Kala Chethena Kathakali live at the Connaught Theatre Worthing 31.05.15 REVIEW

Kala Chethena Kathakli Company

Last month LibraryGirl and myself attended a fantastic event at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing. It was a piece of Dance Theatre called Hima Sundari and was performed by the Kala Chetena Kathakali Company. This event was absolutely fantastic from start to finish and was a refreshing change from the general thing we go to see at the theatre. 

Our first knowledge of this performance was an exhibition of the costumes being shown at Worthing Museum in our hometown. As long time readers may remember LibraryGirl is a fan of many parts of Indian culture and it was her who introduced me to Bollywood so when we saw this exhibition advertised we made sure we visited. We got to see the fantastic costumes of this brilliant art form up close and they are breath taking! Real works of art that are worn in performance made by artisans from Kerala who have trained and done this work for many years.

The show was absolutely fantastic, well staged and they gave us a lecture before the show that provided lots of information about the art form and the company itself. The dance style is very expressive and this helps the story make sense and conveys the emotions and thoughts of the characters very well. There were moments of humour, joy, romance and horror within the show which made it truly immersive. LibraryGirl and myself really enjoyed the show and the price was very reasonable for a show as good as this.

Please go and visit their site here and if they are coming near you, you owe it to yourself to buy tickets because it truly is a magnificent show.

Monologue by Harold Pinter Vlog by Me

Hi please find in this post my very first vlog! Any feedback you can give me below would be very happily received.

I hope you enjoy this vlog.

Chris

Monologue by Harold Pinter - my ambitions!

I am a creature of habit and it seems that when I have an idea it becomes stuck and I cannot shake it. This must seem to you the reader a good thing but imagine you have an idea when 20, you then never fulfil or give life and breath to that idea or plan. Time passes in a a manner that seems like slipping sands, before you know it you are 28 and the idea still bugs you. This is the current state I find myself in. Monologue by Pinter is an enigma of a theatrical piece that I have both obsessed over and pursued the past 8 years. I have at times recorded and posted my own version of the audio of a performance. If I am honest with myself the audio I have posted in the past has been incredibly poor and not fitting my abilities as an orator let alone an actor. It is time to put the past to bed, to put the reputation on the line and finally do a real performance of the piece. So my aim over the coming weeks and months is to rehearse and provide a couple of recordings to my youtube account showing the evolution of the piece. With half term looming I am hoping to have a recording up within two weeks.

Stop Motion in ICT - A Creative approach for Primary schools

Stop Motion in ICT

So today in ICT at University we were talking about all the different types of creative media we can do in ICT lessons with primary school children (5-11 year olds). We hit on things such as blogs, which as evidenced by the fact you are reading this I have some experience of, podcasts (cringing at the memory of some of my terrible attempts at that medium) and then film making/stop motion. I have some film making experience not that its really of that high a quality but have never managed to create a stop motion film despite always fancying giving it a go. So when our lecturer gave me the opportunity to have a play I jumped at the chance! The following film has NO credits... shame on me but I will list the people I need to thank at the end.

(Jason for the guidance, encouragement and inspiration. Katie and Emma for starring so wonderfully, Rosie for the genius performance and Group E for just being awesome)

Now this film took me 15 minutes to make with minimal effort as it was just a chance to tinker with the software required to produce a stop animation film. The software used was Zu3D which is designed for use by children so the interface is very easy to use and helps you get your ideas on film quickly.

Do I think this is a great idea to teach children? Of course! It is fun, it is creative and it is very educational. If you add in some sort of context for the pupils work you can get something truly amazing. Our lecturer showed us a video of children creating an anti bullying animation which was brilliant but the best I have seen so far is the following video made by a KS1 class (5-7 y.o.a) about the Great Fire of London.

Fantastic!

So a great afternoon lecture which has fired the inspiration up in my mind on how to give good ICT lessons. Why teach children to just word process when you can do stuff like this?

Til' later

C Squ