Into The New….

So recently us wee ones documented Into The New: performances at The Arches devised by CPP4. I was in Crew 1 with Amelie, Lucy and Julia and I think we did a great job in perfecting speedy transitions between performances and setting up/packing up!

The performances were bizarre, for my understanding of theatre anyway (and my comfort zone) but it's let me practise the best poker face in the land. That said – I really really enjoyed two performances, especially Sarah Hopfinger's. Her piece really spoke out to the audience and it made us laugh a lot which is what is worth paying for, in my opinion. She drew on her life experiences, rather than relying on shocking people by being naked as the day you were born and I respected her for it.

It was hard to know what to do sometimes, artistically, with the frame because we had to go with whatever was being done without any warning – there was no way we could say 'cut' and get a better shot! Improvisation played a large part in documenting their shows and it was good to get a feel for spontaneity with the kit, if that makes sense. (Good to kept on our toes because it meant we were constantly alert and able to sort problems with speed.)

On the other hand....there was no need for the staff to rush us unnecessarily and demanding that we cut our preparation short, even though we had turned up perfectly ahead of schedule. More importantly, how do you expect us to do our job if someone is insisting that we miss out vital preparation steps, like backfocus?!

Nevertheless we all got a good shot on the kit and it helped make the process become more natural and it showed me that, even under stress and odd timetabling, I and we can deal with it and still make the best of it!