Tonight was the first night of rehearsals for our (as yet untitled) Halloween show. We got off to a slow start with some directors and casts doing inital work while our producers Bialystock and Bloom (sorry Jim and Simon) were sequestered in the bar sorting out schedules plans and the running order. Next week we expect to be joined by many more Acting Outers as we get into full swing and head towards Halloween and show time!”
Author: actingoutwebsite
Keeping it Short
Wow what another fun packed night at AO.
Vegan Vampires – 17th Aug ’18
After a fun warm up hosted by Simon, we read through further submissions for our next Halloween production (working title: “Fright Night”), including pieces about vegan vampires, fraudulent mediums, a sinister take on Seasame Street and a queer re-working of Jekyll & Hyde. The spooky mood was enhanced when there was a power cut!
Keeping it succinct – 9th Aug ’18
This weeks blog is by Sarah “Spil” Spilsbury, i.e. me!. Keeping it succinct:
“Lots of fun had reading through submissions for our upcoming Halloween show. Some cracking scripts and performances – it’s gonna be a blinder! “
Creative Juices – 4th Aug ’18
This week at Acting Out, after an opening game of Park Bench getting our creative juices flowing with the goal of creating hilarious discomfort, we made introductions for our newer members, and a visitor we’ll return to later. We then immediately began to bounce several ideas around the room that the Creepies had been working on, and it was a veritable pinball machine if you want to labour the bouncing metaphor.
With some discussion of how the show should be framed which really seems to be coming along, we moved onto ideas submitted by several members, ranging from the artistic, to the comedic, to a few things I think a psychoanalyst could write a Thesis on – that’s a good thing when it comes to Halloween, before you begin to worry. Dances, poetry, parodies and brutal murder, hopefully all to be brought together in one evening of horrifying fun.
Of course, Acting Out needs to get involved in its namesake, so we began to see the stories of a rather raunchy Dr. Jekyll and a married couple that if this were real life, could well be heading pretty quickly for an episode of Jeremy Kyle or at least one bodybag. And personally I couldn’t imagine anything more terrifying than the former option.
But wait, what about the visitor? Well, it turns out that our visitor was here to see our very own Hayley to get some advice on character development for her new musical! Said to hopefully be coming to London sooner rather than later, we’re sure that thanks to Hayley, it will take some of that Acting Out flavour with it. – Greg
Wonderful Piece – 26th Jul ’18
This evening’s Acting Out meeting/session was very much a case of two halves making a whole.
We started with a suggestion to have a short discussion about what we liked about our latest production The Fixer last week, and what lessons we may be able to learn from it for the future.
The short discussion became a long discussion based on members’ anonymous comments written on pieces of paper but in summary, congratulations are due to Greg for writing a wonderful piece (his first play!) and directing it with aplomb, and to the cast and crew for making the most of changes which came up along the way.
The primary other comment was that we would have liked a larger audience but putting on a new play in the height of summer was not going to fill the room to the rafters so we did pretty well under the circumstances.
We then retired for a drinkette after which we reconvened outside in the Welly’s gardens to discuss our next production, which will be a spooky piece for Hallowe’en. There are some very good ideas in place and still more to come over the next few weeks but we’ll keep the details under wraps for just a little longer so I’ll leave it at that for now…
See you next week!
Richard (the Noisy one)
Increasingly confident with lines – 14th Jul ’18
This week, with just one week to go, saw intense rehearsals for The Fixer. Cast members are becoming increasingly confident with lines, and a superb, unexpected twist has been introduced at the end. Didn’t see that coming! Do come and see us at The Wellington Hotel, 19th-21st July 2018. Doors open at 7.00pm; curtain up at 7.15pm.Â
Meanwhile, the Creepies (Who thought of that name?) continue to work on scripts for a Halloween production. If all the ideas put forward can be realised as scripts, then we should have enough original material.
Richard
Hard at Work – 5th July ’18
This week saw the group hard at work with both groups having a host of tasks.
With The Fixer only two weeks away the cast were deep in preparation the show fixing all those nooks and crannies with all the cast members been hard at work preparing us for what is sure to be a great show.
While the Creepys were preparing for our next show, coming up with a host of ideas in lasts weeks group this week saw them focusing on going through those ideas and making sure there was something in place for the group to work for the next show.
It was also good to see our returning new members for another week and to see some new members also joining the group for their first week.
Peter AKA “Mini Pete” AKA “Ed”, in The Fixer
Acting Out Birmingham 