The Stage

The Stage is a beautiful place. Some stages are big, some are small, some have fancy lighting, some have no lights, some are raised, some are just on the floor, yet each and every one of them is still a stage. But I find the stage a fascinating place as it is the home of performances. Every performance takes place on a stage. The stage is a safe place for a performance. I like Shakespeares quote of "all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." and Oscar Wilde's version "The world is a stage but the play is badly cast". I like that there is character put into the stage, and the importance of the stage. Without a stage the performers have nowhere to perform. The stage is necessary, it is a beautiful and significant part of theatre.

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner


Last year for my AS English Literature, I studied Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. The book itself is fascinating and tells the story of Amir Agha's life and how he became who he is in such a beautiful way. So this summer when I found out the production of it would be coming to Nottingham Playhouse I booked my tickets and went to see it. I was unsure of what to expect and worried I wouldn't enjoy it as much because I had to analyse the life out of it in English. But I can honestly say it is by far the best performance I have seen at Nottingham's Playhouse (and believe me I have seen many amazing plays there).  Andrei Costin as Hassan and Ben Turner as Amir were incredible. Their characterisation was so beautiful as they highlighted every detail mentioned about both characters in the book. Andrei Costin's performance as Hassan was truly captivating, he captured Hassan's personality and character perfectly, making him so innocent and enticing the audience into being able to feel nothing other than love and compassion for him.

The staging was incredible, and the kites they used really set the scene and made it all become so real. I am so glad I had the chance to go and see The Kite Runner for myself and if it is touring anywhere near you then don't hesitate to go and see it as it is a truly powerful performance that is quite thought provoking.

Physical Theatre

Hello All,

As I am almost certain you know, I am passionate about Theatre. I believe that theatre is powerful and can really impact peoples lives and I would like to have a future in the theatre industry. However the concept of physical theatre always felt too far out of my comfort zone and for some reason I had drilled it into myself that I just wouldn't be able to do physical theatre because I wasn't flexible enough. In spite of this I decided to be brave and step out of my comfort zone and get involved with a physical theatre summer residency course with Nonsuch Theatre. I didn't really know what to expect but I knew I wanted to go and learn about the beauty of physical theatre and develop my skills as an actor. I honestly didn't think that the week would end and I would have this passion for physical theatre that I have. This week I have pushed myself to do something I thought I would never be able to do and it felt amazing. I learnt a lot of lessons this week not only to do with physical theatre but to do with myself, I have definitely learned that I am much stronger than I think physically and mentally. After this week I have a new found love and passion for physical theatre and I just want to get involved and learn more about it. I am not the best and I will probably never be the best but this week has shown me that I am 1000x better at physical theatre than I went in thinking I was. I am in awe of how fascinating it is to tell a story through the physicality of someones body. I am excited to put the skills I have learned this week into practice at sixth form and elsewhere. Physical Theatre has 100% inspired me and really pushed me to achieve my dreams. My head is just swimming with ideas and dreams and passion. This week has fed my passion for theatre and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to take part in that workshop and I feel so incredibly blessed to have met such amazing people. I would recommend Nonsuch Theatre to anyone even remotely interested in theatre as I can assure you their passion for theatre will only spur on yours.

Antoine Artaud

Since finishing AS Theatre Studies we had a gap of about a month before we finished for the year. In this time our Drama lessons were spent studying the techniques of Mike Leigh and Antonine Artaud, so I thought that today I would share what I have learnt about Artaud.

I had heard of Artaud but I never really understood what it was he wanted to achieve. In one of our first lessons studying Artaud we looked at a painting by Dali Drawn. The painting was called Autumn Cannibalism.

We were then given a list of made up words and instructed to create a piece that would assault the audience's senses. 

In our next lesson we were split into two groups and told to choose a nursery rhyme where we used a universal language and gave the rhyme a whole new meaning from interpretation, bringing out the dark side to the rhymes and taking them to an extreme shocking the audience. We also interacted with the audience by tormenting them, and controlling them without their consent, assaulting their senses and allowing them to feel unexpected emotions. 

This technique of Artaud's is known as The Cruelty of Theatre as his aim was to impact his audience through cruelty. 

I found that learning about Artaud and his techniques was really interesting and I enjoyed it.

The Joys Of Examination Period

Hello Crazy Humans,

I'm back! I'm currently in year 12 which can only mean one thing. AS Level exams. And just like most people Procrastination has become my best friend. I spend pretty much all day every day revising but somehow I seem to never have learnt anything. Fortunately for me I only have 3 written exams, as I chose to study two very practical subjects (Photography and Theatre Studies).

Last Thursday I had my first exam, which was my Theatre Studies : Individual Skills exam. For this exam I performed a monologue as the character Nora Helmer from 'A Doll's House', which I thoroughly enjoyed (probably the oddest thing to say about an exam, but I loved it). The monologue lasted for 2 minutes, meaning that 30% of my AS Level for Theatre Studies comes down to those 2 minutes, so hopefully I did well!

My costume for Nora (excuse my facial expression)

However that was only half of the exam, I will be having another Theatre Studies exam in a weeks time where I will be performing in the play Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff. Metamorphosis has been written as a physical theatre play meaning that there is a lot of physicality in it and gymnasticy sort of actions which is quite funny considering I'm about as flexible as a wall. All the same I have really enjoyed everything to do with it so far and I am very excited for the performance itself.

Tomorrow I have my AS Photography exam which, like Theatre Studies is also a practical exam. However, despite me being pleased that it isn't a written exam it just so happens to be a 5 hour exam. Then in a week my written exams for Religious Studies and English Literature start.

I tend to become very stressed during exams and so I have found great comfort in the Bible verse; Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." I find this comforting as I know that no matter what grade I get back at the end, so long as I have done my very best God has a plan that will work out for me with the grades I have achieved. If you too are feeling stressed I hope that you can also find comfort in that verse.

Love you all and if you are also taking exams then GOOD LUCK!!!!

Lots of Love

Joanna
xxx

Stress!

An update on my 'Stress Life'

Stress is something that no matter who we are we will always encounter at some point or another in life. For some people stress can be a constant in their life and for others it can be very rare. For me stress is a constant thing, that no matter how hard I try to not be stressed, I always am. I find myself constantly taking breaks from work and everything because I am stressed, and then I find myself even more stressed because I have so much to do and if I take breaks I am not getting anything done. It's like a constant battle with myself in which I can only loose. This obviously isn't healthy and it may be down to the fact that I work myself too hard, and I push myself further than I can go.

Most people take 4 AS levels in year 12, like me. However, most people can cope with 4 AS levels, I on the other hand cannot. For AS levels I have taken Theatre Studies, English Literature, Religious Studies and Photography. At the beginning of the year I loved all of my AS levels but since then I have been achieving really low grades when I know I'm capable of more. The reason I am failing is because all of my subjects excluding Religious Studies are all very time consuming subjects, Photography more then the others. I find myself not having a moment to think anymore and all I seem to be doing is work work work. I spend most my time stressing over Photography and working probably 10000000x harder than anyone else in College, all for a subject which at the end of the day isn't worth it. Yes I can get UCAS points from it but the way I see it is that if I didn't do Photography I would make up for those lost UCAS points by achieving more in my other subjects which I actually need in the future. I have realised that my main cause of stress in my life is being caused by something that I don't actually need and wont gain anything from in the future. I feel as though if I were to drop Photography as an AS level now then I would have 5 extra hours to revise for my other subjects, which would take me up about 2 grades and would be valued more in the future, rather than staying with something that causes me so much stress and will result in me achieving C's, D's and E's in my subjects when I know I am capable of achieving A's and B's.

I also find that when I am stressed about things even the smallest of things can upset me and cause me even more stress. Things like small unimportant disagreements within friendship groups, not being able to sleep and being constantly tired. I find it so hard to concentrate and fully focus on things when I'm stressed about something or other because the stress occupies my mind.

Apologies for my little rant about stress, maybe some of you can relate to me?

Love Joanna

xxx

Fear.

Fear. What is fear? Fear is the anxiety that builds up inside you. Everyone suffers from fear, some more severely than others, but there is no escaping fear. 

Over the years my fears have built up and become worse and worse. I have an extreme fear of fire - to the point I still have nightmares about fire. Although the thing I am most fearful of is fire, it doesn't effect me as badly as other things I fear as fire is something I'm less likely to encounter. 

I do however have a fear of being on my own and being vulnerable, I'm a 17 year old girl who is very small and weak and would be useless in defending herself. I become 1000000x more aware of everything when I'm on my own, and I begin to become really panicky to the point its hard for me to breathe. If a van drives past me I panic even more (I blame that fear on Chitty Chitty bang bang's child catcher). 

Although fear has a tight hold of my life, when I am panicked and alone and scared I focus my mind on a psalm and I say it to myself over and over again, I pray that psalm and I feel God's peace being laid upon me. The psalm says "the LORD is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I fear, the LORD is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid. When evil men advance against me they will stumble and fall" 

I hope this verse can help and encourage those of you who suffer with fear.

Here is a small fact : you are going to die

So my favourite book has been made into a film which I went to see the preview/premiere of last Tuesday night. The book/film is called The Book Thief and is written by Markus Zusak. The book is Narrated by death and the story is incredible. For years I have adored and cherished this book, I have written play scripts from it and only dreamed of making it into a play which one day I hopefully will. So when I heard it was coming to Cinemas I was ecstatic and fortunately for me my dad got some free tickets to go and see the preview of it, so naturally I went and I was very impressed. I was worried that the film wouldn't live up to the book as usually films drift off from the books but this film stuck with the book really well! I loved how accurate everything was and I loved That they kept death as the narrator although I think I would have branched out more with Death if I was the director. But as a whole I loved it and I would highly recommend reading the book and going to see the film. 

My Half Term

Hello Lovlies,

As you probably by now know, I am a Theatre Student and I just love anything to do with plays, the theatre, acting etc etc...

So this half term I spent my week at the playhouse as I do every February half term. I took part in the youth theatre workshops for the threepenny opera and I loved every minute of it. The playhouse has really built up my confidence in acting and I have learnt so much about Brecht and theatre this week and I have made so many friends. What I love about Playhouse Youth Theatre is that everyone is so friendly and accepting and that there is no judgement there, everyone fits in and gets their moment to shine.

On the first few days we just did different activities which could be later on adapted and included in our final performance at the end of the week. We did the beg factor and the hoe factor, a dance to the threepenny opera's version of Mack the Knife, we created scenes to do with Jimmy Saville and at the end of the week we put everything together and performed a 20 minute version of our own adaptation of the Threepenny Opera.

On Friday after we performed our pieces we all went out for a meal together and then came back to the playhouse in the evening to watch the Threepenny Opera which was absolutely incredible. I just LOVED it, I thought it was amazing how inclusive the performance was as it included people with all sorts of disabilities and their performances were just perfect.

I would highly recommend going to see the Threepenny Opera, it is incredible and the director has really stuck to Brecht's Techniques which I love.

Matthew 7:1

Matthew 7:1

"DO NOT SAY WHAT IS WRONG IN OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES. THEN OTHER PEOPLE WON'T SAY WHAT IS WRONG IN YOUR LIFE." ~ NLV

Hello All, 

Today I thought I'd share with you all a verse that I have recently come across and fallen in love with. 

I am a rather passionate person when it comes to certain things in life such as Theatre, God and Judgement. You may think that judgement is a rather odd thing to feel passionate about and that it's rather hypocritical, which I cannot deny! Recently I have been challenged with the opportunity to accept people into my life who are completely judged by other people and it got me to thinking that I don't want to be just another person who discriminates and judges a person on the rumours I have heard or on the way a person dresses or who they are or what they have done. 

I feel that in no way is it my place to judge a person because at the end of the day Judgement should be left down to God, so what if someone is on drugs, so what if someone is a thief, so what if someone is just sleeping around, yeah they may be sins but guess what so is that little white lie you told today, that deceitfulness you showed today and guess what all sin is equal in the eyes of God, we as humans are in no place to judge one another, instead we are supposed to LOVE and ACCEPT one another. 

If as Christians we claim to love and follow God but we discriminate against and judge those who look or sound different or who have come from a different background then we aren't following God. How is a person supposed to come to know God if they are treated with disrespect and looked down on, they aren't going to come to know God. 

To judge someone in a negative way is to say that you are more important then them, but you are not. They're as much of a child of God as you are and they deserve to be treated like one.

Do not say what is wrong in other people's lives. Then other people won't say what's wrong in your life.

Love Joanna

xxx

January Favourites

Hello Lovelies,

I know January isn't quite over yet but I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd do my January favourites and a little update!

So recently I have been very busy rehearsing for a play at college in which I am assistant directing and am also in (but I'm only a small role) however rehearsals take up so much time, so I get home and I just fall asleep because I'm so tired! I love being a part of plays, it's so much fun and you can learn so much! I can't believe the show is so soon!!

Anyway on with my favourites...

So this month I have been absolutely loving the Ted Baker Body Scrub and Body Cream, I would highly recommend both these products as they smell Devine  and honestly work wonders! 

I apologise for the awful quality of the photos, my poor phone doesn't have a great camera :/

I have been loving my new, short and healthy hair! My hair used to be so long but it was so dead and unhealthy so I decided I would need a change, a painfully short change, but I do love having my hair this length and I love how healthy it feels! 

Music wise this month I have been obsessing over mainly 2 albums. For Christmas I received an iTunes voucher, with it I purchased Demi Lovato's new album Demi which I cannot even put into words how much I love it, I love how deep some of her songs are and just how relatable they are! My favourite song off this album at the moment is probably something that we're not.

I have also been addicted to Avicii's album True, this album was a fairly random but for me as I had only heard 2 of the songs off the album when I purchased it, but honestly it is such a feel good album and I absolutely love it, I can't even pick a favourite song off this album because all the songs are just too good. 

These have just been a couple of things that I have discovered/loved during this month.

Let me know what you have been loving this month.

Lots of Love

Joanna 

xxx

My Slight Doctor Who Obsession

Hello all of Time and Space,

Today I thought I would share with you my very slight obsession with Doctor Who.

Ever since I was little I have watched Doctor Who and have stared at the screen mesmerised by how fascinating it was. When Matt Smith first made his appearance as the Doctor I really didn't like him, I wanted David Tennant back. However by about the 3rd Matt Smith episode I had fallen in love with him and it was safe to say he was 'My Doctor', yup Eleven is mine. But Clara 'Oswin' Oswald has turned my Love for Doctor Who into an extreme addiction. I literally want to be Clara!

For Christmas I got some Sonic Screwdriver earrings and a Fez and Bowtie Necklace which my Grandparents bought me from the site Etsy.com. I cannot even express to you my love for these!

These Earrings cost £15.64 can be bought from
http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/129402033/doctor-who-sonic-screwdriver-inspired?ref=sr_gallery_15&ga_search_query=Doctor+who&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=GB&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=handmade%2Fjewelry

Fez and Bowtie Necklace which costs £6.25 from  http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/100506887/11th-doctor-charm-necklace-doctor-who?ref=sr_gallery_4&ga_search_query=fez+and+bowtie+necklace&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=GB&ga_search_type=all

Jenna Louise-Coleman who plays Clara Oswald has definitely become my fashion inspiration to the extent I have had my hair cut like hers (although my hair needed cutting to that length because of how dead it was anyway, so I didn't really have much choice).

Jenna Coleman's Hair

My hair (and sneaky necklace) Jenna's looks better but ah well. 

If any of you love Doctor Who as much as me then I will happily fangirl with you, but for now...

Geronimo

New Years Resolutions

Hello Lovelies,

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2014 is here already and that can only mean New Years Resolutions. Every year I make New Years resolutions and by about lunch time on New Years Day I've already failed. This year however I'm going to set my self some targets which I hope to not fail. Firstly I am aiming to work hard, I am aiming to take challenges, I am aiming to read a lot and to write a lot and to not give up! I am one of those people who can shy out of a challenge and put my self down but this year is going to be different, I am going to be confident and I am going to accept the challenges life offers me and I will not give up.

What are you setting as your New Years resolutions? 

Love Joanna 

Xxx