These first few weeks back have been interesting to say the least, it has been a period of transition for all of us, going from the first year to the second and final year of this course. We began the term by finding out what our new time table was and which subjects we would and will be studying. In this first week finding out what we were going to learn about and perform set a certain feeling that this really was our chance to work hard and shine, the subjects we are studying and learning about in this first term are contemporary theatre and Shakespeare.
Contemporary
In Contemporary theatre we are studying, producing and performing the play Punk Rock by Simon Stephens, the play is about a group of teenagers in the library of their fee paying school and are in the process of studying for their final A Level exams and applying for university. This of course means that tensions are running high and everyone is at their wits end but is unwilling to show it. We began our study on this by doing a read through as a group of the play, allowing us to get a feel of the script and knowing what goes on within the play as well. After going through the script we had a group discussion of the play, finding out how each of us perceived each character and our thoughts on their backgrounds and what is really going on behind the scenes. Reading this play for myself was quite hard because having gone through a similar secondary education as the characters, I found I was comparing my own real life situations to the characters, and although this was in some ways quite painful because I could relate to the characters and their position in the world, It also gave me the advantage of knowing what was going on in the characters minds and how they were feeling about the whole situation. They in my mind were almost scared and do a lot of what they do out of fear, they study out of fear of bad grades and bully out of fear of loosing their place within their delicate hierarchy of student politics.
The play itself I found to be brilliant because of how true each sentence that is said is and i do honestly believe in what Earnest Hemingway said "all you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know." and there is a specific speech that Lilly says in the play that to me almost justify's the whole play, in this speech lilly is talking about good people and how William isn't any different or any more special than anybody else, this to me was an important part of the play because she stated quite clearly what a lot of people that age don't realise, that we are all the same, that we are no different or no more special than anybody else in the world. This play also touches on the fact that in a lot of fee paying schools bullying isn't necessarily done with physical fights but with the most sinister and thought provoking words that stick with you and eat at you until you snap, and this is exactly what happens to William, at the end he is so sick of the verbal abuse that not only he gets, but also everyone else that he takes matters into his own hands, not in the most ideal way but he does, it also shows that the way he and other children might react, still although about to be an adult not quite knowing how to handle the situation.
Shakespeare
In Shakespeare we are studying Julius Caesar which was written in 1599 and follows the story of Julius Caesar's reign over rome and his assassination. I was quite glad to hear we were going to be studying and performing excerpts of this specific Shakespearian play because it was one of the Shakespeare plays I have not studied as much in my own time, it gives me the opportunity to really explore and develop my own personal knowledge of Julius Caesar. I loved the fact that we were studying one of the Historical plays instead of one of the Tragedy's or Comedies, I like that it is a real life event and that these events did occur.
On Wednesday of last week we took as a group a trip to The Globe Theatre in London to see the production of Julius Caesar in the original text and costume. Also whilst there we participated in a workshop with one of the educator's there who also took us into the theatre and showed us around and let us know about how the theatre was used and what to possibly expect from the show.
After Showing us the theatre we went into the studios along the street and did a workshop on the play itself and together worked on a scene from the play and tried the rehearsal technique that the actors in shakespeare's day would have used and that was to have only rehearsed it about three times and the end result was really good, it wasn't perfect which you wouldn't expect after having only worked on it for about half an hour but it was good and I liked what was produced. We also looked at another scene between Cassius and Brutus and looked at actioning and how that affected the scene and how it changed the meaning of it, applying certain moves to certain objectives changed the atmosphere of the scene completely and made it more intense without overworking it. After the workshop we went to the museum attached to the Globe Theatre and found many amazing things, they had a whole display on costumes and the sort of clothes that would have been worn in the productions in Shakespeare's time. There were also lots of other types of displays such as a section on drawings of the characters out of the plays and concept art for costumes and set 
design ideas, on the ceiling was art that depicted the stars and the constellations of the time when the stars were considered to bring you luck and tell the future, there are also constellations on the ceiling of the stage of The Globe. Having had a look at the museum and gaining more ideas and learning new things about The Globe's history, we went for lunch and a break before going to see Julius Caesar. Coming back to go and see the play was quite surreal in a way walking into the theatre with everyone else and finding a place to stand and also have a good view of the stage, being only 5'1 my view of the stage was limited having much taller people in front of me, this also gave me an idea of what it would have been like in Shakespeare's day being in an overcrowded space trying to get a good view of the stage. During the performance I had to move to the back because the crowd of onlookers was quite overbearing but also a learning curve as to what it really was like, being at the back I had a better view of the stage and the actors because there were less people surrounding me. I found it fascinating from the back of the theatre to watch how the crowd reacted to what the actors did and how the play unfolded in front of us, some knowing what would happen and others not knowing what would happen, and yet by the end we all came out of the theatre having had the same experience of feeling the same things the actors were and going through their stories with them and taking that home with us. 