Discombobulated!

This is the second or third script I ever created with a CYT group, back in the mists of 2007. Even though the script says they go outside, we ended up having to drop it, it was just too time consuming, but everything else made it in. This group had some really kooky personalities in it, hence Gorgonzilla, Queen of the Cheese Dream Dimension, and other bizzaro characters they decided they wanted to be.

Even though I'm in the script, I was played by one of the young people, hence realising my dream to be portrayed on stage by a ten year old girl.

Onwards!

the carnival rolls on all the same.

This is another circus holiday workshop, one I did with El Kirschbaum. You may note similarities between this one and the other circus workshop script Clown Town. The main difference between that one and this one is the Nigglesnush. What is a Nigglesnush? I don't think anyone knows, except for the girl that decided she would be a Nigglesnoosh. Also this one is named after a Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen song. Actually, now that I look at it, this one is completely different to the last one. For whatever reason when I was writing for thirteen 7 - 9 year olds I decided it would be an awesome idea to write a ten minute script with about forty characters in it. What an idiot, Hadley.


Onwards, after the cut!

a small Fairy Tale

Continuing adventures in making theatre with young people on this blog I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with and don't have the impetus to update with any sort of consistancy.

I created this one with an After School Workshop group. After schools are tricky, because you only have an hour a week, the age ranges can be a bit wacky (this group is like 7 - 12 or something) and the participants come straight after school, so are traditionally extremely haywire. This was a really long process of brainstorming, improvising scenes, cutting characters in and out, and it all went really well. In the end they got the script about three weeks before we went on, so they did an awesome job getting their lines down (mostly!). Before you ask: yes, the actor playing Grandma Slug was adorable.

Onwards, to a small Fairy Tale!

Clown Town!

Next up, welcome to Clown Town!

Circus workshops can be tricky when you only have a week, and this script was devised with a group I worked with internationally renowned goof and Our Man In Africa, Pablo Latona. He focused mostly on clowning work, falls, tumbling, and gags such as the floating briefcase and other such silliness. This worked really well when combined with my bits and pieces of clowning such as double takes, stupid noises and walks, and bouffon.

As always we had a really solid group, and the idea of a town where everyone is a clown was probably the very first one we had. From there things spiraled out of control, as they invariably do, into a fast and funny mess of gags.

Anyway, onwards... to CLOWN TOWN!

The Most Evil Granny In France: The Motion Picture

Right you are: the third and final (so far) installment in the continuing adventures of Herietta Raes, the most evil Granny in France. This is the most recent and was done with a CYT group of 10 - 12 year olds. The idea to tell the story of the story of the story of the Most Evil Granny In France was coined by one of my shining lights who will one day go onto be extremely famous while I am living in the gutter collecting cans so I can afford Famous Magazine.

This group had some participants with very keen comic timing and slapstic skills, which really kept the script, which is batshit insane, bounding along. There were early ideas that the entire play would be set in a toilet, and that there would be a dog playing a Judge. While the toilet and judge didn't make it through, the dog dig, as did an extremely important healthy eating message.


The Most Evil Granny In France: The Motion Picture

Too Many Nannas

Next up, the continuing adventures of Henrietta Raes, the true life most evil Granny in France. This one was written with a slightly older group than the last one (below!), and is also insane. This was a bit of give and take between us -- most of the character names and Clouseau ripoffs are mine, but the Bingo Caller character was created by one of the young people, who knew exactly what part they were destined to play. There are some great moments that you just can't relay in a script, such as the slapstick business the French police got into, the magnificent gold cloak the lawyer wore, or that fact that The Waiter had rollerskates built into his shoes. This all happened some time in 2009, and the group were great fun to work with

TOO MANY NANNAS

The Case Of The Least Suspicious Granny In France

For whatever reason today I decided that this blog I haven't told anyone about is the best place to post up all of the plays I create with my CYT drama groups. To that end, this is first of three short plays written with different Canberra Youth Theatre 10 - 12 drama groups, based on a newspaper article about Henrietta Raes, "the most evil Granny in France". It was brainstormed, improvised, and finally scripted over a single week in the school holidays sometime in 2008.

THE CASE OF THE LEAST SUSPICIOUS GRANNY IN FRANCE!