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I'm now only a week away from finishing my module and have no idea where the time has gone! We've just had 4 days off for the Easter weekend, which was lovely (though many of us have managed to catch colds, including myself).
To go back a bit, I have now presented my project on Humpty Dumpty and am very happy to say that it went splendidly. The girls created some beautiful mock-up puppets and sketches for the show, and have informed me of their enthusiasm for working on the show when it eventually plays at the Sydney Opera House 'one day' (if only!).
We also worked on Emma's installation art project, which was based on Hemmingway's "The Old Man and the Sea". We each got randomly allocated a stage of the Old man's life and a room in his house, and developed a short piece presenting a moment in the fisherman's life. I had "Birth in the Attic", and created a cute little fish baby marionette out of brown paper and pine cones. Affectionately named as "Flappy", this fish flapped about in an old blue suitcase filled with newspaper that I painted green to resemble seaweed. I also filled the suitcase with bags of sand so that the puppet made a slapping sound when it moved. Kat and I recorded our voices going "shhhh" to play in the background - sort of playing with the sound of waves as well as the 'shh" that people say to signal that a baby is sleeping. The project went really well, and we were all very satisfied with it. I worked on some of the photos taken on the day (being sick can be very useful, as one can spend extended periods of time in bed using photoshopping images). Emma really liked the images I did (which were black and white with bits of colour), and used them as part of her application for an arts bursary (I hope she gets it!).
We also went on a mini road trip to Derbyshire (2 hours from Grassington) on Easter Saturday to see some of my puppet buddies performing some Living Room Theatre. This is a very clever concept - taking a person's living room (Beth's, in this case) and converting it into a theatre space for a night. That's where the photo for this blog entry was taken, with all of us looking mighty jolly (in the back from left to right is Kat, Kate, Celia and Emma; with Beth and I in front). Four of them presented their five minute shows from their last glove/body puppetry module, based on "Shakespeare as Caberet". Beth's show, "Richard's Rural Tour" was based on Richard the Third and had King Richard played a vulture. Celia did her take on the 3 witches in Macbeth; Kat presented "Julius Caesar" with steaks and knives; and Kate presented an alternative version of Ophelia in "Hamlet". All the shows were very diverse, clever and immensely entertaining. It also happened to be Beth's birthday the day before, so we all enjoyed a cake made up of a chocolate cupcake surrounded by mini Easter eggs.
Caroline (our teacher), Kate and I returned to Grassington that night (the others stayed at Beth's for further birthday celebrations), and it started to snow on the way. It seemed like someone had taken all the snow from Scotland and vigourously sprinkled it over Yorkshire like icing sugar from a gigantic sieve. It was a real treat the next morning to see the Yorkshire countryside so white with snow. Caroline and I donned our wellies and walked through the powdery bliss to St Michaels church for a delightful (and packed!) Easter family service.
Upon the other's return home, Caroline proceeded to cook one of the tastiest Sunday roasts I've had in a long time. Being in a house with vegetarians, any sign of meat is elevated from being a treat to a special event. The roast chicken was delicious, as was the Banofee pie ('Banana/toffee pie'), and with the extra after-lunch chocolate Easter eggs, we were all too stuffed and sleepy to go outside and build snowmen (or snow sheep, for that matter).
With our days off officially over, we are back to work. We're currently working on a project exploring memories, puppetry, visual theatre and installation art (what a delicious combination!). My favourite part of today was pretending to be an old woman re-living the memories of her fifth birthday (basically it was a great excuse to be 'childish'!). As tired as I am, I'm excited about what tomorrow will bring - we'll be continuing to explore memories, and incorporating the concept of memories in jars (and playing that out with shadow puppetry).
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