We’re already halfway through December! How did we get here, so fast? Well, to answer my own question, it’s probably because we have all been so busy. After all, when you are focussed and engaged you don't notice the passing of time. Time appears to fly past. Just like it drags when you are bored. It reminds me of a time, just after I graduated, when I worked on a building site. After an hour I'd finished my work, but instead of being given anything else to do, was told to "just, look busy". Have you ever tried to look busy? Its harder than you think. We should do it as a drama exercise, one day, to try it. Anyway that day was probably the a longest day I can remember.
I know that I'm not the only one who's been busy, because so much has happened over the last twelve weeks. The first month was taken up by Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein, which we were really proud featured students from the first, second, third years and the MA. Something that we are keen to nurture, is the opportunity for you all to mix more. Im sure you can learn from each other, but also feel more of a Course group than a year group
Lots of you also came to see Mary Shelley & her Frankenstein, which was good too. We want to encourage you to see lots of work, of different kinds. It helps you with your ideas, but also with your ability to make judgements. That's why we also did lots of theatre trips, this semester. The L4s saw the Red Ladder production of Mother Courage (in Leeds), the L5s went to Manchester to see a show called Queen Margaret and to the RSC in Stratford, the third years went to Sheffield Theatres to see the Out of Joint production of Close Quarters and to another production in Leeds and the MA students went to a Festival of new work in Manchester. Over and above this, we have also given you access to Digital Theatre +, which has loads of really interesting productions for you to see. In the past, a few students set up a play-going group and arranged to go see shows on their own. Does anyone fancy doing this again? We can help you set it up. We all love it when we bump into one of you at the theatre, without having arranged it ourselves.
There have been other shows and events on in Performance Lab this semester, as well. Some of the L6s worked on a piece (with Tom) called Treefxxxers. It was in response to the local Council's policy to chop down and replace trees and was, at times, bizarre, but also really funny and full of ideas. It got a lot of recognition on social media and also plenty of local people into the building.
The second years are currently preparing for their Shakespeare performances and have completed their Applied Theatre shows. The Apllied Theatre performances are always a challenge, as the idea is to work with an external organisation, but as ever the students rose to it. Our students have worked with the Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind for a few years, but this year the response from the audience was particularly euphoric. Loads of them took the time to tell us that, as as far as they were concerned, it was the best work we have done there, yet!
The first years have also been busy, filming their Performance for the Screen pieces and are ready to go with their Performance for the Stage performances too. The MA students have been off on a creative weekend retreat, where they did things like going for a walk in the pitch dark of night (A Polish theatre Co called Gardzienice used to go running in the pitch black to develop the actors sensorary perception and balance) and now are preparing for some assessments before Christmas.
We also invited some external people into the Performance Lab and launched Well-being Wednesdays. We hosted a verbatim show, called The Talk, about attitudes to sexual health, a symposium about Comedy & Power, called Mixed Bill, and were delighted to welcome the creative team behind the hit West End musical, Everybody's talking about Jamie, to do an ‘In conversation’. September saw the launch of Well-being Wednesdays. Even if you haven't yet attended any of these events, we hope you are aware of them and can dip in and out as you think fit. It is a great initiative that started in Stage & Screen (Film Studies), is being looked at with interest by other Universities across the country and, even if you don't go, I hope sends out a big statement that we, as staff, are not scared to talk about mental health.
So, a lot has happened in the first semester and hence time seems to have flown. However, I bet the year group that are most conscious of the speed of time are the 3rd years. In January they will start their final semester with us and in, roughly, six months they will graduate. As a consequence they are all very focussed, are working hard and we are proud of how they have tackle the final year so far. When they return, in January, we start the new semester with a L6 day (on Tues 22nd Jan). It is an opportunity to briefly look back at the past two and half years, but then to also focus our minds on what is needed for the final push before graduation. We want you all to do well in your studies and to graduate with a good degree and so it is a chance to pause and say “how are things going?” and “what might I do differently?”. This is a useful thing for us all to do. Perhaps, over Christmas, you might all make a bit of time to do the same.
Finally, when we return we will also be looking forward to the L5 trip to one of the best cities in the world – Prague! We fly out on the 23rd May and return on the 27th May. L5s get the dates in your diaries and dust off your passports (or order one), because we will expect you all to come with us (with your travel and accommodation all covered by the University)!!!
So next semester is going to be busy again. Therefore, we hope that you have a really enjoyable Christmas break, that you take some time to forget about University (don’t even try to “look busy”) and then return invigorated and ready to go in January
Ashley
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