SF11 guest blog number 9. Kenneth Watt

Hello! (Or should I say "Huzzah!" - an in-show joke),

I'm Kenneth and I play a rather manic and enthusiastic Duke of Edinburgh leader in the three week devised show, "Zombiism", which the 20-strong cast has written and put together over the past week and a bit.

Today has been very productive and stressful - but as Tom and Andrew, our directors, remind us, pain, spit and sweat are our friends - so a lot has been achieved in preperation for our first full run which will start in around twenty minute's time!

The show will involve the audience as Duke of Edinburgh award participants who will be taken through various rooms and settings in the SYT building. Without revealing too much about the storyline, anyone seeing it will experience promenade theatre as never seen before as well as a very unique set - one exciting part is that the audience will be housed in sleeping bags/on logs/camping stools in the camping scene.

So, if you want to be part of an "unforgettable experience," get your tickets for Zombiism now!

Oh yeh - if I was to be played by someone in a movie about me, I'd go for Craig Roberts. He's Welsh, which gives a crackin' accent, and he plays the protaganist in the film of the book "Submarine" which portrays a nerdy, weird teenager: me!

SF11 guest blog no. 9 - Jamie Morrison

Well, I'm Jamie, I'm playing Tom in 'Born Bad?' Tom is the older brother of Grace and as the show progresses you see him gradually break away from the rest of his family.

This is my third Summer Festival and I'm really enjoying it, this year I'm working with Fraser which is a first and I'm liking the change and it's been a great four weeks. I've met loads of new people this year which has been brilliant and of course I've got to see everyone from years before who I haven't seen in ages.

Today we have been doing our Technical Rehearsal, which has been, very, very tiring. We started teching at about three and so far we've made it to the third scene! It's great to be on the stage with all the set out and in our costumes and with the completed sound track.
Hmm, who would play me in a movie of my life? Well, I don't think that would be a very interesting movie, but I'm told that currently I look like Draco Malfoy or Christopher Eccleston which would be quite funny to see.
Well, I'd better go and get into costume and onstage before it's too late, I don't really want to anger Kenny or Fraser or Jayne!
I'll see you at the showings of 'Born Bad?' in the Brian Cox Studio Theatre!

SF 11 Guest blog no.8 - Nicola Currie

Hi, I'm Nicola Currie and I am one of the wardrobe assistants on Summer Festival.

So, we're halfway through week 4 and here in the Wardrobe Department, we've finished sourcing, making and altering most of the costumes for the casts for all 3 shows. Although I have been working primarily on Prom Night, here in Wardrobe we muck in and help out on all of the shows when we can. For this year's shows, the majority of costumes to make were for Prom Night so it's been like a 50s B movie in our wee room for the last few weeks!

Because we have now started to place all the costumes in the changing rooms ready for the dress rehearsals and techs, we are at a great stage where we can source all the nice parts of dressing that makes costumes come together, for example shoes, bangles, earrings, gloves, glasses, caps, etc.

With what feels like hundreds of young people to dress, where possible we "make do and mend". Yesterday, we spent the morning painting PVA glue on four pairs of £6 VERY high heel shoes and covering them with bright blue glitter, they now look a million dollars! I wonder whose costume they could be......!!!!

The person I would like to play me in the movie of my life would be Lorraine Kelly.

Right, we're off to pick up some last minute items in the sales, see you for opening night!

Nic xxx

SF11 guest blog no 7. Nathan Byrne

Hello! I'm Nathan Byrne; I'm 19 3/4 years old, I like to eat cereal for dinner and I'm the trainee director on Prom Night. We started this scorching day with a run of act one, then used the afternoon to polish the second act before running this newly-polished act two in the evening. Everything is coming together nicely and the show is really starting to take shape. The cast are all putting in a lot of hard work and I feel very lucky to be working with people who are so dedicated.

It took me a long while to think about who would play me in a film. After hours of dedicated consideration, I believe that there is only one actor who could potray the internal struggles of a man who eats cereal for dinner. Denzel Washington.

SF11 guest blog number 6. Ruth Brandon

Awrite lads, Ruth here or, if you prefer, Karma the vampire from Prom Night of the Living Dead.
Rehearsals are going pretty well, I'm loving seeing everything come together with the 3 week company too (feel kinda sorry for you lot having to learn everything so fast, but I'm impressed!) It's so peculiar being in a heavy cheesey musical and not playing a cheesey character... let's be honest, vampires and cheese don't go, especially if it's garlic cheese! Sorry- clearly Nathan's terrible jokes are having an effect on me.

I've literally just been fitted for my costume and it's pretty braw, very black and very batlike. Fin decided that should wear flat shoes, so after spending the last few weeks rehearsing in 5 inch heels I don't know whether to be relieved or gutted! The whole cast seems really excited about their costumes too, set's being built next week and I can't believe it's less than 2 weeks until opening night! Adrenaline overload aaahhh!

Who would play me in a film of my life? Tough question man, um apparently the chick that played Effy from Skins resembles me when I was about 15, so maybe she could play young me? Is it okay to invite Audrey Hepburn back from the dead to film it? We both have unplaceble accents you see... Fair enough, she's much more beautiful than wee me, but I can dream eh?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have carrots and humous waiting to be eaten... Catch ye! x

SF11 guest blog number 5. Rosy Duncan

Hey, it's Rosy (young Ella) from Born Bad.
I think today might literally have been the best day ever.

Instead of our usual amazing warm up with Jayne, i pretty much slept in and came down to syt for Fiona Danter's "1oth birthday party". Amazing. Not gonna lie, I won musical bumps and pass the parcel. After lunch, Tabitha(Grace) and I skipped rehearsals and went down to the park with musical Ross and ran about for a bit and let him film us for parts of our show whilst everyone else was stuck with Fraser watching a movie which was quite exciting. Also, I'm currently drying my hair after letting Kenny Miller dye it red so compared to our usual rehearsals, today's been pretty sound.

Genuinely, I've been thinking about this for about a week now but if someone had to play me in the movie about my life, it would have to be Cinderella that plays me. I know she's a cartoon character but she's seriously the only person I can think of thats perfect.. or maybe Lunaaaa Lovegood from haz pots. no idea.
Bye leds. x

SF11 guest blog number 4. Garry Carr

Hi everyone!! I'm Garry, I am a technical participant. I have been working on Born Bad?. We have been doing a lot of work in technical course. We have been working on the Born Bad set along with Mike and Nelly who is bulding and painting the set. I have been watching the Born Bad which looks amazing and I can’t wait till the rest of the set and the lighting is all put together which will look fantastic. We have also been going to places to collect various props from other theatres that have kindly given us props to borrow, One of the theatres is as far as Stirling called the Macrobert (pictures) which is near my home town and was able to put my name forward to my local theatre for further experience in my career so, yeah my experience in the Scottish Youth Theatre has been great so far and can’t wait for the final production week where it will all be brought together.

SF 11 Week 2 ... is over! Already?!

Hi everyone, hope you're enjoying your Saturday night off from rehearsals.

Week 2 is now at a close; so that's two weeks down for Performance & Production and Technical participants, and the end of week 1 for the Glasgow Foundation Course.

Things are getting exciting as the Glasgow Foundation Course prepare for their performance at Lansdowne Church on Saturday 23 July and the casts and crews of both Born Bad? and Prom Night are starting to run shows through, start to finish.

I was lucky enough to see Prom Night Act One on Wednesday and scenes from Born Bad? on Friday. The musical numbers in Prom Night are big, bold and fun, with the script flipping between downright funny to really poignant. If you haven't already, check out the pictures here. One minute, full-on musical numbers with catchy lyrics and even catchier beats (thanks to Ross Brown) have everyone smiling and ready to dance. The next, high school students are morphing into terrifying creatures with even more terrifying accents to match. Mary came back from London last year and said she'd seen this amazing play that she'd like to include in the festival: "It's kind of like Grease meets Night Of The Living Dead. Oh and there's werewolves, witches and monsters in it too". At the time, hard to imagine! Now that it has arrived in Glasgow ... well, let's just say it was a very good choice indeed.

And then there's Born Bad?, a play that couldn't be more different from Prom Night - but let me tell you, it's just as compelling. The subject matter is serious and so the script reflects this; I watched director Fraser MacLeod run through a very intense scene with Calum Johnston and Jamie Morrison in the Gold Room. Even just watching in the rehearsal room you feel very involved. Within a very short time of being in the Brian Cox Studio, with the full cast, I was completely gripped too (and forgot the reason I was there was to take photos!). I also had goose bumps all over my arms when the cast started making these eerie, whispery sound effects. I won't spoil too much, but there's some pretty cool sound scaping going on in this show.

Do you have your tickets yet? Why not?! Book online with our friends at Tron Theatre.

Below are some images from Born Bad? rehearsals and the Glasgow Foundation course. For Prom Night rehearsals at Limelight Studios, check out our Flickr page.

Of course, I'm biased but it really looks to me like The Summer of Horror has something for everyone: an all singing, all dancing rock musical with heart; a serious, gripping, moving and challenging play about nature versus nurture and then a devised piece about Zombies - which could go in any direction at all! Why are you still reading?? The Tron Box Office is this way!

Emma Dunipace,

SYT Senior Marketing Officer

Glasgow Foundation Course.

SF11 guest blog no.3 Emma-Jane Granger

Ok so hi, I'm Emma-Jane and, like Calum, I'm part of the cast of 'Born Bad?'. I play 'girl one' who I've renamed Daisy (Princess Banana Hamock) and I'm also part of the chorus who kind of tell Ella's (the murderer) story.

Today we blocked the second half of the show and now we've pretty much finished the outline of the play and all we need to do now is go back and tighten up some of the scenes so they will flow together. For me the best bit is seeing it all come together, our musical director (Ross Ramsay!) is awesome and has put together a chilling soundtrack which gives me shivers every time I hear it.

I can't wait to get the costumes, especially for the wee girls cause we have to be dressed up to look like our mums with over sized heals and huge dollies, but I have grown attached to the one I have now called Bridget so I'll be sad to see her go, le sob :(

Anyway I better go I can hear Fraser's cheery call of 'Lets do it again, this time with talent!'

careful though cause........ ELLA'S GONNA GET YOU!

SF11 guest blog no.2 Calum Johnston

OK i dont really know how to start this, but i guess by saying that i already have. So yeah, im Calum, im in the show "Born Bad?". I am Billy who is "the wee brother of the Girl who killed" The whole show is about the affect of a killing on each side of the event, the victim's family as well as the Murderers family. Its a very dark play that deals with very deep issues and one where the audiences reaction to it wont be unanimous.

The best part of 5 week so far is slowly seeing the set and music being made. Its all going really well and the music especially gives what we have done alot more energy and makes you feel as if you are in the scene not just performing it. The movement pieces have been alot of fun to do and it gives the show a really energetic start and makes the show start with a bang.

Im really looking forward to when the set an costumes are all done and we can actually have a feel for the space and we can really get into charater. Everyone is putting there full potential into the show so, i feel, its going to be really good. we have already blocked half the show and progressing fast, only a few more chorus things to do and then we are done and can fix small details. Fraser has done really well with what he is doing and with is constant phrase "less is more" he has made the show very stylised and what we have done looks great.

This is a really strange question... Um i dunno who would play me in a film? I've been told that i look like many people; Aaron Johnson is prob a good bet but i look like him so i would play him coz he is older :/ Sid from skins looks like what i used to look like, but again, he is older. But i guess if age is no object Ian McKellen or David Tennent would be my dream actors, maybe they could do a whole Dr who or james bond thing where they change ever so often... I dunno. anyhow i better go or Fraser will kill me :L Bye xx

SF11 guest blog no 1. Ethan Greig

I am in Prom Night of the Living Dead and play Shape one of the evil witch Morgan's henchman.
Today we spend the best part of the day running through act one in its entirety and blocking the first scene of act two, after we had done our daily physical and vocal warm ups.

My favorite part of the course this far is definitely the character development as it really does help you connect with the role you will be playing in the show. I am looking forward to being able to perform in front of the audience and also seeing everyone truely become their characters.

I think that I would like James Franco to play me in a film of my life because he is a really good actor and people have said in the past that I look slightly like him.

SF11 Official Launch Party - scary clip

SF11 - Week 2

sneak peek at the big underground posters artwork!

Summer Festival 2011 - end of week one

Hi there! Week one is now officially over and what a week it was. As well as rehearsals there was a packed week of evening workshops in games, dance, video-making, stage-make-up (below) plus performances from The Lab (first event sharing from them) and Zombiism director Tom Hobbins (he performed GROW, previously reviewed here by The Herald).

As for me, this was my first taste of Summer Festival at Scottish Youth Theatre, and now, at last I can see what all the fuss is about. Roll on the next bits!

Iain Findlay-Walsh
Marketing
Scottish Youth Theatre