Cake

One of the difficulties of the Drama project is the impossibility of ever knowing who is going to turn up, of whether they have been before, of whether I will ever see them again.  Which demands a certain… flexibility.  Nonetheless, I decided I would prepare for the possibility of making some progress with the Little Red Riding Hood story by writing a section of script and stage directions for the section we have done so far.  It would also provide a measure of variety, as we have not worked from the written word as yet, so this would provide an opportunity to test that out.

As more or less expected, there were just four for a while – my two most reliable and committed members Aisha and Hamed, soon joined by Sherwan and Rabar, both of whom have been pretty regular attendees.  They were all able to cope pretty well with the written word, and I gave them the task of rehearsing the short scene between Leila and the Wolf.

Ali arrived at that point, and I knew that he would struggle, as, despite being a natural comedian and clown, his English is very poor.  But I worked with him, while the others continued on their own.  It was when we reached the stage that all were performing their pieces that there was a sudden incursion of about seven Eritreans, a couple of whom I had met before.  This was at about ten to three, so there was still time for them to be involved… provided I could come up with something.

At something of a loss, we played Zip zap boing (as much to give myself some thinking time) and then a couple of mime exercises, before allowing them to work on paired scenes involving a (mimed) rope.  Some of which were, in view of the circumstances, most effective.

And then we had coffee and cake, the latter provided by Hamed (courtesy of a local food bank), and which was a remarkable concoction, a chocolate cake iced to look like a bee hive.  Much appreciated by all (including one of the security guards.)