I’m afraid you still have to wait for information on my training week, i’m slowly putting it together!!

This weekend went in a bit of a blur…

Saturday morning was a Chelmsford ‘youth’ coffee morning. Mmm, coffee morning says it all. My favourite line i heard being ‘Ooh, hello Vera!’. So lots of old people, a few kids and one teenager. I don’t think they quite understood what was going on but they seemed to enjoy it and I found it good practice performing without feeling too nervous!! Andrew, who was in Envizage a couple of years back came along to help perform in some of the sketched so it was cool to work with him. Then it was off to Southend to begin to help setting up for the commissioning service. I left there at 2pm and met up with Mum and Dad and later Sarah and co for some fun on Southend sea front. Maddie loved the Ferris Wheel…Sarah not so sure!!!

Then back to the sports hall for the Commissioning Service which went really well. I was interviewed and have since had countless comments on how Essex i sound. Great. Afterwards me, Lewis, Tom, Aaron and Andy drove thru McDonalds and sat eating in the car park. Lewis drove me home which was a very weird experience…watch out he drives quite fast!!

Sunday, I went to Sawyers Church in Brentwood with Rachel and Andrew which I really enjoyed. We then went out for dinner, meeting up with Tim Leeson, had an all day breakfast, yum! We then went back to Tim’s house (which he shares with Rich, my current host’s son) and had a lazy afternoon talking, watching Eddie Izzard, playing Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox (war fighting game – i just watched!!) We then decided to go to the cinema for 9.30pm to see the new Will Ferrell film ‘Stepbrothers’. Quite funny, bit too crude and silly for me! got home about 11.30pm and crashed into bed!

Was mega miffed when the alarm went off this morning!! Today was back to learning lines, a play called More to Life (often referred to as MTL). We learnt Acts 1 and 2 before lunch and then Act 3 after. Act 3 took a lot longer as post lunch sleepiness set in and we kept getting the giggles and making strange noises… Then I took down all the posters and pictures on the wall opposite my desk and spent best part of half an hour trying to get all the blue and white blue tack off the wall. We left 10minutes early because we decided we’d worked hard today!

Then tonight has been fairly lazy. Stephen introduced me to the hilarity of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, funny stuff!!

Start proper rehearsals tomorrow, woo!!!

Tags: Blue Tack, Chelmsford Coffee Morning, Commissioning, Dudley Moore, Ferris Wheel, McDonalds, MTL, Peter Cook, Sawyers, Southend, Vera, Will Ferrell, Xbox

So i set my alarm for 10am, thinking i would be awake long before….I woke at 10am when my alarm went off! Dragged myself out of bed at 10.30 with a headache. Showered, dressed, had some toast, hung my washing out etc whilst practicing being a chav and rehearsing my lines!

Rachel picked me up at 12.30 and we picked up Ollie and made our way over to Southend. Arrived about 1.15, met Den there. The church building had lots of rooms and the main hall was really lovely. We set up our table of literature, both Rachel and I have slight OCD over symmetry and leaflets being straight etc. I was shocked to discover that the change in the cash tin was i any old compartment, so separated it all out into it’s proper places! Had a cuppa and prayed as people started coming in.

(Ok maybe i should explain the event…It was basically all the yuoth and childrens workers from churches in the area and the point of the meeting was to equip and resource them for youth and children’s work.)

We found a room to rehearse while Ollie was running round with cables and testing mics and powerpoints. Got changed into my chav clothes and waited in the corridor for our moment! Den was speaking and his introduction for us was very long! The performance went well, although i was convinced I said a line wrong apparently I didn’t and it was all very good, hurrah!! Den continued speaking and we slipped in at the back after changing out of costume. Then there was a Q&A session and a chat about what Viz-A-Viz does. Then there was a tea break in which our table was flooded with people wanting literature and to buy the book and DVD at special offer rate of £5 for both! Rachel manned the cash tin and i did the writing down!

Then was the workshops; there were several on puppets, music, art, God’s play, Den did a discussion session and we did a Drama workshop. We had 10adults and started off with a warm up session and then made them come up with a story from the sentence ‘Boris was driving in his car when all of a sudden on his dashboard appeared…’ Very imaginative stories involving a wasp and being arrested, and a very surreal one with lots of doors and stairs that went nowhere…hmm…

Then the groups were given a Bible story to act out in a way of their choosing, we had the Good Samaritan, football field styley, and an amusing version of the Prodigal Son! Lastly we introduced a simple sketch called ‘Life, What’s it all about?’ involving one narrator and as many people as you like acting out the sketch. Its very effective! After the workshops we all went to have dinner together, under strict instructions not to sit with anyone you knew! I had interesting conversations with people about what i was doing, youth and childrens work in their churches, holidays and Comic Sans Font…thanks to Rob the Graphic Designer!

By the time we packed up and came home it was about 8pm and now i’m just in my room writing this!!

Very excited to see Lewis’s new car tomorrow (And Lewis of course!), woo day off!!!

Tags: Comic Sans, First Gig, Good Samaritan, Life, New Car, Prodigal Son, Southend, what's it all about?, Workshop