Blackout - documentary exclusive

In July 2008, a group of young actors from Citizens Young Co. took a brand new play by Davey Anderson (Snuff, Liar) to the Royal National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre in London.

Film-maker Ania Winiarska (Oval Studio) documented this trip. This fantastic short documentary shows the young people travelling to London (many for the first time) with Davey to work with the Royal National Theatre.

Following hot on the heels of the recent Blackout re-tour, we are delighted to finally make this film public.



This production was part of the Theatre of Debate series (which is part of the New Connections Programme).

Hx

Congratulations!

I am running out the door just now, so will blog about this properly next week, but I just wanted to say well done to the whole Blackout team who completed a hectic week's tour this afternoon at Shawlands Academy...in front of a massive crowd of well over 200. I was chuffed to squeeze a place in the tour van to join them for this final performance.

It's an incredible piece, performed impeccably by all 5. Well done!!

Hx








Photos by Helen Black

BLACKOUT - WEAPONS ARE FOR THE WEAK

Blackout has got to be one of.......probably the most.. (for now) challenging pieces i have taken part in. Blackout is a strong piece with a strong message. It relates to all our everyday lives in a ''positive'' or ''negative'' way. Blackout has been in places big and small, but to send it to schools is probably one of its biggest achievements to date, it's something i underestimated.

When i started the tour i knew it would be good and that it might reach out to some, but i wasn't expecting it to be so powerful. Now i know what we are taking part in, this is a chance for many today to see what could be their future. The problem is, it doesn't always turn out the way it does in Blackout, sometimes it turns out for the worst. Anyone that sees it can evaluate what might happen... ''think ahead'' something that isn't always easy to do when you're young.

The subject of the play is a common thing, which is wrong and no matter how it sounds, if the message is delivered right, then it could aid in helping the change of it all. Everyone that is taking part in the project will in some way feel they are helping people, to me that's part of what acting is about. I'm sure too a lot of us feel we could do more, show people that there is '' nuttin tae dae'' when your sitting mad wae it waiting for it to come to you, the opposite of that is finding something to do, going after something, aim to do something...once you achieve it... aim higher.

We are proud to be part of this and i hope although i am sure it isn't the end of Blackout. More than any of us ever expected, is coming from this in a small way (for now) it's making a difference. All of us involved have something to take with us, knowing that we have done something a lot of people today have stopped doing '' TRYING''!

Blackout Rocks

J

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

In the Blackout van

Today we performed Blackout to the third years in Drumchapel High and had a great discussion after the play. This is us in the van moments later...

2nd time round!

Best reaction today so far I reckon! Well, I suppose it IS only the second day of the tour but really buzzed off of the feedback this time round."Do you think we should have pubs for under-agers?" always seems to hit a nerve.... Two totally different schools where the discussion afterwards couldn't have been more different each time, but thinking on it now...everyone is essentially trying to tell us the same thing: LISTEN TO US! Which coincides with a comment I read from one of the questionnaires we recieved back from a pupil at Hillpark today......something along the lines of.... "great to be part of a discussion about things that Britain tries to hide..."

This tour is causing severe sleep deprivation, points like that are keeping me awake at night......

*Keira*

Day two: just as eventful but not up as early!

James and I were sat in the canteen til twenty past nine with everyone outside the stage door waiting and completely lost track of the time, but that was us after that, quite apprehensive about the schools we were visiting today, like I was yesterday but in a different way. Had all these nightmares last night, delayed like - coz most of us had bad dreams the day before yesterday. I'm a day behind!

James was playing his harmonica in the van this morning on our way to Hillpark, our third school of the tour. Hillpark was awesome. The venue was ideal, the audience was brilliant and the discussion was easily the best so far. Neil came along to join us there this morning, and we had time for a warm up in the acting area before the pupils arrived. This morning had to be one of our best performances yet I think. "Pure thug" didn't get a laugh today, although the very start of the play did, when James is about to deliver the first line - everyone seems to find that really funny. (Why??) Like I said the discussion afterwards was great; the pupils just opened right up to us and were totally genuine, and the teachers got involved without us even asking them the teacher question.

When we did ask that, although they were reluctant to answer it, one of them offered a new solution: counselling. Which could mean many things. For instance, the teacher could have counselled James herself in a way, without passing him straight on to guidance or whatever. Even just having a counsellor available to talk to may have made a huge difference to him. You never know.

After our performance at Hillpark a good few pupils approached us to tell us how much they'd enjoyed it which was lovely - then it was a quick turn around and on to Govan High, which was obviously a bit of a contrast. We were all actually so worried about it, but it turned out fine in the end, the audience weren't the greatest we've ever had but theatre's like that! On a positive note, during the discussion we came across a point no one's made before - if you can have kids at sixteen, why do you need to be eighteen to drink?

That pretty much covers today, we've only got one performance tomorrow so we'll let you know how that goes. Looking forward to it as ever - luvin' this week so far!

Claire

Blackout on the road (2)

Here's us at Hillpark Secondary, where we

were joined by the lovely Mr Neil Packham

Achieving our full potential at Govan High

Then arriving back at the Citz

Rock 'n' roll!

Blackout tour - day one

I never write freestyle but here we go - only have a few notes scribbled down from today, which was eventful, and also day one of five! Keira, James, Fraser, Scott and I all met at eight fifteen and then headed round to the Gorbals leisure centre where Davey picked us up in the mini van (luv it) and then we set off for Whitehill Secondary, stopping for bottles of water en route but still arriving early. So we did a quick line run in the van and counted up to ten but not at the same time as a focussing exercise, and then we headed in. Really loved the venue we had at Whitehill but it didn't completely work for us and although we adapted to the staging, we weren't a hundred per cent about it and it would go on to throw us slightly when we went back to our usual set up this afternoon - but we'll get to that!

The second years were a tough audience but it's good to know how it feels - I just remembered when I was in second year my year weren't the most supportive of plays that came to our school, one in particular performed by just the one actor - this morning was rough at the time but gave us the opportunity to adjust which was good, whereas if we'd had a really good first show the second one might have been a disaster because we might have been so confident we wouldn't have known how to deal with it. But that's all worst case scenario - the main problem we seemed to have at Whitehill was that we lost pretty much all the dialogue in the fight scene, because of the laughter. Actually we got a lot of laughs this morning but maybe not for all the right reasons. We had mixed reactions to the discussion afterwards - some of the kids had valid points to offer but they almost seemed restrained by the teachers which was interesting, and even more so was the way they performed their answers to their peers, as though they didn't care what they were saying as long as it sounded cool. I guess that's just second years, and don't get me wrong, they weren't all like that.

We had a chance to discuss the performance for ourselves once all the kids had left, and again over a bite of lunch at The Bridge. Then it was on to Lochend Community High School, where we received a very warm welcome from pupils and staff alike - the atmosphere was definitely more relaxed, as was the venue itself. We performed to third and fourth years, but not only did other pupils and members of staff watch from the balcony, but loads of other pupils approached us as we set up to ask what we were doing and if they could watch our play too! So all in all the response we got from Lochend was better, although the acoustics weren't that good, in that the 'stamps' weren't clearly audible and even when we projected I'm not convinced they heard everything we said, although they probably did as they seemed to get the play ok which we heard during the discussion - also good. It was interesting at that point to also note how none of the teachers wanted to answer when we asked them for their opinions, and when one teacher finally did answer, he immediately passed the buck to guidance! My one big crisis during this afternoon's performance - apart from my voice breaking up (projection's a bit shabby, really ;]) - was that my belt snapped, and I was trying to fix it discreetly while trying to stay focussed and make sure no one noticed. I suppose a big part of theatre is having to deal with whatever's thrown at you and there's no better way to discover that than by doing a schools tour. It's really interesting , comparing schools and year groups as we go, and we'll obviously have plenty of opportunity for that this week - we're spoiled for choice. "He looks at you like you're a pure thug or something" has got a laugh both times so far, and I don't understand why ! It'll be great to see how much longer that goes on for - as for tomorrow, bring it on.

I will have more news from the tour very soon.

C x

Blackout pics

From today:

Here's us arriving at Whitehill Secondary school, getting set up for the performance and finding a TAG poster in Lochend Community High School...

Blackout Rehearsal Week

I will update this after (probably during) the tour, but for the time being here is the rehearsal week blog of the Blackout schools tour 2008 ! It's very exciting to be part of this tour, for many reasons, not least of all that this is my first tour (ever) and also the fact that it's such an exciting play. We do cram a lot into twenty minutes, and I've never been involved in such an intense production before, in that all five of us have to be on it for the whole twenty minutes, so as we don't miss our cues not just for lines but for choreography and scene setting, set striking, etc... It has been a challenge, but a hundred and twenty per cent worth it - I have to say I'm completely in love with this play. I've learned loads this week too, and it's been great working with Davey and the other cast members.

Just for a bit of background info, Blackout is based on a true story, and was performed earlier this year at the Royal National Theatre in London. We've got two of the original cast members for this tour - but the other three of us are new. I first saw Blackout at the Citz during the summer and was of course very impressed ,and so being given the chance to do the schools tour is a fantastic opportunity. Naturally after the last night of Reflections we were all gutted it was over, which is why the following Monday it was amazing to get the call regarding Blackout and now that the rehearsals are all done and dusted I can't believe it's all happening.

Right, I'll get to it! When we arrived on Monday we did a quick read-through of the play, some changes have been made and as we took a scene each we were able to rediscover the play on a new level. One of the positives about the new casting is that we can recreate the story and make it our own and I have to say I'm sooo pleased I'm not the only newbie! The lines hadn't been assigned on our first day, which made the process even more interesting, and also quite scary! So the first day was mostly improvisations, some to build our characterization skills and others - fascinatingly - to discover and explore the many individual characters we portray throughout the play. What we also did was to read the first few scenes, experimenting with different forms of staging and a wee bit of choreography (we've now decided to have the audience on three sides). The great thing is that us actors could contribute ideas, while Davey gave us suggestions and thoughts to inspire the characters we'd already started to create even by day one. I tend to find improvisations really scary and the first one we did on Monday definitely was, but after that the fear just subsided and we all made it work. I definitely think it's easier to improvise as a character you know or have met rather than one you've just been given and know nothing about. Davey has quite a knack of making up a specific character there and then that it would be good to see in the play, and then he'll say "Try this..." and you'll find yourself pulling it off. I'm sure Davey being a successful playwright must come into that! I think it's really important to see a wide range of characters in this play because there is so much narration, and I'm loving the fact that there's almost a character for every line, or another side to a character you meet. Once the lines were assigned it was a bit of a panic, worrying about learning them all in under a week - especially coz it wasn't fully decided yet - but James and Fraser had both told me how easy it is to pick it up and they were right. With it having such a great rhythm, in a way it's been like learning a dance - but it's so much more than that. We got through a lot on Tuesday, the lines were given out and we began to work the play on its feet. I was struggling with scene five which was how far we'd got that morning, simply because we hadn't decided whether my scene five character (one of many ! =]) should be pally with the main character James, or sarcastic and bitchy, and I was finding it really hard to be so sugary. (Found it easier to be nasty !) But eventually we decided on a bit of both, which was perfect, because I do like a challenge - and apart from that, it works a lot better. It provides a contrast between narration and characterisation.

I was away on Wednesday at a family funeral, but it was great to be back into the swing of things on Thursday. I was so worried about missing important stuff - on the upside though, the ferry there and back (at four in the morning the first time) gave me plenty opportunity for a bit of line-learning! Thursday was a very productive day, thankfully, and by then I'd just about caught up on all the missed sleep so tiredness wasn't a factor. We ran through the first two quarters and it went well, with the exception of a few missed cues and my completely random addition of "Dead to the world" after the "lying on the ground curled up into a wee ball" bit. That's never happened before. The only explanation I can think of is that the lines are really easy to pick up because of the pace of the play, and it's just a case of remembering - and retelling - the next part of the story, and "dead to the world" just seemed like the right thing to say, for some reason. It just came into my head at that moment - totally out the blue - but now every time I do that scene, I hesitate before "You'd remember that" because I always want to say "Dead to the world" even though it makes no sense whatsoever. The other thing I do is say "black converses" instead of "black combats". I've done that twice now. These are my two biggest sections of narration and these mistakes both near the end of each one, so I reckon it's a nervous thing. Just hope I don't do that "on the night" as it were. I found I was at an advantage coming in a day behind because the scenes had already been set up and the guys kept me right, so I picked it up easy enough. And as for this morning, we did our first full run through just after nine, and have done two since. They all went well - different obviously - and I really feel like we've come on leaps and bounds even just from this morning. We've also set up the structure of the discussion for after each performance and I think we're more or less ready. Sorry, let's try that again, we are as ready as we will ever be and as for next week - Bring It On.

See you next week. Should have some pictures from the tour as well. Can't actually wait !

Claire xx

Blackout rehearsals

I've just finished rehearsing today with 5 brilliant young actors from the Citizens Young Co.

Rea, Kat, Martin, I miss you all.

But it's also been great working with Keira, Claire and Scott - who join James and Fraser from the original cast - on this new version of Blackout.

Next week we take the play to 9 different schools, all across Glasgow. So it will be seen by pure hunners of young folk. And we'll get them all discussing the issues raised by the play.

I can't wait.

The story is about a 15-year-old boy called James who wakes up one day in a jail cell and discovers that he's getting charged with attempted murder. Then he tries to figure out how he got there.

It's based on the real life experiences of a young guy who was being mentored by Barnardo's in Glasgow when the National Theatre phoned them up and said they were looking for people to get involved in a project called Theatre of Debate. They wanted to create some short plays about the most serious challenges facing young people today. Things like teenager pregnancy, homelessness, unemployment and violent crime.

So they asked me to go and interview this young man. And when I met him, I was shocked by how eloquently he spoke about what had happened to him and what he thought about it now. It made me really want his voice to be heard. So I wrote this play based mostly on his own words.

Then I got in touch with Citizens Learning and TAG to ask them if I could work with some of their young actors...

A few weeks later they were on the Lyttelton stage at the National Theatre in London!

That was the easy bit.

Now we are showing it to a bunch of school kids (and their teachers) very close to where the play is set.

I have to admit, I'm slightly nervous.

DA

Blackout performance in Glasgow

Followers of our blog will know that a group from the Young Co. recently took a brand new short play called Blackout by Davey Anderson, to the Royal National Theatre in London.



I'm still waiting on the elusive photos and blogs from crew that went down to London (I'll post once them if they ever arrive). I think they must still be basking in the warm glow of success!!

Anyway - there will be a very special one night only public performance of this piece at the Platform in Easterhouse next Wednesday 13 August 2008 at 7.30pm. This is an absolute exclusive - there will be no tickets on the door. You can email the Platform box office here to request tickets. It's first come, first served.



This is a really cool and very powerful piece of theatre written by one of Scotland's hottest playwrights. It's based on the true story of a teenager from Glasgow's East end. It's about "getting bullied, fighting back, turning vicious, doing something stupid, losing everything, then finding your way again".

The reaction to the first performance in London was absolutely brilliant and we are hoping that this piece will get the chance to have a wider audience in the future. In the mean time, I hope you get tickets for the Platform.

Hx

Blackout photo courtesy of the Royal National Theatre
Davey Anderson photo by Eamonn McGoldrick (from NTS website)

Blackout

I have just left the main rehearsal room here at the Citz where staff and some friends were invited to watch the last rehearsal of Blackout, a new 20 minute piece of theatre written and directed by Davey Anderson. It's events like this, that really brighten my days. What a great piece of theatre.

5 members of Citizens Young Co. are travelling to London to perform Blackout as part of the National Theatre's New Connections Programme - described as "the world's most ambitious new writing programme for young actors creating theatre".



Part of the Theatre of Debate series, this piece delves into the true story of a young man from the east end of Glasgow who was contacted through Barnardos. This is a short play about getting bullied, fighting back, trying to make a name for yourself, turning vicious, doing something stupid, losing everything, then finding your way again.

It was a moving, fast paced, hard-hitting piece of drama that will certainly spark plenty of debate at the Lyttelton Theatre on Friday night. If you're in London, I would definitely recommend going to watch these talented young actors. Buy tickets.

Good luck to the team heading down!

Hx

Image courtesy of the National Theatre