It Could Be You!

This week the Key Stage 3 Drama Club have been performing their latest piece, It Could Be You. The group have spent the last few months looking at the idea of money and how it affects peoples lives, both for those who have lots and those who don't have any. In It Could Be You we meet a struggling single mum with little money, a winning gambler, an evil scientist who wants to take over the world looking for financial backing and a millionaire blinded by his hard earned fortune.

After being led to three 'chance encounters' with less fortunate people by three homeless people, the millionaire is taught to see the error of his ways before being overcome with greed and selfishness.

This imaginative exploration in to the value of money, was devised and performed entirely by our talented Drama Club and directed by Philippa Bradfield. The students all performed with confidence and really showed a maturity towards the topic. I'm looking forward to next years already!

It Could Be You turns out to be the first in a series of Bradon Forest Theatre productions based on the issue of poverty. Don't miss Molière's The Miser being performed by our new Year 10 students, on Wednesday 17 to Friday 19 October 2012.

The Little Mermaid Aquashow!

Bradon Forest Theatre are proud to support Curious Company's latest project. Get yourselves along to Devizes or Marlborough leisure centres to catch this exciting performance!

Bradley's Silver Arts Award Review

I watched Discombobulated at Bradon Forest Theatre, directed by Aitor Basauri and preformed by Angus Barr and Merce Ribot (Publick Transport).

It was a fantastic comedy performance about safety awareness at an airport and they turned the boring subject into a funky, funny play.

My absolute favourite part of the play was when they were doing the strip search and Merce Ribot got carried away and started to do a striptease.

It was a great experience to watch and be there it was directed and performed amazingly and it has taught me a lot more about drama because I used to think that drama always had to be serious, but the way they performed showed be that you should have fun with a piece of drama.

I would certainly recommend it to anyone it was brilliant it also was good family comedy and if I had the chance I would watch it again.

Ania's Silver Arts Award Review

Discombobulated
On March 1st at 7:30 PM I went to see a brand new play called “Discombobulated” by Publick Transport, live, at Bradon Forest Theatre. It was a hilarious piece containing dance, drama, music and some great special effects. Both me and the friends who I went with and in my opinion the whole audience loved it!

When I walked into the theatre, the first thing I noticed was the set: a security check scanner for people to walk through and a luggage scan complete with a security guard’s desk. I loved it because it really matched the entire theme of the play- airport security, and it looked really realistic, just like at a real airport. I also noticed there was a disco ball hanging of the top left corner of the theatre, and I was to find out what it was for at the end of the show…

Though the general theme of the play was airport security, it was clear that the actors had thought “outside the box”. All of the scenes were different, comical and full of surprises. Two security guards were making fun out of how over-the-top airport security is. The main scenes included an introduction to the theatre company’s point of view and rather extravagant take on airport security using song and dance, a scene at a French café and an ending which involved another musical piece and some special effects.

Overall, I loved the whole performance. They used a lot if physical theatre and even audience interaction- they were talking about what other places can be dangerous and when asked I replied ‘at a school’ since we were in a school theatre. If I had to choose a favourite part it would have to be the “French Café” scene because the characters used were those of stereotypical French people, all of their features exaggerated which made me laugh throughout the entire scene. They also said things in French with and exaggerated French accent, which made the characters more believable and in turn more comical. I also liked the ending because it all seemed so over-the-top romantic due to the music, fairy lights, disco ball and atmospheric lighting, which made the entire scene almost “magical”, almost surreal, as if the character were in a fantasy land of their own.

Any improvements? Make it longer so that there is more to watch! To sum up, I would recommend this play to anyone (teenagers up), whether they like theatre or have never been before. It’s fantastic for anyone who wants a good night out or have a laugh; I would definitely go to see this crazy show again!

Kirsten's Bronze Arts Award Review

The De La Warr Pavilion: Some history
The De La Warr Pavilion is classed as an international building constructed in 1935 by the architects Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff. It is considered by many to be in an art deco style whilst others claim it to be the very first major modernist public building in Britain. Much to my surprise when reading up on where I visited I found that the building itself was in fact a result of a competition in February 1934 and from this the two architects mentioned above went forward to produce this magnificent building. It was only in 2005 the it reopened with a new generation of contemporary and modern art.

On Monday 9th of April 2012, I completed task B by 'being the audience' whether that be a music concert a piece of theatre or a dance show. I chose something a little different and went to the De La Warr Pavilion art gallery. As well as being an art gallery with art in side it also has an amazing architectural design. Seeing the gallery and the atmosphere within really showcases well how much the gallery means to the community. Going to the art gallery was a new thing to me and me realize how still photo's and paintings can be so simple but yet so beautiful and made me feel content and closed off from the world for a couple of minutes with questions flying through my head like who where and why.

Review on Cerith Wyn Evans...
Cerith Wyn Evans, an archaeologist and aspiring artist has just completed his most recent work at the De La Warr Pavilion art gallery in East Sussex, Bexhill-On-Sea. Evans has a very unique style of work with many different dynamics and almost in a surreal way he makes the impossible possible. My favourite part of Evans work was the self playing flutes. These were both unique and interesting but at the same time rather unnerving to watch as you would be walking past and all of a sudden out of no where you would hear music above your head. Overall I enjoyed the art gallery as it was both inspiring and interactive, certainly something I would consider doing again.

Emily's Bronze Arts Award Review

Bristol Fashion Week

I went to Bristol Fashion Week on Sunday 25th March 2012 at 3:00pm, Cribbs Causeway. The show consisted of the top fashions found in the shops like John Lewis, JD Sports, French Connection, Marks & Spencer, Clive Ranger, Bank, Gap Kids, Claire’s, Radley, Monsoon, BHS, Hush Puppies, Ernest Jones, Coast, Warehouse, Miss Selfridge, Timberland, Next, kids outfits from The Disney Store and many more. I thought that the show was really entertaining and I learnt a lot about all the new styles in 2012 and I loved all the outfits shown. I especially liked the Festival Clothes and the African Themed outfits. The fact that I had a good seat made it better too because I could really see how detailed all the outfits where. I really like how all the models didn’t just walk around because they danced, sang and did a bit of acting whilst modelling the clothes. The only thing I didn’t like about the fashion show was that there was a lot of waiting around at the start to go in but I guess that it can’t really be helped as there were other shows earlier that day. So to improve maybe next time they could spread all the shows over a couple of days.

Georgia's Bronze Arts Award Review

Discombobulated

The play was based on an airport with the security being the characters. It was set at the hand luggage department and the play was showing what the securities think and do at the airport. However this was changed throughout the play, as it became more comical and entertaining, as there were musical numbers and many dance pieces in parts of it.

The play was announced as a comedy and it certainly was! The humour was for teenagers but also for adults, which was the interesting thing I enjoyed it. There was a scene where one of the characters swore at the other character and it gave a big shock to the audience but made them laugh a lot. The thing I enjoyed most about the play was definitely the humour but the way they carried it on with throughout the whole of the play. Another thing that I enjoyed about it was that there were only two characters in the play. This made the play more impressive towards the audience.

The only thing I would say that I didn’t like about the play would probably be the fact that I could see things coming and some things were obvious with what was going to happen. This made the play disappointing but I still found it funny.

As I have not seen many plays, I think I have definitely learnt something from the experience, this would be to involve the audience much more as it was used through the whole play. It has helped me because I never involve the audience in some of the task I do in my drama classes and clubs I have been to, so this has been a good help and improvement in my drama.

There was a lot of normal music in the play, like the type of sounds you would hear in a normal day. For example: Birds singing, wind in the air/breezing and tunes that didn’t have much tone in them. The lighting was interesting as they used a range of types. They used many different colours, spotlights, and a blue dimmed light was used in many of the scenes. One of the scenes had very stormy sound/ music involved, it also had flashing lights to suggest lighting, Throughout the play I realized that the stage became more crowded and nothing was being cleared up. I think this was a good feature as at the end there was a song and everything calmed down and the tension was gone.

If I had to give the play a star rating it would definitely be a five star as it had hilarious scenes and there wasn’t any parts of the play that the audience wasn’t laughing or had a smile on there face.

Oliver's Bronze Arts Awards Review

Suitcase Circus Review

The Suitcase Circus. What is the Suitcase Circus? Well… It is rubbish… rubbish… rubbish… very talented rubbish that is definitely worth watching. At the small price of £6.50 for an adult and £5.50 for a child I could not resist the opportunity! So on the 15th of May My Mum and I went down to Bradon Forest School in Swindon to see the show, and we were in for a surprise. The crazy compare of the circus was a wacky sock puppet called Wobulous Discombobulous, joining him was a whole range of exiting characters, each with its own story to tell. There is a dancing milkshake straw, the world’s first acrobatic potato sack, two old shoes, one of which is obsessed with his memoirs and many more characters that will leave you rolling on the floor with laughter.

Earlier on this year I went to see the show Discombobulated. Discombobulated was a comedy like Suitcase Circus by in my opinion, Suitcase circus was the better performance of the two because even though Discombobulated was creative, Suitcase Circus had the best ideas and implemented them more cleverly.

On the whole the Suitcase Circus was a very good show that is suitable for all ages and is fun for the whole family. It is a must see! It’s clever jokes and no-forgettable characters make this show one of the best I have ever seen.

Sophie's Bronze Arts Award Review

Fleur's Silver Arts Award Review

Dear “Folded Feather” company,

Please find below a review that I have written on what I thought of your wonderful puppet show, The Suitcase Circus:

On Thursday 15th March 2012 at the Bradon Forest School Theatre I saw Suitcase Circus, which is a puppet circus show. The puppets were made out of everyday objects but still looked amazing!

They had many different puppets doing different circus acts. There was a sock puppet which was the ring man; a dancing straw, a singing tea pot, the hypnotist tie snake, some talking shoes, a frog, a high rope walker glove, a gymnastic potato sack and a glove cannon ball!

I liked the whole show but if I was going to pick my favourite bits I would chose the singing tea pot and the glove cannon ball. The singing tea pot was an upside down tea pot with a black dress and a feather bower. I liked this bit because it reminded me of my friend; the way she sang and danced, she moved like a real person and had movements like a pop star like lying on her back. I liked the cannon ball glove because when he came on the music was very dramatic. His head was made out of a base ball so when he came out of the cannon in slow motion, another man got a baseball glove and caught him! It was very funny and I enjoyed it very much.

There were no bits I completely disliked but I thought the talking shoes weren’t that good. At at times they were funny and it was interesting to see how they made the shoes in to puppets too.

I would recommend this play to everyone who loves the Muppets. I would recommend the people who make the Muppets to see if they could make a puppet like that, and I would also recommend it to young children because I think that they will find it very funny and enjoy it very much.

When I was younger I saw a two plays a bit like Suitcase Circus where there were small puppets and life sized puppets. The company was called Pickled Image. The plays I saw were the Chatter Box and Houdini’s Suitcase. Houdini’s Suitcase was very much like Suitcase Circus because they were both about the circus but in Suitcase Circus they had audience participation but in Houdini’s suitcase there was the forth wall which means they act without seeing the audience.

To improve this play I wouldn’t change any of the other acts, but I would put more puppets and acts on because it was all so good and I just wanted to see more!

Watching this play has inspired me to make puppets for Unit 1 Part B of my silver arts award. At first I thought that I would make puppets out of materials, but I think I might try to make puppets out of some shoes or a tie.

So Folded Feature I hope that you think my comments were good and fair and I would love to see you more of your work again.

From Fleur Calder