A sense of calm is rarely associated with Practical Essays. Unless, of course, it comes before a storm, and with twenty-two Third Years, perhaps you’d expect a middling maelstrom or a tickling tornado at the very least. There has been a Get Your Own Back gunging, some smashed (sugar)-glass and a spatter of actual mudslinging but no storm.

Rachel A. sparked us off by asking some complex questions about theatre’s illusions. We’re all complicit and there’s no escape. Even if the fourth wall and a lovely view are broken and a young woman continues to pretend that she is an older Irish lady before becoming a fit boy. Rose got covered in green, gloopy sugar, ate some spice and it wasn’t very nice but we were with her all the way. Our blushes serving as surreal comfort, we sang a finely rhymey song and fell crazy in love.

Humphrey attacked the shells we set up for ourselves, online and face to acting face. Captions, comments, answer-phones and hair all came in for a shave and were left a little lopsided as a result. All the while, the attempt to escape performance by performing made our brains lose a little more than furry insulation. Annie took the party hat next, snapping it  tightly on her character’s heads as we went to a celebration for the non-existent sister of a psychopath known as ‘Lovely Sarah’. The physical exertion demonstrated by Phoebe and Jake as they strove for murder and protection respectively was exhausting even in the comfy seats and we were all reminded that acTORS mostly just work in pubs. Julie gazed upon originality and came up with nothing. From rabidly pursued books to quotes mashed up to make sense and no sense in the same second, the audience were left without words to comfort them, lest they themselves rehash.  Phoebe made her actors leave themselves at the door with audio of several people piped into their ears. Sweet children, war veterans and her dad were all on stage but not in person, their voices, idiosyncrasies and accents floating through those of others. Nothing was lost in translation.

I must be honest now, as I did not catch was Christie’s. I did hear some thumping Lady Gaga and saw some face-cake and fake tan so it must have been a corker. Next was a trip into a trap Meghann couldn’t escape. Tormented by uncontrollable thoughts and their bright, belligerent and bullying insistence that suppression would be wrong, we were left questioning the relationship between thinking and doing on an incredibly intricate level.

Josh took a backward fall into the subject of trust, escorting the audience into the dark with only six small torches to guide them. Trust was abused and renewed but the guiding light was always the faith of the performer. You may not agree with his belief but after learning of his deep understanding of the issue at hand, it doesn’t matter. Alex K. signed us along an adventure with two little girls, two giants and two busy, bossy bottoms in a charming piece of children’s theatre. The message was clear and clean. If you want to get dirty then throwing mud at someone is the best way to go about it. Rachael M. took a gander and gender and how its construction is just that. As she and Milly swap from one pole to the other the audience realise that ‘extra’ hair, or slathered cupcake icing, doesn’t make you manly. We’re different but the same, and that’s fine.

Day two began with Louise zooming in on preservation’s falsehoods. We can strive all we like to live as long as possible and protect those we love but in the end it won’t matter unless there is that end. Life has to be lived in order to earn that lofty title. Sophie gives a voice to women in the army, young and old, captain and lieutenant, veteran and recruit. The audience may not like the forces but cannot help but acknowledge that those who choose them know life and bravery more intimately than most, no matter if some wear pink cardies on days off.

Again, honesty must prevail and I have to admit that I missed Milly’s. Truth was attempted, questioned and ultimately left a little worse for wear, even if it ended up wearing a strangely circular skirt. A fight for Scarlett’s achievements led the audience to wonder if the person we became is the one we wanted to be? Does it matter if not? And just who is going to clean up all this paper?! Laura asked if six degrees of separated Bacon (sorry) is actually too many. We’re always looking for the things that make us different but we should celebrate the things that make us the same. It’s where we find the people who we would gladly wade through water for, even if some of it does get on Studio 1’s floor.

Chris took us to a franglish café where he and Humphrey attempt to entertain us with songs, sketches, silences and sleights of hand. It’s just a shame that the fact ‘they’re trying’ presented a second definition to the audience. It’s all deliberately awful of course, and the peels of laughter showed the post-modernism didn’t collapse under the image of its own weight. Now, for the third and last time, I have to say I missed something. Sam’s documentary on the Coca-Cola Company was a piece I should have seen, considering how much of their titular product I drink. Informative and balanced, except for Daisy the ungainly bottle-fed cow, Mr. Reeves quenched a thirst too often conveniently dismissed. Alex W. stared at the faces we insist on bolting to our real ones, only to forget that’s what we’ve done. We become behemoths of mania, flirtation, arty-farting and desperation when all we want is to be okay most of the time, with people who will let us. Vicki was forced to bear her core, with a little help from some old onions, while a clown and a director continued a long-standing tiff. Make-up was slathered on and swiped off, and a few battles were lost and won but it seemed the war would continue between art and entertainment, though more heads might end up some others’ tails in the process.

Throughout the day, two durational performances took place. Mark’s secret venue took us to the ‘hidden’ underground of the Workshop Theatre. But his issue was that as soon as even the first audience knew about it, it was no longer hidden. If secrets are known then they aren’t secrets, they’re just stories until their bricked back up. Finally, Jake’s piece confessed other people’s stories, whether happy, sad or simply there. Each had been gathered in the preceding months or on the day itself and was added to the dripping sculpture behind him. Cans of worms they may have been but the stories bore anonymity and so the last bean was never spilled.

So much energy goes into twenty minutes that you feel sure something will explode. So, it’s always a nice surprise when, even if things didn’t go to plan, you don’t need a bang to make something spectacular. And the Third Years of the Workshop Theatre keep doing it. It’s a lovely thing and that’s because the WT attracts lovely things. No one can take away the impressions left by the Practical Essays. They’re not burned onto your brain. No, nothing as violent as that. They swim through it, coming up for air every now and again, to give you a smile.

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Jan Perry’s production of OTHELLO has won through to the quarter finals of the RSC’s Open Stages Competition. The festival heats took place on Saturday March 17th at the Frazer Theatre, Knaresborough.  Jan’s adaptation, acclaimed by Festival Adjudicator Robert Meadows as ‘ambitious and creative’ features a female Othello, played by Ilkley actor Jan Thomas with WT Undergraduate Camillia Harding as Desdemona.  Jan Perry also picked up awards for Best Director and Best Production on the night.

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Sat 24^th March 10.30am – 12.00pm

Leeds Grand Theatre

Participants will have the opportunity to observe a rehearsal and gain an insight into the decisions made to shape this new play.  There will also be a Q&A session with the Assistant Director and members of the cast.

Tickets cost £5 per person and can be booked online or through the Box Office.  If students wish to attend the matinee performance after the workshop tickets can be booked through Box Office at the same time.  Tickets for the  matinee performance cost between £13 and £30 and concessions are available for students.

For more information, visit the  Grand Theatre website:

https://www.leedsgrandtheatre.com/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=88FFC40B-F61A-4D86-A18E-FB07F96F65BC

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Plus, you can see more info on the show online in this month’s Leeds Guide – or catch them blogging about heavy petting with dinosaurs on Culture Vulture.  Give them a cheeky click.

THE DOG-EARED COLLECTIVE:
YOU’RE AMAZING. NOW LOOK AT ME.

After critical acclaim at the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringes 2011 (Sunday Times Critics Choice,***** WhatsOnStage), anarchic funnymongers The Dog-Eared Collective are back to bend your minds with more supercharged sketch silliness.

See Super Swedes Abba go head-to-head in a steam room smack down, while The Girl Guides get political and Paddington Bear meets 8 Mile.

This is surreal and inventive sketch comedy that’ll surprise your eyes.

* * * * * ‘Haemorrhage-inducingly funny, I can’t recommend this group highly enough’ WHATS ON STAGE
* * * * ‘Carefully crafted silliness – sublimely surreal’ CHORTLE
* * * * ‘The belly laughs come thick and fast in this fun-filled hour of winningly surreal sketch comedy’ BROADWAY BABY
* * * * ‘A gloriously anarchic hour of comedy’ HAIRLINE

SAT 3 MARCH
7.45PM
THE CARRIAGEWORKS THEATRE
£7/£6

Represented by Objective Talent Management

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ZHE:[noun] undefined 

There are some journeys that make us who we were always meant to be…

A new play

Created by Chuck Mike, Antonia Kemi Coker and Tonderai Munyevu

Tuesday 6^th March 7pm
Workshop Theatre
University of Leeds

Tickets: £8/£5 Concession

 From childhood to adulthood and across continents, this poignant and honest piece of theatre follows the lives of two British Africans living at the crossroads of culture, nationality, gender and sexuality.  Humorous yet haunting, this story is told by the characters whose lives are healed and celebrated through the experience.

Collective Artistes (CA) is a London-based ensemble theatre company committed to producing socially relevant professional and community theatre that tells the stories of the African Diaspora.

“Timely, courageous, imaginative, lovely narrative story- telling…[Zhe] will ‘explode’ onto stages in the UK – stages anywhere.”

Colin Prescod, Chair, Institute of Race Relations

“an important piece of drama, with stunning performances from both lead actors”

The Voice (On ‘The Meeting’)

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GIFT is a new annual international theatre festival that takes place in and around Gateshead town centre.

Founded in 2011 by Festival Director Kate Craddock, the first GIFT ran as a pilot event over a May bank holiday weekend. Following the success of the pilot, the plan is to grow GIFT to a festival of international significance.

GIFT 2012 will take place over the first May bank holiday weekend, Friday 4th – Sunday 6th May, and will include performances, workshops, social events and opportunities for discussion/debate.

For GIFTed 2012, we aim to programme six new shows, from current or recent graduates (graduated 2011) working in contemporary performance practice.

All GIFTed performances will feature in the main GIFT programme.

For further information regarding the festival and to download the application form please visit http://www.giftfestival.co.uk/

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