As was the norm in ‘behind the lines’ parties, ours will close with toasts to the army, and a unison singing of ‘God Save the King’.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Rehearsal - Monday 17 March 2014
The group worked on the concert party scene during this
evening’s rehearsal. There are lots of
talented boys in the performance (pianists, dancers, magicians and comperes)
and a lot of fun was had trying to organise individual performances into a
coherent scene. We think we’ve got it
now – there’s just some practice needed!
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Rehearsal - Monday 10 March 2014
Yet another thought-provoking session as we came together at the Hippodrome rehearsal
space. The group of young men drew their attention to the 'drill' scene to be performed in the
car park opposite the theatre on
Throp Street. In previous years this building was the old Drill Hall where army
ranks used to train and information about this historic building will be included in the scene. In order for this to be performed 'on site', the audience as
well as the actors will need to get to the car park. The boys were faced with the
question of 'how?' To find out how they resolved the issue, come along to the performance!
W&T Artistic Director Janice Connolly also asked the boys to think about the trenches, focusing on how the soldiers slept and the conditions that all soldiers involved in WWI had to endure - whichever country they were from. With a wealth of different languages between the group (Greek to French, Russian to Japanese), the boys decided to integrate these within a 'dream scene' to capture the similarity between soldiers of all nationalities.
Monday, 10 March 2014
First rehearsal - Monday 3 March
On Monday 3 March the
group met at the Hippodrome to begin the devising process of The Chocolate Soldiers.
There were lots of creative ideas flowing as the boys worked on the opening
scene in the foyer area at the Hippodrome, showing the recruitment of the young
boys from Birmingham. We’ve also been
choosing music for the performance - volunteer Frankie found the perfect note
singing the song ‘Your King and Country’ with some of the lads joining in as
well. The recruiting officer’s speech sounded great and we’re working on adding
a layer of audience participation with the distribution of both anti and pro war
flyers. There was much fun and laughter in
the session along with a sense of ‘getting the show on the road.’ A great start
to rehearsals.
Tuesday, 17 December 2013
Research session at Birmingham Hippodrome continued
And finally here we are: the general public responded to our callout and a number of local historians, archivists and family members came and talked to us about their memories and stories linked to WWI. It was an astonishing day, and we are extremely grateful to all those who came to this session, or who contacted us by email or phone with information.
At the end of the session the group sat round to discuss their experiences. The general consensus was that it had been a huge success and the boys had really enjoyed both interviewing, and finding out so much information about WWI in general, and the soldiers who fought in it.
Research session at Birmingham Hippodrome continued...
A quick break from interviewing and some ideas for the production perhaps?
And time for some final creative scenes before the general public arrive...
Research session with Izzy Mohammed - Birmingham Hippodrome - December 2013
Here the boys practice their new interview skills which were to become very useful during the session later that day with the general public ...
And Janice has a quick talk with them about their character's 'back-story' while there's a break in the action...
Research session - 11 December 2013 - Carpenter Place residential home
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