The Merchant of BUSY!

Over the course of this week I have been in a wonderful production of The Merchant of Venice at the South London Theatre. This is my third show at SLT and is one of the most enjoyable (although I do say that, each show I’ve been in has been very different with a variety of people and thus a unique and wonderful experience in and of themselves). For a brief synopsis of the show you can click here to be directed towards the SLT website.

In this version of the show I play Launcelot Gobbo, a clown character who is a servant of Shylock and becomes a servant of Bassanio. Launcelot has a famous speech (used for comedic auditions) involving an odd conversation. He explains to the audience that he wishes to leave the servitude of Shylock but does not know whether to run or stay. He has an angel and a devil on his shoulders directing him either way and reports the conversation he had with them to the audience. The staging of this speech always proves to be a little bit difficult but also very unique every time. Our director decided to portray this scene as an argument between myself and two sock puppets I wear on my arms. I’ve put a lot of physical acting into the roll to really embody the clown-like qualities of the character himself and having the ability to speak directly to the audience makes it even more enjoyable. The entire run of Launcelot throughout the show is quite funny (comedic relief during the whole “pound of flesh” thing) and it’s been going really well thus far in the run.

I’ve also done something in this show I’ve never done on stage before…sing. I’m in a song and dance number to begin the second half and I have to admit…I was a little apprehensive at first about how that was all going to go. After a lot of rehearsal and work I am very proud of how the song ended up. So much so that I am considering auditioning for a theatre company in Sutton called the Lyric Players. They have auditions coming up next month for a Spring production of “The Producers”. This is one of my favourite and funniest musicals and I would love to be involved in it. Although it may not happen, playing the part of Leopold Bloom (Matthew Broderick) would be one heck of a fun time.

I’m still mulling it over, but I’ll let you all know how it ends up in the end.

The Observasion Situation

It’s a special time of year for teachers all over England at the moment. The dreaded observation season. After a month of teaching it is time for formal observations and assessments of our own teaching practices to be scrutinized by the administration of the school. Obviously it’s a common practice and not exclusive to England but it’s still as nerve racking for a new teacher as it is for someone who has been performing the job for a decade. It has its uses, mainly to ensure that teachers are following good practice and students are gaining a worthy learning experience. I have my observation on Friday of this week.

Although I probably should be…I’m surprisingly not that nervous. I’ve seen so many people running around making sure this and that is completed and I’m not stressing out a bit. This is a little disconcerting, however; I think the reason behind it is in my confidence. Although I am a little stressed about making sure all of the proper paperwork is in order (lesson plans, learning objectives, differentiation, and the like) the actual teaching itself does not throw me for a loop. I know my observation is on Friday but I do not know which class they will be coming into. Side note: “they” refers to the Assistant Headteacher who oversees Drama and the Head of Drama. I am at a bit of an advantage because of the five classes I teach that day, one of them is a team taught exam class (not an option to observe) and another is cancelled because of a charity event. Therefore I can confidently narrow it down and only prepare for one of three potential classes: a Year 9, Year 7, or Year 8.

I am very confident in my abilities to teach Key Stage 3 and Year 9 so I think that’s why I’m not too worried. Once I get the lesson up and running I pretty much just lose myself in the material and have as much fun as possible and ensure that the students do to. Enough that I tend to even forget that I am being observed. Luckily too, the students tend to behave better when they see two members of the administration sitting in the room just watching.

Either way you look at it, it is a stressful situation…but a necessary one. I’m looking forward to getting it over and done with and signalling the beginning of the week-end. One that sees the run of Merchant finishing and one (I hope) epic cast party to wrap it all up.

Wish me luck!

Life Update...Looooooooooooooong Overdue

Wow…..it’s kind of been a while since I last updated this blog. A part of me always knew that it would eventually come second to other things in my life. A part of me kind of wished it would. I haven’t been updating this blog because I’ve simply been busy with a lot of other things…and it has been amazing. A little birdie told me that the blogs I post are just a bit too long. People apparently don’t like to read at length, especially on the internet. I have to admit as well, I tend to ramble on a lot; both in speech and in type. Therefore, I will try to make this post as concise as possible. In addition, I’m going to attempt to post a lot more often in brief observations about life in general and what’s been happening as opposed to walking you through every detail. Here goes…

First off, I’ve been on a roller coaster of teaching since I last posted. I finished at Cheam at the end of May and then went through a rough period of getting barely any supply work (just because of the time of year). It got bad, I got pretty down and was beginning to feel really desperate. When I applied for a maternity leave cover job at Cheam and didn’t get an interview it was the last straw. Fortunately, this was also the TSN turning point. They were interviewing for NQTs and had me on a short list for the maternity leave but couldn’t tell me yet. I ended up getting an interview, nailed every portion of it, and am currently working there full time. It was emotionally exhausting but I’m so happy to have finally found my way. Things always seem to have a way of working out.

The first month has been amazing. It’s been a little difficult getting used to being full time with the extra responsibilities and a much more active role in planning, assessment, and the like. I’ve been adjusting to it slowly and there’s a ton of support within the school to help me along the way. The classes I have are just brilliant (bar one or two) and I’m teaching a lot of Drama options (students who chose the subject) so there’s more of a commitment to Drama than the younger kids who have to take it have. Basically, I am as happy as I could possibly be and look forward to the many coming months. I’m sure anecdotes will follow in future posts.

The summer was absolutely brilliant as well. Once I got the whole “I need a full time job” thing out of the way I was able to enjoy it a lot more. Given the financial repercussions of not having a job I needed to find something fast and ended up being employed as a bartender at a local pub in Tooting Bec called “The King’s Head”. It’s actually a beautiful little place with great fellow employees, wonderful regulars, and a great overall atmosphere. Luckily their focus is on sports so I end up getting paid to watch football a lot on the week-ends (not a bad deal). I still work a couple of nights a week just to break the whole school, home, school, home routine. Plus, it’s quite social and can be a laugh sometimes too.

Scott came to visit at the beginning of August for about 12 days of which we had a GREAT time. It was nice seeing a family member from home and it had been a couple of months since Lisa and Matty visited and Jeremy had gone back to Canada. Even though he had come by himself we definitely made the most of the visit. Besides hitting all of the best places in and around Central London to drink and eat we also made a trip to the Great British Beer Festival. We visited Amsterdam and Edinburgh as well and were pretty much exhausted once we were done. There would have been an epic football match between England and Holland in there as well if thousands of people didn’t decide to start burning things and stealing stuff (see London Riots). Even without it though, we had a wonderful time full of beers and cheers…that’s it, that’s all. On a side note, I’ll be home for the Christmas holidays this year starting on December 17^th…just throwing that out there.

I also volunteered over the summer as an Olympics Test Event Volunteer. I was placed into the Press Operations team for the London Invitational Basketball Tournament. I was in the Press Tribune which is basically the area that writers and reporters sit in inside of the venue to watch the games and take notes. It was a blast and I was able to watch all 15 basketball games in the tournament over 6 days. Being in the tribune all I have to do is periodically give out sheets of paper and then stand around and watch the sport. I’ve also been selected for an interview to be an actual London 2012 Gamesmaker volunteer. If I get selected for that I’ll be working for Press Operations during the sports at the actual games. It would crazy to be posted at venues during some of the biggest events (see Men’s 100m Final). We’ll see…

On the theatre side of things I have been in full swing on the production of the Merchant of Venice at South London Theatre (I’m actually currently typing this post out on my laptop at the last dress rehearsal). It’s an amazing production that is so vastly different from the version I was in a couple of years ago at Queen’s. I play Launcelot Gobbo and have a really crazy version of the Angel/Devil speech. I’m really looking forward to opening tomorrow but, combined with teaching and being at the pub, it’s a lot and I think I will also be looking forward to it being over and done with. I’m still mulling over potentially auditioning for a production of The Producers (one of my favourite musicals) in November. It’ll be a game time decision.

As if I couldn’t have any more amazing things going on in my life right now, I have also met someone to share in all of the excitement. Her name is Alexis and we’ve been seeing each other for a good couple of months now. Being a Canadian working as a teacher as well we obviously have a lot in common but yet so many things that make us unique…and yet…work. She’s smart, funny, we can talk about stuff ( :P ), and it’s generally a pleasure being around her. Apart from the fact that she lives in Dartford, outside of London that requires a TRAIN RIDE to get to…okay, it’s only an hour from mine to hers but STILL!

Well now, that’s pretty much the last four months or so in a nutshell (see, told you I’d be concise). Now do you understand why I haven’t blogged recently? That’s what I thought. Things are looking brighter and life is a new adventure every day and I could not be happier about where I am right now in general.

Until next time folks,

Cheers and love