Whether it's stewarding at a festival, writing for a magazine, or producing works of art, volunteering for creative projects is bound to get those juices flowing.

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Friday Nov 14, 2008

The Kids Are Revolting!

For this session I typed up the characters and manifesto points we then voted on the manifesto which looks like follows:

If young people ruled the world I would...

CREATE A DROP IN SCHOOL SYSTEM

MAKE ALL ADULTS TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT (TO HELP STOP DESTROYING THE PLANET)

CREATE A WIDER CHOICE IN ALL SCHOOL CANTEENS

LET MUSIC BE ALLOWED ON BUSES

MAKE YOUNG PEOPLE'S VOICES HEARD

Clearly some are more political and pertinent than others... but they should all make entertaining and informative vignettes.

After the young people had left we worked a bit later (til gone 9pm!) on finalising the script, writing a storyboard and making t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan created by the young people - 'Freedom not Boredom! We came up with some different names for the film. One I formulated was, 'The Kids are Revolting!' bit of a pun in there! This Saturday we begin the filming at the Tower... exciting stuff...

Posted by Rhiannon ( 12:00 AM )
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Tuesday Nov 11, 2008

Justice will be served

We finished watching the film 'Twelve Angry Men', in which they find the young man not guilty. It was a powerful ending, but I'm not sure now how much of our film will be based on this, though the theme is still youth justice, the location now is... the Tower of London! So we need to fit our story around that. I think I'm more excited about the location than the young people are! As my parents have never been much inclined towards the tourist trail, so I'm looking forward to rectifying this...

We began loosely working on an idea that the young people now rule the world and figuring out why this is and just what they are going to do with this new found power.... Unsurprisingly a lot desired the dramatic demise of unpopular teachers and less school time! But some more serious points made it through also.

We also worked on characters for the film, one of my favourites was Jade, who 'is a racer like Lewis Hamilton, likes to show off, has a pretty face and everyone hates her'! We then played a game called 'Agree – Disagree' whilst in character. This involved the reading out of statements, if your character agreed you stood at one end, if they disagreed at the other. We used points from the manifesto for this and contentious views like 'young people should be seen and not heard'. Then you were asked to justify your opinion in relation to the statement whilst staying in character. This game established what it is to be the character and to look at things from their perspective. Next week we will finalise the manifesto ideas with votes from the young people.

Posted by Rhiannon ( 1:12 PM )
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Monday Nov 03, 2008

Take One:Action!

I am now a veteran of any name game you care to mention, and have found they definitely work as ice breakers and of course to learn names, which I was rather rusty at… We also played games to discover favourite things that we have in common, and unsurprisingly pizza was a top choice..!

The young people in the group are enthusiastic and ready to learn, which is fantastic. Of the 10 that were supposed to turn up we got less than half, which is disappointing but apparently our group is the best attended of all the different volunteering groups including drama, photography and radio. I’m hoping that as the kids get more into it they’ll tell others and this will hopefully increase our numbers. In order to track the young people’s development, we asked them to mark on a chart their knowledge of film from ‘nothing’ to ‘a lot’, it will be great to watch the progression of this.

We then got the young people to go through different shots on the camera including a wide-shot, pan and close-up and when you might use different shots like these. They took to it very quickly, and were soon zooming up one another’s nostrils with aplomb…

To introduce the theme of the film, which will be youth justice, we got the group to watch extracts from ‘12 Angry Men’, a film about the criminal justice system in America. Victoria (one of the directors of the project) wasn’t sure how interested the young people would be in this, as it was a film from the 1950s in black and white. It follows 12 members of a jury as they deliberate over whether they can find a young man guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Along with the rest of the group I was desperate to know the conclusion but we were left on a cliff hanger – which I look forward to being resolved in the next session…

Posted by Rhiannon ( 12:00 PM )
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Wednesday Oct 22, 2008

Aspire to get experience

Hi,

I'm Rhiannon and I have just graduated from university in English Literature and Classics, hugely vocational I know! So now I'm no longer a student, I'm going cold turkey on Hollyoaks and am trying to decide what to do with myself in the big bad world of work...  Currently I'm temping full time, but I've come to realise that regardless of your degree, whatever you want to do requires the magic word 'experience', luckily I've been able to negotiate some time off to volunteer.

I've decided to follow my interests, and hope this will develop into a career. Ideally I want to work in media and the arts combined with the voluntary sector. I've found a great project that mixes all three: for the next few months I'll be volunteering on a film project with school children from my local area, the Tower Hamlets. The scheme is run by Aspire through Toynbee Hall and it aims to impart new skills, but more importantly to raise the confidence and aspirations of the children involved. By the end of the program the film will be screened at the Brady Arts Centre. I'm really excited to be part of the project and am sure that I myself will learn plenty along the way. I hope you'll join me for the ups, downs and drama that is sure to follow...

Posted by Rhiannon ( 3:22 PM )
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Saturday Sep 06, 2008

Last Look Back at Edinburgh Festival Fringe '08

So its been a week since I took the 10 hour coach ride back to London.

I slept for 20 hours when I came back. My body just refused to wake up! I also promptly ate Real Meals and had a Proper Bath for the first time in 6 weeks.

Now, I guess the fundamental question is "Would I do it all again?".

Well, that's a difficult question. I reckon I'd like to do the festival bit again but the fit-up and get-out? Too tiring. A great one-off experience but not something I feel I could endure again.

Also, there's the question of money. Including travel, but after my wages, I spent £280 over 6 weeks. Not a bad amount considering but still, lack of money did mean that some people had to leave earlier than expected.

I've worked out that I saw at least 36 pieces of live theatre over three weeks for free which is more theatre than I'd seen in my entire life before Edinburgh. The majority of what I saw was good and I met plently of good people.

That's not to say it was all good. There was an accident involving a skylight and a young girl and continuous, numerous, disastrous and ridiculously stressful problems with the Fringe box office computer systems. C Venue's Box Office Manager ended up quitting halfway through the run and at several points, us lowly FOBOs were near tears and snappy.

However, amidst all that, I have learnt how to remain good-humoured when faced with customers who had queued for 40 minutes for refunds after a cancelled show, how to deal with members of the Press demanded to be treated "with respect" (by which they meant they wanted Royal Service), and customers who think that shouting will make them more likely to get freebies (it doesn't. It just gets you laughed at).

I'm making it sound awful. I won't lie; at times, it was frightful, but for every bad moment, there is a brilliant ones. One day, a boy pushed past me through a cordoned area, late for court. The old man behind him politely waited, saying "I'm in no rush, love, I'm retired you see, I have all day."

Another time, during a particularly horrendous day, a man pushed to the front of the queue saying "Excuse me, important matters!" The FOBO on duty was about to tell him sharply where to go when he said "You look like you're going to burst into tears. Pretend you're dealing with me and just take a few minutes, okay?". This little bif of kindness put her on a high for the rest of the day.

So yes, I'd do it again but next time, I'd like to go as a reviewer for Three Weeks, the daily review sheet, or even as part of a theatre company. I imagine that would be much less stressful! But at the same time, you wouldn't get that wonderful community-feel and you wouldn't feel quite as if you'd done (and survived) the festival's frantic pace in quite the same way.

One last point of interest, lookie: This pole was a very normal pole-shape at the beginning of the three weeks. By the end, it had tripled in size and was bulging from flyers at eye-level.

And that's the end of my FOBO days and I'll leave you with a picture of me in the C main's box office, now dismantled and lying in a skip, somewhere in Scotland.

Posted by Mei ( 12:00 AM )
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Wednesday Aug 27, 2008

The Final Send-off

As soon as the last show went on at 00:30am, we started stripping the walls of posters:

And we worked through the night until 9am, packing chairs away, taking down drapes and parcelling them for next year and generally turning the lovely spooky theatre spaces where anything-could-happen into dull university rooms again.

It feels like stepping back in time to 4 weeks ago when everything was a building site and there was scaffolding everywhere.

I've spent the morning in the Urban Garden pulling screws out of the floorboards and pulling all the carpet, drape cut offs and gaffa tape off the scaff poles - the very stuff I stuck on 3 weeks ago to make it safe for the public. Super depressing? YES.

Tonight is the last night and so, our flat must be thoroughly scrubbed and then, its down to the Cabaret Bar for a final party before we all head off our respective ways tomorrow afternoon.

Posted by Mei ( 11:16 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 26, 2008

Who's up for a morning hike?

Belt Up! Theatre company had a party in the Red Room for staff and company two nights ago and we finished off the night by clambering up Arthur's Seat at 4am to watch the sunrise. It was just bizarre because there was such a random mix of people, ranging from the Belt Up! crew to the C Venues staff, the Bastard Children of Australian Folk (a band playing at C Central's Cabaret Bar), and one half of Max and Ivan (a comedy duo at C Cubed).

Danni, Victor and I eventually made it back to our flat at 7:30am and I had to be at work for the day shift at 8:30am. That bit was awful but the entire night was incredibly awesome.

As C Venues have a deal with a few other theatre spaces, Sadie and I went to The Zoo to watch Samurai Spirit for free. Halfway through, she was called up on stage to try out her samurai moves:

The last few days have been a bit manic. The Fringe festival itself ends today and everyone is celebrating. Quite a few people are leaving to go back to the real world but I'm still here for another 4 days.

Yesterday was the final day of performances and C Venues had a staff-and-company party at the Cabaret Bar and it was absolutely packed. Everyone was looking a little worse for wear this morning.

It was also my last day as a FOHBO. No more ticket sales, refunds or phone bookings to deal with.

Kim, my roommate is a technician and she's been doing completely different work to me. She had to sit in during shows in case something goes wrong and was responsible for cleaning her theatre space. This involves a lot of sweeping and mopping but not anymore, as its get-out time now.

All the theatre companies are gone, we're no longer open to the public, lots of C Venues staff have headed home to university or work or just to avoid getting their hands dirty and so, C main is incredibly quiet. However, there's no time to rest, we are working 24 hours, in shifts to clear everything out by the 29th.

Posted by Mei ( 6:10 PM )
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The finished article

It's taken me awhile but I've finally got around to posting photos of the newsletter. The images aren't too great but I hope they give you an idea of how it looks. Enjoy!

Back and front pages

Features on the GlobalXchange volunteers

My column and Lindsey's elephant illustration

My article on volunteering with elephants in Thailand

Volunteer opportunities, Volunteers' Week in June, and information about the new Youth Bank in Swansea

Helen's article on Gwirforce and a piece about the Red Cafe project

This is my last post! I've really enjoyed writing a blog about my volunteering and hope it's given you an insight into what it's like to volunteer as a newsletter editor.

Happy volunteering everyone!

Posted by Catherine ( 1:49 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 19, 2008

I love the night shift

When I'm on day shift, I feel I don't have time to do anything and I always feel sleep-deprived. (I really ought to go home after work, rather than seeing shows and going to the Cabaret bar) but on the night shift, the whole sleeping-in-til-3pm-if-you-need-to means you THINK you've slept enough, even if you haven't.

Today I went to the GP about my bad throat and numb toe (Fringe battle scars, ooh). The first is Laryngitis which just means my vocal cords are inflamed, probably with overuse when I was answering the phones for 2 days solid. The second is Neuropraxia which tells me I should have worn trainers for my first two weeks here and NOT flats.

I'll be fine soon. Not particularly bothered. :)

One of my flatmate's Victor is an amazing cook. He made a spanish tortilla the other day. I'm sooo going to go home and learn how to cook properly. i don't think my million-and-one-variations-of-pasta-with-tomatoes really cuts it.

I've never lived by myself properly before. It's much different to when your parents go away on holiday and leave you behind. It's cool though. I'm just definitely learning how to cook more stuff before I go to university next year.

Tonight is Spunk! night in the Cabaret bar. It's basically gay night. I'm not sure how different the Cab Bar will be compared to every other night - basically the entire C Venues staff there and no-one else.

Posted by Mei ( 5:08 PM )
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Sunday Aug 17, 2008

Becoming all DIY

It's odd how this trip has changed me.

Today, a shelf in the Urban Garden Box Office was bothering me. it's been shaking and slanting and wobbling for a couple of days now so I went to Stores (our giant room of power tools and gear), got 5 one inch screws, a drill and a crosshair bit and fixed the shelf.

It's all perfect and stable now and before the get-in (when we were busy building the theatre spaces), I would never have felt at ease with using a drill or trying to fix something my self.

Cool, huh?

Posted by Mei ( 9:14 PM )
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Saturday Aug 16, 2008

Wooooo, results day!

I had A Level results the other day. I went to another country for six weeks to escape the pre-exam day stress but I still caved and phoned my college at 11am. Got five As so I´m very relieved (and obviously, super-nerdy, lol)!

My results day celebrations were a little unconventional since I´m up here at the Fringe. Rather than going out with my close friends who are all in London, I first went to a pub called The Tron, near C Main, then went with two of my flat mates to a Masked Trance Workshop.

It was very cool - Belt Up!, the group running tons of cool shows in our Red Room, talked us through the experience of wearing masks and how they have their own personalities which come through when you wear them and all that kind of stuff.

The first one I wore was a white mask which had burn marks. I also found a white suit jacket, a strand of beads and a hat and just wandered around feeling creepy, violent and mean. Afterwards, one of the cast members came up to me and said when she wore it, she´d felt exactly the same.

There was also a mask they called Roger who collects sounds and one of the other participants, who didn´t know that, went around banging drums and being fascinated by the trumpet, etc.After that, we all went to the C Soco Urban Garden bar, then around 3am, I finally went to the Cabaret Bar at C Central so in the end, quite a normal Fringe night for me.

Tonight, I´m going with Lucy and Danni (two flatmates) to see Titus Andronicus and Apollo/Dionysus at C Main, so bye bye. :)

Oh, and I´ve completely lost my voice and have no idea why. I´m really susceptible to tonsilitis and throat infections though so I´m guessing its the latter.

Posted by Mei ( 9:15 PM )
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Thursday Aug 14, 2008

You'd think I'd be all theatre-d out by now...

But I'm not!

Last night I went to see Precarious' The Factory at The Zoo (a different theatre venue). A bunch of us went and couldn't help but compare The Zoo to C Venues. I was amazed that they only had one box office window. We have six in C Main and its always packed! They have a Cabaret Bar too but their's looks like a café whilst ours is an actual bar.

I also went to see Happyland (odd), Dragon Lady: Being Anna May Wong (I didn't have a clue who AMW was before I went it, I really should've done some research), a college production of The Rat Pack, Live! (good keyboardist. He looked really young to be that good, which is impressive), Darning Jilly (insanely creepy and terrifying. I want a copy of the script to pour over so I can digest it better), What's Wrong with Angry? (good play, very much of its time with the whole Section 28 and controversy thing) and You Need Me's How It Ended (stunning, simply stunning post-war romance which ends sadly. Heart-warming and heart-breaking and wonderful).

Last Sunday was Fringe Sunday, a sort of Day-in-the-Festival at the Meadows (large patch of green). As I was on a night shift, I spent a few hours of the afternoon down there. Essentially, there were loads of street (grass?) performers and performance tents.

Here are some pics, I'm quite pleased with the one where I caught the hat mid-toss from toe to head.

As you can see, it was actually sunny. It rained for over 48 hours a few days ago. You wouldn't think it was meant to be summer.

Once again, I'm in the Urban Garden box office on my own. Most FOHBOs hate it out here as its outside and therefore can be cold or rainy, but I think its worth it. It's quiet and calm. I have the internet, a kettle, a large box of teabags and the occasional visitor.

Sooo, back to chilling out in my little hut (the one I "built" a while back) and just having an easy day.

Posted by Mei ( 9:27 AM )
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Sunday Aug 10, 2008

Six hours in the gents

Remember I mentioned I had to poster the gents toilets before the press launch? Here´s a photo of the finished product.

And here is a picture of me in the centre of Edinburgh being all touristy, when I was sent by Adam-the-admin-man to collect Fire Selectors.

Today, I switch from day shifts to night shifts so I´ll be working from 4pm to 2am for the next three days. I´ve not done a night shift before so I´m hoping it´ll be marginally calmer and quieter than the day shifts have been so far.

Also, it means no more sitting in the box office of the urban garden with only the internet for company.... which meant it was actually a nice one to spend the day, though cold.

Posted by Mei ( 1:22 PM )
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Thursday Aug 07, 2008

Hello, C Venues Box Office, how can I help?

I've spent all day in the Box Office Admin area downstairs, manning the phones. It's been ringing nearly non-stop since 9am this morning and its only just gone 5pm.

Two nights ago, C Venues had a traditional Scottish night with a Ceilidh band and free whiskey. About 30 members of staff turned up and we all attempted to dance. It was great, if only because I'd never been to a ceilidh before.

My roommate Kim says she's going back home this Saturday; she hasn't enjoyed herself here. I think its her first time away from home, etc, etc. Danni has moved into our room; thankfully she comes back as late as I do, so I won't need to creep back in anymore.

Since I last updated, I have been to see Three's Company's Auditorium (very different), Maximum Entertainment Productions' The Great American Trailer Park Musical (amazingly professional performances and great plot), EHX's Trangression (an amazing freesports show), Dancing Brick's 21:13 (amazing beautiful piece!!!), Poison Whiskey Theatre's Who's Afraid of Howlin' Wolf (sexy, interesting and with some great lines, loved it), The Boom Jennie's Shindig (some sketches were funny. I'm really hard to please with comedy though. This means most people would probably love it), WitTank's Sexy Pudding (funnier than the Boom Jennies cos more of the stuff was relevant to my life) and Drumcat's Dream of Cats (six amazingly beautiful Korean women who can dance and drum amazingly well at the same time. Very intense performance and insanely cool).

Finally, I went to see Little Shop of Horrors for the first time ever. I thought it was very good but incredibly odd. They did the plant by having clothes yanked off the victims and they joined the first plant-man in green skin tight suits. Incredibly odd.

Yesterday it was my day off and it rained. It rained, and rained, and rained and so, I didn't get to sightsee Edinburgh at all. It's still raining today, I think it may rain forever. :(

Posted by Mei ( 4:29 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 05, 2008

Bad bad bad day

Yesterday was possibly the worst day I've had here so far. I was working on the Box Office in C Main and it was just too busy. Why are our shows so popular! :P

Soooooooo, today I requested to be Front of House which means I just check people's tickets as they come in. Much more stress-free.

Posted by Mei ( 1:04 PM )
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