Summer Academy deadline extended (13-18s)

We are delighted to let you know that although our deadline has passed for applications to the 13-18s course, we will be continuing to accept fresh applications. So if you're in the midst of planning your summer fun or saving some pennies, you still have the opportunity to get on this brand new four week drama course at the Citz! You can download a new application form here.

Just try to get it back to us ASAP.

Hx

Let us play

An article from British Stammering Association Scotland's Blethers about our drama project with young people who stammer:

As people who stammer, we often feel trapped within ourselves, unable to give the world a true account of who we are. We accumulate layers of armour – inhibition, avoidance and self-censorship – that we hope will protect us from humiliation and rejection but that usually end up merely isolating us. By fixating on perfect speech as our sole means of relating to others, we become convinced that we are failures as communicators. But what if we moved beyond this assumption to consider that speech involves more than just avoiding hesitation, deviation and repetition? That communication involves more than just speech?


This is one of the aims behind an ambitious new project devised by BSA Scotland in collaboration with the Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow that is bringing together young adults who stammer for a series of drama workshops. Through improvisation, play and spontaneity, the workshops, led by drama worker Louise Brown, encourage participants to lose inhibitions, to escape perceived limitations, and to take pleasure in using the whole body expressively.

At the first session, we were invited to introduce ourselves to fellow group members by sharing two truths and one lie about ourselves. Then, chatting in small groups, as if at a party, we spun endless yarns based on the lies. So we had a cat breeder who had produced a man-sized cat, a wealthy woman from Perthshire with a mildewy swimming pool, and someone who’d flown in from Greece specially to attend the session.

What is Posh and Becks’ love nest like? Or the Queen’s bedroom? Or Vin Diesel’s bathroom? These questions formed the basis of further activities as small groups collaborated to create their own visions of these bizarre worlds, which they then presented to the others.

In session two we explored status – what it feels like to adopt a high-status persona or a low-status persona and how this affects how we behave towards others. How might such a person walk … talk? We then played out all sorts of improvisations based on the interaction of pairs of ‘high’ and ‘low’: teacher and pupil; policeman and driver; parent and child. All were explored from both angles, so as well as a disdainful teacher tyrannising a pupil we were treated to a cocky teenager running rings around his ineffectual father.

This pilot series of workshops, and the group of young adults who stammer that is becoming established through it, will inform a longer term project, ‘Outspoken’, that proposes developing a piece of theatre on the theme of stammering. The resulting play will be performed at the Citizens’ Theatre and toured round selected secondary schools in the spring of 2009. Scottish Arts Council funding of £19,250 has already been secured and the balance for the project is currently being sought.

Meantime, we hope that through our participation in the current sessions we will become more confident all-round communicators who will feel able to express ourselves more freely wherever this matters in our lives.

Fellow participants have commented:
“The workshops have been brilliantly led. The pace is fast – exciting! I have learned that standing up and facing people in a crowd is not that difficult – even when they’re people with different perspectives. Being taught about gesture, the body and its place in space has made me more aware of self-expression and unconventional ways of communication.” “It’s really nice to meet people who have the same problem as you with speech, because it’s easier to say what you want when everyone understands you frequently have difficulty speaking. Everyone is friendly and we always have a good laugh.” “Working with the Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre has been creative, challenging and uplifting so far. I appreciate the sessions and wish to develop even more in an acting way.”

By Simon Vaughan

New video

Here is a brand new, short documentary feature on Yellow Moon where one of our actors, Keith Macpherson, tells us a bit more about the show and the experiences they have had in creating it.



Hx

P.S. Click tour dates for more info.

One week and counting...

Well, we are about to go into the last week of Yellow Moon in New York and I have to say (probably unsurprisingly) apart from catching up with loved ones I will be sorry to leave. This whole time has been a blast. The show has been going great. This last week especially the audiences have been a great mix of ages and they seem to really follow the whole journey Lee and Leila go on. We even had a one woman standing ovation, that tickled us. I do love it when there is a mix, different generations seem to see different things in the play and it's so fun to see the audience watching each other as much as us.


The whole 'Brits Off Broadway' season has got a really good buzz about it now as well. David Greig's other show 'Damascus' opened this week and Stellar Quines 'The Unconquered' has been going great guns too so the theatre is busy with audience and actors and the ever cheery staff. It would be nice just to hang on for a bit and soak up the New York and 59E59 atmosphere for longer but Britain beckons and I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to seeing how the rest of the tour goes. But this really has been an experience we will never forget. Even just last night the staff partied with us in the bar with their resident Saturday Latin DJ (very good he is too!) to celebrate the birthday of Neal from Stellar Quines (and man these cats can dance!). Kenny (the house manager) nipped out and got him a cup cake and candle, they are so darned sweet here! Of all the things in New York I think I'll miss the staff of the theatre most of all. They are cracking! A home from home really.

Onto Dumfries and Galloway after next week. From a beautiful American city to the beautiful Scottish countryside - and boy is it beautiful down there. I think Dumfries and Galloway really comes into a league of its own in terms of beauty in the autumn but quite frankly any time of the year is bonny there so it should be fun.

So, here's to our final week in the big apple. Let's hope the audiences keep coming and keep enjoying watching it as much as we enjoy doing it. And Helen, the blog lady herself, joins us this week so should be a good one! Wish us luck.

Beth x

Deadline for 13-18s Summer Academy course!

This weekend sees the deadline for application forms for our 13-18 years course on the Citizens' Summer Academy. The four week course runs from 30 June - 26 July 2008. You can download your application form here.

We are hoping to extend the deadline next week if we have places left. We will keep you posted on this. In the mean time if you are aged between 13 and 18 and fancy treading the boards at the prestigious Citizens' Theatre, download your form, complete and return it to us ASAP!

There's no need to apply for places on the 1 and 2 week courses for 6-8s and 9-12s. Call 0141 429 0022 to book now, or click Summer Academy for more info.



Hx

Time Out, New York Review

In a 4 star review for Yellow Moon, published in Time Out New York - the critic said:

“The excellent first offering in this year’s Brits Off Broadway festival is David Greig’s Yellow Moon, a tart clever verse drama that doles out tragedy with his usual thrift.”

“In a tidy 90 minutes…Yellow Moon tucks a grand romantic tradition into a wry, modern packet.”

“The enforced intimacy makes Moon a deliciously sad campfire story: The play may dabble in despair, but it offers enough warmth and music for many retellings.”

Hx

I may not come home

Ok I have finally got round to adding to the blog!! Guilty! This city is so brilliant that sitting at the pc just hasn't happened yet. So let's start at a week and half ago. The wierdest thing was arriving in New York and immediately feeling at home. The atmosphere and the people just makes it feel like Glasgow except that the surroundings have had an american makeover. I know that sounds crazy but believe me it's true, my other half and our pal just left today having stayed a week and they said the same thing. It took me a week and a trip up the Empire State Building to finally have the 'woah I'm in America' mind blow moment - what a view. Even the way the architecture catches up on you reminds me of Glasgow. Edinburgh is obviously the traditionally beautiful city in Scotland but when you actually look around Glasgow you see so many hidden gems and beautiful buildings and here is full of the same. You have huge tower office blocks next to gorgeous stone stores or houses. And Central Station and the Public Library truly are as stunning as they look in pictures. So to all you scots out there, come to New York! The people are fab, the atmosphere rocks, I may never come home!! (Only joking U.S immigration authorities!)

As Keith said, the theatre is great. It's situated a couple of blocks from the south east end of Central Park (which I heard was modelled on Kelvingrove Park but I don't know if that's true).
So, an hour's walk through the beautiful park from our apartments on the north west side and we are at work. It's such a buzz to work in a building where the staff are so welcoming and helpful and all comment how much they like their jobs. It's like a big family atmosphere which is a compliment really to Peter and Elizabeth - the big high heid yins. They are truly enthusiastic and passionate about theatre and supporting the talent that New York and further afield has to offer. The enthusiasm is infectious! And the audiences have been great, Peter was saying he has been well impressed by initial turn out. We expected to play to maybe 20/30 people tops (including lots of invited freebees) but the first week was averaging 50/60 (without freebees) every night and the theatre only seats 70 odd! It's been great seeing the American reaction to the show and affirming that the subject matter and characters David has written really are recognizable and universal. We had a hint of that at the Edinburgh Festival but it's nice to have it reaffirmed. It's been mostly over-21 audiences so far but we did have 2 schools from the Bronx in and that was brilliant. It was great to see how the reaction of american kids wasn't too different from their scottish countertparts. Lee's 'rapping' went down very well! We were saying the other night it would have been brilliant if we could have taken it into new york schools like we did and will be doing again in Scotland. It's hard to beat the buzz you get with this show when its done on home territory.

So, needless to say, we are having a ball and spending far too much money! And some traditions never fade. Andy has a growing u.s fan club, including the lone older woman who passed him and Keith in the street and randomly said "I like the tall one, come on let's go!". Let's just hope all the reviews are as nice as the New York Times and the audiences keep coming. As they say here, 'lader'!

Beth x