GADS Youth Workshop 2018 - GADS Gosforth

Lunarcy - by David Rounce

GADS are pleased to acknowledge a
grant to support this workshop from the
Police and Crime Commissioner's
Property Fund

This year we had a script that was written especially for the Workshop.
Humans have blown up Earth and are now on intergalactic trial. All that stands between them and total annihilation is a group of historians who have only hours to show the best of humanity by flicking through history, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Pirates, Highwaymen, Neanderthals, Spacemen, Witch Hunters – there has to be SOMETHING that will convince the Martian jury to let humanity live – it’s sheer Lunarcy!

Workshop week
6 to 11 August 2018
Gosforth Public Hall

The workshop began on Mon 6th Aug and ran from 10 am to 4 pm daily.
It was open to anyone aged 8 - 18 at the start of the week. There was a show at the end of the week at 6pm on Sat 11 August. This was mainly for friends and family, but was also open to the public.

Day 1 - Monday 6 August 2018
Photos from day 1 are always a bit boring because we start with nothing - but that's really the whole point. We played lots of games, read through most of the script, allocated the parts and played some more games - no time for learning lines, obviously. This year we have a few who unfortunately can't take part in the show - but they have been given really important jobs in charge of scenery, props, posters, painting and costume. So we have found most of the props already and quite a few of the costumes too. We have 4 witches altogether, but getting a photo of 4 wild cats together would have been easier. And of course we had the traditional toast break - although the fruit was very popular too - very good. Tomorrow we will look at scenery and see if any of our old pantomime cloths can be used with a little modification. A good day - fun and productive for everyone.

Day 2 - Tuesday 7 August 2018
Another busy day, with lots of rehearsing, line practice and action on stage.  Matthew Harper came in to help with voice projection and what a difference that made - these shy little ones can be as loud as anyone if they try. We have now found nearly all of the costumes, and also got them labelled and on racks so that their owners can  find them again. The cavemen have their costumes and the armless highwayman also got the sack - but couldn't get out of it. There are quite a few scenes in this play, but we have gone through cloths from previous pantomimes and found most of them. A cave scene from Aladdin, a schoolroom from Sleeping Beauty, and onboard ship and a country road from Dick Whittington - with a little modification, they will do the job. Our Martian Spaceship / Courtroom is also well underway. And there were lots of games too - but how do we find time for games in such a busy day? Because they are so popular, I guess. More tomorrow - we need to find a pet and start thinking about sound and lights.

Day 3 - Wednesday 8 August 2018
I know why the days are so busy now - always playing games and eating toast, but there is always so much more to be done as well. Costume got tidied up yesterday and today was the turn of the props shelves - now all nicely labelled and ready to go. Lots of rehearsing today with quite a lot of it on the stage.  Also lots of painting - the final cloth got a tweak, and the PET and the Space Visualiser are taking shape. And more toast. We got the lighting and sound desks out and made a start there too - the young apprentices are very keen to try things out and learn. We also managed to draft the programne, make some advertising posters and set some of them on display at the doorway to the hall. And we ate toast - must not forget that. But best of all we got a visit from our adopted mascot of the week, Ginny. With so many distractions, will this ever come together? Almost certainly - they just do. But we must find some newspapers and petrol to burn those darned witches ..........

Day 4 - Thursday 9 August 2018
Wow - really impressive progress by everyone today. So busy we had time for only a few games. The cast have learned so many of their lines already and we were able to run through many scenes on stage - some a few times. Hard work, enthusiasm, endless energy - all the things us adults wish we had too. The painting is finished and all cleared away. The PET has been patted and the space visualiser has been visualised. In fact pretty much all the props are ready for action and, most impressively of all, all the work of the participants. Some of the sound effects need finishing and we have made a start on the lights, but we should be good to go on the dress rehearsal tomorrow. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Sophie and Ellie today. Their work is done before they go off on holiday tomorrow but it will be so hot they will wish they were back here with us. Maybe?

Day 5 - Friday 10 August 2018
This has been one hectic week and it has flown by. Here we are ready for a dress rehearsal - except we aren't. The actors are all ready with lines near perfect, but us grownups can't keep up. We have had to finish setting the lights and re-do some of the sound effects that didn't work very well. But this gave a chance for just a few games, some toast and even some more rehearsing. After lunch, it was time to get into costume and make-up and step on stage for the dress rehearsal. It went amazingly well - these youngsters have done such a good job this week. Today we had another sad farewell - this time to Abigail and Molly who are off to scout camp in the morning. But they were working right up to the end helping with the lights, set decoration and one last minute costume that had been missed. Brilliant work ladies, enjoy your camp. Today we were so busy that we took very few photos except we made sure we got one of each cast member at the dress rehearsal. Only head and shoulders today though - we don't want to give too much away about the fantastic variety of costumes you will marvel at tomorrow.  We all hope you enjoy the show as much as we have enjoyed ourselves all week. It has been such fun.

Day 6 - Saturday 11 August 2018
After only a week's work, the show on Saturday evening was simply amazing.

Feedback from some of the parents and participants

Absolutely fantastic workshop. Our daughter throughly enjoyed her week and it was great watching her on stage with such confidence. Thank you.

Everyone clearly worked very hard. That a show was produced to that standard in a week is boggling and better than some adult shows with far more rehearsal time. The kids were well-behaved, keen and even when there was lots going on I didn't see chaos descending.

Well done everyone, the children put on an amazing show! They worked very hard all week. Great performance.

Thanks for another great week. As in previous years, this was a good opportunity for youngsters to involve themselves in all the aspects of producing a short play and thus to learn about behind the scenes activities as well as performing. During the production and performance of a ‘home -made’ play in just a week it was obvious that as well as being great fun this had included the participants learning to take responsibility for their activities and that of others.

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