Blackout tour day three

We were panicking this morning coz at 9:28 we had everyone except Fraser, but he turned up just in the nick of time and we were off. When we got to Drumchapel we had time to set up and warm up, and they gave us coffee and biscuits which was so nice - got to have a wee cup of tea before the performance. Drumchapel was ace. The head of drama came through to say hi and it turns out she was my examiner in our Higher drama acting piece. Small world! We took the stamps out coz the floor had the same quality to it as as the street area at Lochend, but unlike Lochend, the teachers at Drumchapel were a lot more vocal.

One of the drama teachers commented that James's teacher in the play was Not helpful at all, and another came up to us at the end and told us that most of the boys who had answered our first few questions were all in a gang together, and were all up on charges relating to the issues of the play.

Before the performance today we discussed new questions to ask or statements we could include, and the suggestion of us taking a question or a statement each. A lot of pupils - including one today - said they only drink because there's nothing else to do. We wanted to challenge that by asking "If there was something to do, would you stop drinking?" and if there was something to do, what would it be? We had a question today which really changed things, when a boy asked James how he got his scar and James told him his own story. In the words of James, that shut them up!

Everyone did shut up and listen after that, it was like the barrier had just been broken down, and they were able to see that we weren't on some sort of platform, or on the level above, and that we could relate to them because we did drink underage and we did mess about and we all did stupid things and we knew what went on with knives and street fights. And I think even the staging gives way for a little bit of that - a wee bit of empathy - and that may be part of why we didn't completely get through to them at Whitehill on Monday.

After Drumchapel it was back to the Citz for a bit of lunch and then this afternoon we nicked a rehearsal room to go over tomorrow morning's reading. That should be cool, obviously won't be the same without James, but it's something a wee bit different and it'll be interesting to see just how we get on without our leading man ! The rehearsal went well, I think we're all set to go, just hope the reading fuels as much of a debate in the discussion as the play has on a good day so far.

We're halfway there (livin' on a prayer - sorry, couldn't resist!) and it's just been a great week, we all get on great as a cast, we've got a fantastic play to perform and an incredible story to tell, we get to hear the points of view of hundreds of other teenagers, we've got this big F-off van, get great skies all the way across Glasgow... it's been amazing.

Bis Morgen,

C