Student Blog: Workshopping Through the Autumn

Here we are at the end of October. So much has happened, and I hope you will appreciate the view of London I took on a special day which is one of many of the happenings I've had this month. Out of all the happenings, I am thrilled about today's topic.

On today’s blog, I bring to you one of the reasons why I’d chosen the University of Winchester instead of a drama school. In all its unconventional theatre modules, this is by far my favorite one.

In my second year, my course offers a module that I have not seen in any other drama school called ‘New Musical Theatre’ in which we have the pleasure of workshopping new musicals submitted to the university from an open writers’ call. This was what drew me in when I’d seen the module breakdown for each year in the university and I just had to leap right into it. It isn’t my first rodeo workshopping new musicals from scratch but it is certainly a path I want to continue trekking down.

The grand progress of this workshop began in September as one of the first modules we'll be taking this academic year.

The module is divided into a short Autumn musical and a full length Spring musical, so we don’t just have one but we have two musicals to workshop! For this semester, there are two Autumn showcases, one for each class as my cohort is divided into two casts. The one that I am currently working on is a piece called ’24 Hours in A&E’ where we zoom into the lives of the NHS workers going about their jobs in the Royal Hampshire Hospital. Stakes soar as the hospital’s director, Janice, is forced to make cuts in order to save funds. To make matters worse, a motorcycle crash patient is wheeled in, balancing between life and death, just as Janice fires the department they need which leaves the rest of the crew, cooks, cleaners, nurses and etc, to figure things out on their own.

This is the first time the piece has ever been put through a workshop which has been very exciting as we get to dabble in devising for our numbers and scenes as well as to build our characters. Before each session, our director gathers us in a classic circle (circle time!) and runs through a little check up on everyone. We would share the energy and intention we want to bring into the room, do a round of stretches and warm-ups and have a little creative note bash to warm our voices and get our harmonies tuned to each other’s voices. It’s a beautiful thing to just connect with the space and synergize with my classmates to create something together.

Devising is the main device we used to get the piece up on its feet, to flesh it out from the very foundation we were given and now we have the vision materialized into being in our rehearsal spaces, and soon the stage just this Friday. Devising is such a wondrous way to work with as everyone is just put in the moment to open themselves up to creativity and trust in one another, and it generally creates a safe space for us all to express the shared vision of our show. However, devising is not the only tool we use. Our director is brilliant at getting the creativity flowing as we are normally divided into groups to brainstorm certain aspects of the show such as how it would the setting be seen in the perspective of different characters, the same scenario happening within different locations of the hospital and best of all, different ways we can utilize our phones as a part of the piece.

The module is structured similarly every week though sometimes we will be informed on Canvas of anything we need to prepare prior our workshop every Friday to get the process moving while we’re outside the studio. Social media really is a gift as a lot of ideas have come through our group chat when we needed pitches to bring to the workshops. Pop culture makes a great source of inspiration too so we’ve been taking advantage of the internet.

Media has become a massive part of our piece which I have found the most interesting aspect of all as we have somehow integrated a massive part of our lives into our work as a means of expression. Strangely enough, the phones started out as a joke that someone made in class about how cool it would be to film a first person point-of-view (POV) type video (which then branched out into a comparison with Minecraft) as we see the world through a certain character’s eyes, such as the patient on an operation table watching doctors loom over them. We have filmed a number of things over the course of our workshop that has spanned from perspectives and advertisements, and as far as I’m aware, there is a final surprise video waiting for us.

To encourage a more dynamic collaboration, our director would ensure that we worked with everyone as much as possible whenever we’re divided into smaller groups before reconvening with ideas to combine. With that, she would also have us share how we feel after a certain energy and it really encourages everyone to communicate with one another which I find brilliant.

As the day draws nearer for our presentation, we have been working on piecing the puzzle pieces together as well as the constructing the set of our show with what limited props we have in a black box theatre. With only two tables and a few chairs, we have managed to create at least four different settings and it’s a matter of traffic as we move the props about but the image is all clear to see as we combine the devised pieces we’ve done over the 6 weeks we have.

We’ve achieved in what seems to be a short span of time for a black box presentation. For the majority of our props, we utilized what we had in our studios and backpacks to bring the scenes to life, and it has really taught me the gift of taking what you can get and making the most of it. A cheeky Hadestown (2019) quote I love. There’s so much we do with just the tables. We transform them into an ambulance, an office door, an operation table, and a flower shop. The chairs, on the other hand, travel across the stage more than a chair should, especially without wheels.

I, admittedly, am anxious about Friday because there’s just so much we could do with just one more day’s workshop but this is the week we show it to the world before bidding it goodbye.

Our time with the piece is short but I’ve taken away a lot from the workshops, mostly the experience of it all and I hope everyone else gets to experience workshopping a musical the way I have. I find immense joy in working with so many different people on a piece that is fresh to everyone in the room and just basking in the creative energy of everyone’s minds. Devising can be quite taxing as we were open to a lot of flaws in having to improvise as much as we can, but with everyone forming a safe space, it was just magical seeing how we could build the show from what began as mistakes into something solid.

Before I end the blog here, I just want share my overwhelming appreciation for our director, Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong, for allowing us to bring her vision to life and for bringing her magic to our studios. And also to Josh Bird and Giles Fernando, for bringing and entrusting your piece to us.

It has been a marvelous 6 weeks.

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