics of Special Effects Makeup – we learned it.

Macbeth.

11^th of December the curtain was raised for our performance of this famous Shakespeare play. Fun fact: Never say "Macbeth" inside a theatre, it brings bad luck. Especially for actors doing the play.

 

                Christmas

Snow, christmas tree, family, cat, friens, and great presents. Jupp.

                The Maze.

The past three weeks in school have been spent creating our new show. This is a devised piece, meaning there is no script to follow but that we instead choose an event or theme and create the thing from scratch through research and improvisation. So far, we have had other normal lessons (which there are only four of now in third year) in-between, but come next week we are on priority doing nothing but this show from early morning til late night.

The play is set in Ireland, Belfast, 1981, and is centred around the hunger strike in Long Kesh prison during which 10 prisoners died. It is an intriguing while at the same time hair-rising subject to do, as The Troubles are far from over and the situation is still more than tense in Northern Ireland. Wikipedia's introduction to this gives a pretty decent quick overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_strike

However, for this show, we have created a tumblr account where pictures and quotes are posted, showing the process and what we are doing.

You all better check it out. ;) http://thecombatmaze.tumblr.com/

A Taste of Home

Show Reel

Finished.

So this week was spent filming our Show-reels, another part of this “new thing” my course is trying. Last time our show-reel was focused on our abilities as fighting actors, however, the official purpose of a show reel is to show our acting abilities. And not just abilities in displaying emotion, such a raging wails of horror and sadness and anger and so on, we were actually encouraged to shy away from that. Instead, it’s the subtle details that matter, and first and foremost your ability to listen to your co-actor, not just wait for your cue to talk. 

For this little project, we were once more divided in pairs, and this week we were given each our half-day slots. I worked with Michelle, and our slot was today, Friday afternoon. A camera man, as well as a sound technician was hired in, however, we all had to volunteer (well, “voluntary” kind of) to crew for each other. Two or three people, one on clapper-board, one on continuity, and one to run around doing whatever else needed doing. Needless to say, some did far more work than others. The film director hired in to work with us did not assign us these positions, so we each wrote our names on a list of the different shots (here is where the volunteering-element steps in). And so, some wrote their name often, some just once. Ah well, such is life. 

Two things I will take from this experience: 1, that I definitely want to work with film. There is something special about the atmosphere on set. It’s strict, focused, you must be on your mark, not make a sound outside your line, the director is God. But I love it. 

2. How very difficult it suddenly is just to open the door of a car and step out when there is a camera pointing your way. I got stuck in the wheel. Twice. I have no idea how.