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julianpford1-blog · 7 years ago

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Time in Clowning

Disclaimer notice: this blog will contain my clowning development process rather than a day to day blog and also please note that the sessions are not in exact order.

Term one.

Session one: On this day I am quite nervous to be in clowning because I only know Calum form the week before and I don't know any else so I come in my shorts and t shirt because I wasn't sure if we were going to get physical or anything so waiting by the door for Hilary (which she came late say 10 minutes), so Hilary arrives and we start off with chairs in a circle and we say our names so we get to know one another, we do that and start with a game of chairs (no better name that I can think of) where we have to not allow the chosen player a chair to sit on by sitting on them now we are in a small room and there I say nearly 20 of us (give or take) and I am just siting there trying to remember everybody’s name, then we had to partner up and designate one person A and/or B, A tells B what’s in the (which could be anything) and B has to ask “what is in the bag?” which was mad trying to make up (on the spot). Then we played Name tag where one is first chosen to tag another person, that person being approached can call out a name (simply someone in the classroom) and then that called person is it so on and so forth now I didn't get called out or touched (because mainly for touching quick in a small room and packed for being called out just didn't). now at the end of the session we were given an assessment sheet for what dates are happening and terms off and whatnot,.

Session two: Now I have become quite ok with people names (minus a couple of them) we have moved from cad111 (the small room form session one) to cad107 (a nicely space room) and we start with musical chairs simple rules really walk around the chairs (which are placed around the room facing different directions) and quickly sit on them when the music stops (which Hilary was in charge of) we had to listen out for the music because it did at times go quiet whether the music was meant to be quiet or Hilary was fiddling with the sound, now at one point the music stops and I rush over to a nearby chair because another classmate Laura rushes behind “my chair” and pulls the chair away from me and I just fell down thankfully I didn't up with a sore ass or a sore cheek. so the games are over and Hilary pulls out a couple of white screens and she wants us to pop out from behind the screens and stand natural no fidgeting or picking our noses, so one by one went up and we had a giggle or two whereas some other like jack got some laughs, when I got up and popped out of the screens got some giggles. Before we went home or another lesson we decided to do 11am instead doing 9am because we wanted our clowns fresh and out of bed.

Session Three: We are back in ca111 for today (because I think 107 was booked before Hilary) we have a small class today (probably the others had other classes) which is great because we got a better chance to show off our clowns. So we played tag: fox and rabbit edition we had to partner up with another person, the class linked arms which only left two people without partners they became the fox and rabbit so what the rabbit had to do was run away from the fox and don't get tagged by the fox or else the rabbit becomes the fox (simple enough) but the rabbit can stop being the rabbit by linking arms with the linked people and the person on the opposite side is the new rabbit (or fox when we changed up the rules here and there). We pulled up chairs and a pair of screens to we played (I’m calling it escape) in which where there 4 players 2 prisoners, 2 guards now the guards not only keep the prisoners on their chairs by tapping their shoulders gently, they also have to wink to the opposite prisoner to signal the prisoner that they can run away to freedom, when the prisoner is free they have to say something funny to the audience for instance I escaped and said “how many Mexicans do it take to escape? Juan” no laughs just smirks. any way after this we watched TV, more specifically examples of clowns where be it silent movie or looking at duets/solos and also looking at Hilary made page with our blogs on it.

Session Four: In ca111 (again) we play name tag and when another classmate came for me I couldn't for the life of me say a name so I don't get tagged but I did so I let a growl/grunt of disbelief which made it quite like a horror movie with the victim running away without letting the other characters knowing where I am or what I am doing, so meh. later on in the lesson we again have another look at the clowns (mostly for the others who were not in the session before).

We do have a session before we break up for Christmas but it was a mostly for last laughs before we get home.

Term Two.

Session one: We return form a restful Christmas and we are preparing for the final Clown performance and we are in room cab218 so Hilary welcomes us back with a game of keepy upies where we have to keep a ball up in the air and never letting touching it the floor while counting together (which we couldn't do properly) and we changed the rules like can only touch it once (though can touch it again after someone else has touched it) or only can use anything else expect our hands. Then we had a splash at name tag which again repeated term one Session fours of unable to communicate due to being approached by the tagger (good times), so Hilary reminds us when the performance (when & where) is happening which was 214 the same room we are in today. So we got our clown costumes from the theatre cupboard. I grabbed a tweed coat alongside a straw hat (the hat brought me memories of when I was farmer MacDonald in Bridgend college Pantomime where I was reminded by the audience which were a bunch of kids that was I BALD!) now we put on our costumes where Hilary suggested I’d take off my trousers to expose my underwear but keep my shoes on and have a belt on around my waist (shirt can be anything as long it didn't draw attention form my legs.

That be me on the left side with the tweed coat and no trousers.

Session Two: We have a guest lecturer for this session and next session and he taught us how to trip over ourselves safe and yet comically and this trick was awkward for because I don't trip over myself, I only trip up the stairs if I cock my first step or if I cock my running on accident so this was hard for me to do especially when you trying to make it natural without time the bloody trip. the lecturer was lovely so it would have been nice to have him again.

Session three: We have the guest lecturer again and this time we have more classmates (because they again have other commitments) now we doing stage punching, slapping and then head-butting, He brakes us up into partners so I’m with Calum and we just have to show a simple scene using tripping and stage punching/slapping/head-butting which was quite hilarious because I haven't quite got the head-butting down because I would butt the upper shoulder rather than the lower shoulder where your head needs to be to fool the audience .

Session four: We get our costumes on and have to pop out of the screens and stand neutral and see if we get an reaction out of the audience and go off. Hilary has assigned me in with Martin and Ericka because we were the only three without an group so I am happy.

We have broken up for Easter holidays which was for 2 weeks and a half give or take. So I will continue the rest of the blog as term two.

Session five: We are in the zen room which is cab403 now we come on stage with a pair of screens and a door and the door handles are easy to take off so there's comedy. So when we finished with the door we showed off our performance at 1 o’clock. So we explain that we don't have anything to show her because we haven't been able to get in contact or rehearse over the holidays she understood and basically helped us what to do. We went over what we did with Hilary and wrote the order.

Rehearsal one: we came in uni. at one and waited martin to finish his stpf which took longer than martin expected so when that was over and done with we went up to the Zen room and practise our piece and martin added a part where we three have a dance off (of sorts) and have the ending with me and martin running after each other over who shall wear the hat running with the benny hill song on.

Performance Day: On Performance day we have to come in for 9am, set up and start at 9.45 we were the second group to show off our performance. when the first group finished we’d set up for ours with a stool in the middle. while setting up I put the door away and almost fell over one of the screens leg wheels (is what I'm calling them) the show hasn't even started yet. We come to the end of the last of the group and ended with shaving cream pie in our faces, first for me was pied into the elbow and then pied in the face by Hilary. Did say to her after washing off the shaving cream “don't you cream me again”. Nadia took a couple of shots of all our shows while Hilary recorded them.

here is my group photo.

To end the day we played musical chairs and I was the DJ.

I’d say that I was a in the moment clown rather than a 24/7 clown..

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julianpford1-blog · 7 years ago

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Performance and Gender Perf. reflection

After Beth asks me to join her I knew that I would only be helping her in the sense of I say these speeches like a dummy but during the first meeting I knew that I needed to brush up and research on not only the speeches but also on Jack Halberstam.

The speeches I mostly knew just cherry orchard was the one I didn't knew anything about so one I would have changed was knowing the structure of cherry orchard other than the fact that Yerm. was a child whose father and grandfather were slaves in the estate Yerm. bought. Would have made Hilary’ s question a lot easier to answer. Death of a Salesman I read the play and watched the film adaption, the Winston Churchill speech I know because it is the well known British speech during World War 2, the superman speech, I know because I’ve watched kill bill 2 (I have seen kill bill 1&2 so I know what the films were about).

The set was simplistic because Beth and I were spit balling what setting she wanted to have. So she was thinking setting the scene as a couple arguing with each other over a bed while reciting the speeches (pieces of it) I thought it was intense to do in the sense of that we would confuse the audience on what we were on about because we were reciting bit and pieces from different settings and time periods. So I forward an idea that we do it as we were politics/senators running for presidency like recent events with Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump by showing off who would be the better interpretation of these speeches and have the audience vote which be the better interpretation male or female (with that said I thought at least I’d get some more votes but oh well). podiums, ballot box and a projector were the only things we needed lighting could have been present, as we could’ve lighten one person and dim on the other to help with who is talking even though it is obvious but it turns out that having these lights it would have been difficult to show off the pictures so we went with no lights and blinds down with the one set of main lights on (main lights being the room lights)

We couldn't get our hands on some podiums so we went with chairs.

We had the projector up and running with it showing off pictures that related with the speeches at the time. Now Sarah suggested that the pictures be abstract just because it might confuse the audience which we were going to do.

the speeches they were quite lengthy because 1. We wanted to take questions 2. the audience will sleep through them and don't get the chance to vote, so what I said to Beth is that we instead take turns in reading different sections of the same speech so I would read one section as it is and Beth would read the following section and vice versa as a if it was being spoken by a female.

We had Dan as a last minute decision because the voice clips that Beth prepared were working expect one so instead of recording under pressure we had Dan in not only to say please make your vote now... , say congrats. and also count the votes. We also had Nicole but lesser because she took pictures and she got to watch the show.

Would I change anything? 1.Knowing Cherry Orchard more better so (again) answering Hilary fully would have been nice. other than that no I would not have changed anything.

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julianpford1-blog · 7 years ago

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Mistakes I make (part 2)

now yes It has been a while from the last post but I wanted to make sure that mistakes are made so here they are.

over the months mistakes have been made not really happening in and around uni. (so there's something) only one mistake happened. So basically what happened is I go to D block 4th floor to relax and read my Warhammer 40k books on these lovely couches, now I have done my reading and quick power nap I pack my book away, get up and go away to a meeting turns out I lost my beanie/hat (somehow) so I go back up after the meeting to look for it get there and cant find it, so I go to look under the couches and I forget to take my bag which is loosely containing on the outside pockets my water and spray which they fall out because gravity to my surprise it made. I felt like the noise making idiot at a public library, so I retreated saving my face (what little of it). light side of this story I find my beanie in next week session. YAY!.

Now on the morning day of my solo performance I have with me a sign. I get to the train station ipod strapped to my pocket headphone wires dangling I put down my bag (I got there with time on my hands) take a breath then somehow I smack the ipod off my pocket the wire dangling freely and the pod itself over the fence behind the train station in the “gutter” so I put my sign down against the fence, I go up over the fence jump down (only like a big stretch away) grab the ipod because it is blue and easy to spot get back up over the fence walk towards to my bag only to find my sign to be blown through the fence and down in the gutter so felling a little annoyed because my train is only 1 minute away so I jump the fence, jump down grab the sign and go back up only to find a bystander to comment “ today is not your day“ luckily the train is only seconds away and I get on with my ipod, bag and my sign and able to do my solo performance.

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