South Africa Update

Members of the Northern Stage team have been in South Africa taking part in an exciting project. Like last year's South Africa trip, we're keeping up with goings on through a series of blog posts. Erica updates us on her experiences this year:

"We've all found it quite hard to write about our experiences here because it has been pretty intense and very absorbing. So you might need to wait until we're home before we manage to write the whole story. However, here's a little flavour of what we've been up to.

We started our workshops last Tuesday and met the group for the first time. There are several actors, a couple of writer/directors, two hip hop specialists, four choreographers and a singer/actor, so quite an amazing set of skills around the room. We started by asking everyone what they do and what their key strengths and weaknesses are. I was struck by how boldly they all spoke about what they do, happy to say "I am really good at..."; a wonderful self-belief that would be unfamiliar at home. And yet underneath that we have discovered a lack of confidence in quite a different way - a lack of belief maybe that their work will be taken seriously.

We played some games together and spent some time setting ground rules - most importantly that we are here to learn from each other and share skills and techniques - which seemed to go down quite well. We were all nervous; it's quite something to come all the way across the world and try to communicate what you do, and it's no small thing to to open up to complete strangers in your second or in some cases third language!

Naomi led a very powerful writing exercise, getting us to complete simple statements such as I believe, I hope, the world is...etc. Then we asked everyone to perform each others. I think we saw more straightforwardly heartfelt acting in the afternoon than most of us ever see! It was rather amazing and a great way to get to know each other. Mark introduced a game with tennis balls and names which was to prove quite a challenge throughout the fortnight, not helped by the fact that I really can't catch... In the afternoon we introuduced some Shakespeare, which was very new to most of the group. Immediately we saw some real results - people really throwing themselves in. We were surprised that, just like at home, most people's first instinct is to impersonate an Elizabethan actor - but once we got ourselves rooted in 2009 South Africa the words really took off. It was a great first day.

Too much to say. I have to go now because today is our last day and we have to finish making our showcase, but more soon about the rest of the process."