Max’s Review of One Flea Spare by Red Dog Theatre Company

 Max was involved in our Media Mouse Trap project. He is working towards his Bronze Arts Award. This is his review of One Flea Spare by Red Dog Theatre Company 

What did you go and see as a member of the audience?

One Flea Spare at Cheltenham Theatre on the 9^th October 2010 

What were you expecting?

I did not know the subject of the play, but since my friend’s father had a lead role I thought it would be great, and it was!

How was it? What did you think?

It was performed by 6 actors in total and was about the Plague of London. It was good because it made you think about what it must have been like in those days

Written by Max, aged 12 for his Bronze Arts Award

Hamish Reviews Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat

This Blog entry is for Hamish’s Bronze Arts Award.

Hamish is 16 years old and was one of the participants on OYAP Trust’s Media Mouse Trap Project. Here is shares his review of Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat as part  B of his Arts Award being the audience.

The event I attended was;

 Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat

Waterside Theatre

Aylesbury

on

Sunday 14^th November 2010

What was Joseph about?

Joseph was his fathers favourite son. His brothers were jealous. Josephs father Jacob gave Joseph a multi-coloured coat. The brothers were annoyed, they hatched a plan to get rid of Joseph. They sold him to the Ishmaelite. The brothers ripped up Josephs coat, covered it in goats blood and told Jacob that Joseph had died.

Joseph had not died, he was sold as a slave to pottifer. Pottifers wife liked Joseph. Pottifer did not like this and threw Joseph into jail. In jail Joseph explained dreams to other prisioners.Pharoah, the King of Egypt heard about this and asked Joseph to explain his dreams. Joseph explained that one dream meant a famine was coming so Pharoah began to store food so people would not starve. Josephs brothers heard about the food and went to Pharoah to ask for some. After a while the brothers recognised Joseph and were happy to see him. Jacob went to see Joseph. He was happy too. They all had a party.

What were you expecting before you went and why?

I have seen Joseph before so I knew the story. The Theatre was new, it only opened in November 2010. I had watched it being built but I had not seen the inside. I wanted to see what it looked like inside. It had orange curtains, orange seats with tree patterns on, and the walls looked like Jenga blocks with red and blue lights in them.

The performance was WOW! Fast. Colourful. Loud. Fantastic costumes. Great scenery. I enjoyed it.

How was it and what do you think of it now?

It was so good I would go and see it again.

could i be more inspired? i fancy not!

Our first day of training after the HFL filming project – we were a three man band today with me, James and Becca, but by golly we got a lot done! Being in the first stages of thinking about our own projects ( : ) ) we had a look at a recent project and had a bit of a brain storming session about how we might go about organising our own and what our objectives might be for making sure young people that participated got the most out of it. The project itself was a very interesting idea – a short film for the arts council about what art means to young people who are NEET (not in education, employment or training); the conclusion being not very interested to begin with, but only because they hadn’t been given the opprtunity to discover all the things art could actually emcompass (theatre, music, poetry, graffiti, dance etc) and how they could therefore take ownership of it. It really made me think about what I want to do with my project, and how passionate I feel about breaking down the barriers of exclusivity in the arts for young people.

We also had a chat with Catherine Lacey, an amazing person that has done many things and is now Cheif Exec of the Oxfordshire Children’s and Voluntary Youth Services; it was really great to meet someone with that much experience who was impassioned about what we wanted to do! You can’t get a confidence boost much better, really.

Today was the first time I have watched our vlogs from the HFL project; apart from confirming the fact that on camera I look like the moon from the Mighty Boosh, I think they really show how well we are all going to work together, and bring a massive dose of GSOH to whatever we do as well as determination to do something preety damn good. We were also introduced courtesy of Liz to the wonderful world of twitter – and before all anti- twitterites judge, James and I tweeted that we as two young artsits were looking for an exhibition space around Oxford and within half an hour had heard about this amazing sounding exhibition wall at Didcot’s new arts centre The Cornerstone! So literally watch this space…..

About Ellie

Timeline: CHILDHOOD … images (fascination) to… DYSLEXIA … school (frustration) to… SYNAESTHESIA… music, art, tv, theatre continuing and shaping into… YOUNG WOMANHOOD … university – people, set design, singing, ideas, illustration to.. NOW … literature…sex…art…stage…sensory experience…

About Becca

Hello,

I am very excited about this wonderful opportunity. The programme is just beginning to kick off and there is an almighty buzz already!

A few words about myself:
My background is made of community festivals, street theatre, carnival and children’s workshops. I have always been involved on some level and made the decision very early on that I wanted to continue this professionally.

I studied at Oxford Brookes University and gained a 2:1 in Arts Management & Administration and Business.

This journey that I am embarking on with OYAP will give me the support, skill set and confidence to make a real difference to people’s lives. Bringing people together and inspiring them to reach out and grab their ambitions.

I will be blogging on OYAP with updates. I plan to blog in more detail on beccart.wordpress.com.

I am looking forward to your comments.

Becca