Description
Hillmorton Primary School, in Warwickshire, where last week I performed in an afternoon show of Red Riding Hood Pantomime that I am touring in over this Christmas period.
Initial Reflection
I felt slightly warn out and tired, but we'd had a really good show in the morning, which gave me a real buzz. What was special about the first school on this day is that the teachers all joined in. This had a lovely effect on the children and also added more laughs to my performance as some gags from my character can go over the children's head but the teachers laughed. This made me feel stronger as a character and I enjoyed bouncing off the audiences reaction during the first performance. We also got some really good feedback and lovely comments from the children and teachers which sent me on to the second school buzzing with happiness and feeling proud of what the cast and I have achieved.
Before and during the show everything seemed to be normal, as good, as bad, and as indifferent as all the days on tour so far. After the show, whilst clearing down the children were heading home and one child approached me and said thank you. She then asked a question which I did not expect coming from a young child. She asked 'Do you enjoy performing in the Panto?' In the 3 years I have performed in Pantomime no child has ever asked me that question, most questions are usually like "who were you?", and "who was the wolf?" etc etc. This question really touched me, it especially had more of an effect coming from a child and it made me think!
List
- Questioning
- Happy
- Buzzing
- Tired
- Exhausted
- Happy Thoughts
- Saw Smiling faces
- Saw Excited Children
- Pleased
- Successful
- Enjoyment Had By All
- Puzzled
- Deep in Thought
Evaluation
I feel both our performances went really well with no mistakes and we had great reactions from our audiences. Both performance spaces worked well with our set and fitted perfectly.
With the question asked after my second performance, it helped me to learn more about myself. It really made me stop and think about it in depth. I discovered more about myself and it helped me to realise a greater love for the performance side of my job. I love bringing happiness and enjoyment to the audiences, putting smiles on children's faces and bringing panto to those who aren't always fortunate to see it. I add a treat to peoples Christmases.
What If
Well asking myself what could of happened makes me realise that I can be quite negative as I produce thoughts like:- The set could of fallen down, I could of forgotten my lines, or there could of been a power cut leaving us with no mics, sound or lights. However knowing myself it's not that I'm negative but I am a worrier, sometimes fearing negative possibilities! But when asking myself what I would like to happen then my thoughts took a more positive route. It would be nice not to have one show where no children cry from being scared, it would be lovely to have every show where all the children shout so loud that you struggle to hear yourself think, it would be a great laugh if the teachers randomly got up and joined in with our dance routines on stage, it would be great to get a delivery of a new tour van as ours is that bad it freezes on the inside aswell!!
Another View
(Writing a view of a section of my day from a child in the audience)
Today at school I was all excited as we were having a special treat this afternoon. We had a Pantomime visiting us. I have never seen a Pantomime before, but my teacher had made it sound really exciting, and I was really looking forward to it. I queued up to go in to the hall with all my friends, we were all excited and giggling with joy about what lies ahead. We took a seat on the floor and it all looked magical, as if it was another world. The music started and I sang along to Jingle Bells with my classmates. I loved everything, it made me laugh and the Granny looked funny with her bright dress and blue hair. I shouted out 'It's Moo Moo' as loud as I could when the ghost went past, I joined in the actions and clapped and danced in my seat. Before I knew it it was all over but it had me feel extremely happy and I loved everything about it. My first Pantomime was brilliant and I hope I get to see one again next year.
Themes
I had a real meaningful day and this day has stuck out more than any other day on my tour of pantomime so far. All the comments and feedback from both performances have made me even more enthusiastic about my tour and my love for performing. I would not change a thing about this day, however what would make it more interesting for me would be to sit down after a show with the children in the audience and talk to them about their opinions and see and hear what they thought of the show. This at present is a similarity to most days in my week and over the next 6 weeks on tour right the way through to mid-January. However today has stuck in my mind having a bigger impact on me and taken a place in this course for me with the question that I was asked. This is a question I would like to remember and perhaps ask myself when performing in the next job I undertake. 'Do you enjoy performing?' This question makes me realise for me this is not just a job, but a dream come true and a passion which I love.
When I first read the Blog about writing poems for our journal I had mixed opinions on it, I thought it's a great idea and a great way to get your thoughts down in a journal. However panic sets in as I think to myself I can't write poems. So for me this is a challenge but I wanted to give it a go and see how it suited me.
Firstly I read others blogs who have tried the challenge already to give me an insight to others thoughts and methods on how to tackle my poems. It was rather daunting but once I got started thoughts just seemed to flow. My first poem, looking back now is not very deep with feelings, more a schedule of events. As I went on through the week I tried to delve a little deeper in to my thoughts and feelings. Reading back over them now I do believe they reflect me and how I would describe myself for a journal and I feel and believe they improve as time goes on.
I really enjoyed the task and feel I got alot from it, it has taught me a new way to journal my thoughts and feelings daily. I would reccommend this to everyone to try once and give it a go. Although I won't be writing poems everyday for my journal I feel I will go back to them every now and again.
Panto is feeling like all the colours in the rainbow,
as bright as each other
Panto is feeling like your riding a hot air balloon
flying high up in to the sky
Panto is feeling like freshly baked cup cakes
all sweet and exciting
Panto is feeling like a tropical thunderstorm
all mixed with emotions
Panto is feeling like a basket full of flowers
filled with variety
Panto is feeling like a bouncy ball
always energetic
Panto here I come.
Going over and over it's never going to stop
Again and again and my head wants to pop
Frustrations now knocking at the door
And all I ask is when will it end
I'm ready to go, move forward and move on
Going round and round just makes me feel down
All my loved ones at home for the Christmas term
And I'm stuck in this hole awaiting my first
Tick Tock Tick Tock
The spotlight is on
Tick Tock Tick Tock
Feeling all nervous and numb
Tick Tock Tick Tock
A deep breath I take
Tick Tock Tick Tock
I must not be late
It's all a little daunting
With so much to remember
My head is over loading
And the clouds are rolling in
Feeling tired from early mornings
And my body aches all over
To the bottom of my lungs for singing
The show is slowly moving on
Need to dig even deeper
Find the energy in my toes
There is always more thats greater
Travelling onwards to the close
My bags are packed, the mornings here
I've said my goodbyes to those I hold dear.
My apprehension won't last, new people I'll meet
The journeys here and I'm dancing on my feet.
New faces, new friends, new stories to make
Meeting the director will make us all quake.
With rooms allocated and schedules all done
It's time to meet my cast, the gags are to be run.
The first day of rehearsals are coming to an end
Feeling sleepy already it's time for my bed.
A busy day has been had by all
Now I'm looking forward to what lies in store.
I have been keeping a personal journal now for a couple of weeks since I started my recent tour in Panto. I have looked at several ways to keep my journal:- I have wrote poems as suggested by Adesola (these I will post shortly).
My personal journal has been kept in various forms to see what best suits me. I have not found this the easiest task but with trial and error I have found I get more from writing in bullet points daily to note my feelings and thoughts on the day. I found this is the most successful way for me as it's quick and easy to write, as whilst on tour I have to manage my time well. I have also found bullet points practical when reading back over my journal to take extracts for reflection.
On the first campus session we were faced with the question - Do web based Technologies enhance Professional Practice? In groups we tackled the question and produced a presentation with what we thought. I felt that working in a group and attending this campus session helped me to be more involved and I feel I contributed well to the group with thoughts and views that I would not produce on my own. The environment helped me to produce my own thoughts and then develop them in discussion with other peoples views.
First we brain stormed the definition of each word so as a group we had an understanding of the meaning of what we were being asked!
Web Based Technologies
Search Engines Online websites
Media Devices Blogs
Flickr Spotlight
Internet Twitter
Skype MSN
Email Facebook
Social Networking Reviews Sites
Google Docs You Tube
Enhance
Progressing with time
Improving
More opportunities
More options
More auditions
Keeping up to date
Professional Practices
Spotlight
Career
Life
Marketing
Projecting Yourself
Managing your career
Conducting yourself
We then looked at the question in a format that we separated in to a For and Against so we could define which web based technologies could and could not enhance our professional practice. Here is what we produced:-
For
Casting websites - More opportunities, More jobs
Social networks, Facebook, Twitter - Build yourself a reputation, reader and creator
It's International, Global - can communicate with people all over the world, opens up job opportunities
Emails - quicker, faster, greener
Reviews - Good reviews equals good publicity allowing more opportunities
Skype - cheaper methods to communicate worldwide
Search engines - allows a wider area to search, more opportunities
Communication - More access to communications
Against
Social networks, Facebook, Twitter - need to consider professional and social, could get yourself a bad reputation
Reviews - If a review is bad, then its bad press which can limit opportunities
Casting websites - Defining between real and dodgy sites, can lead to unprofessional jobs
Permanent - What goes on the Internet can not be removed, it's permanent
Search engines - Can filter the wrong information before the best
Hacking - Your information or information you've read could of been tampered with
Reliability - How do you know if the information you gain is correct or reliable
Accessibility - Without computer and Internet access it's very difficult to access these web tools
After our thoughts were down in front of us we could see that a few of the web based technologies fell in to both categories, for and against, as they each had positive and negative aspects to them in relation to our professional career. We focused our investigation in to 3 specific areas to discuss and use in our presentation:-
- Casting websites
- Search engines and email - Gmail
- Social networks
- In relation to casting sites, these give the professional a good amount of information on jobs, auditions and castings that are around at that time. In a way it opens up opportunities and alot more jobs use these sites now to advertise rather than 'The Stage'. However there are so many casting sites out there now so how do you know which is the best to use and what information is safe. Also some casting sites charge to see the information in full and to put your profile online, so you need to learn and assess which casting sites are legit and which best suits you for your line of work so you don't lose money.
- In the professional world we rely more and more each day on search engines and emails to help us with our work. They are vital in our everyday work whether it's to research in to information ready for auditions, to search for locations or to email agents and future work prospects. Emails are quicker than the original letter sending, they are instant and greener. However all these resources can be difficult without an Internet connection or access to a laptop. This I have already experienced at the beginning of the course when I had recently moved house and was in the process of organising the Internet connection, it became difficult to almost impossible to send emails and blog. So the resources of emails and search engines are an asset to professional careers if accessible.
- Social networks have been used and developing for many years now, with names like Facebook and Twitter growing everyday. I have used my Facebook account to socialise with friends and family and it's a great way to stay in contact with everyone. However you have to be very careful as what goes on to the internet stays on the internet and cannot be deleted. You need to manage your account as you do not want to paint yourself in a bad light or give yourself a bad reputation. We discussed as a group that it would be difficult to let an agent for example to connect with you on a social network as these cannot always portray you in how you wish to be seen in your profession. But as a group we agree social networks can be an asset, enhancing your career so therefore you could create a specific professional profile.
As a group we came to the conclusion that web based technologies do enhance you professional career, they help to give you and your career so much more - more contacts, more auditions, more paths to take within your career and overall more opportunities. However we believe it is all down to 'Professional Management', this is the key. It means that web based technologies can enhance your career but it is down to your own professional management to how you use them, taking care not to fall in to the wrong sites and bad information.
Overall we believe that web based technologies do enhance professional practice with the involvement of your own professional management.
Please take a look at the presentation my group produced on power point, and also the recording for you tube on our key points and let me know your opinions on if web based technologies enhance professional practice?
