HAPPY 2ND ANNIVERSARY TRANSMISSION

by Melli Bond

 

That's right everyone - it's been 2 years since Ursula and I co-founded Transmission. You probably haven't heard too much about my very important second string because we've cheekily been growing and developing slightly under the radar. Well with 2 years of workshops behind us it's time to start stepping into the limelight.

Transmission is a weekly workshop for professional actors which runs every Monday evening 6-10pm currently at the Rag Factory but soon we will be at the Park - yay! 

Our concept is to give skills to professional actors during their downtime and provide a platform for directors, writers and producers to come and experiment with their new work whilst engaging and challenging our actors. It's a place to meet, network, chat and basically get into the ring with some great people who aren't afraid to try something new with new theatre makers. We have just celebrated our 2nd year running this exciting programme and the great news is we are expanding and growing. So to all of you lovely theatre makers  - get yo' butts in gear - and get into the ring with us.

I hope to see you out to play soon. And hey - here's a big tip in getting in with us at the Park - when I say come out to play -  I really mean it. Will be great to meet you and experience your vibe and creativity.

3 comments

www.transmissionworkshop.com

2 years. 79 workshops...uplifting work + play with a charming collective of amazing inspiring artists...thank you for all the moments! really looking forward to the big move into the PARK!...

By Ursula Campbell | Wed 14 Nov 2012

http://www.spotlight.com/2457-1270-2489

As a Transmission Workshop irregular 'regular' (Hey, an actor's got to perform sometime, even if the gigs clash with TW nights), I'd like to endorse and supplement what Melli says. Rarely do we actors have the opportunity of not only sampling or having a taster-session of, but immersing ourselves in: working on challenging new scripts (or wacky sitcom scenarios- & dialogue-testing or plays-in-the-devising development); figuring out how to breathe new, personal life into messengers' speeches from classical Greek dramas; playing around with ways of 'playing Pinter' (-to pause or not to pause?) with one the playwright/director's close associates; demonstrating some 'bad classical acting' (with permission, indeed, encouragement) and then be masterfully guided in the art of how to avoid it; playing against customary casting type, playing age - even gender, in the 'castings' or self-castings of the workshop excercises or roles being explored and 'worked up'; and more... All of this within the space of a few weeks, as I recall. As well as acquiring new skills, insights and ideas, friends and potential collaborators, I've had the delight of experiencing in the theatre, in glorious performances, some of those monologues fellow TWers were trying to get 'a handle on' or very tricky accents they were seeking assistance with during 'solo time' sessions, and a few of the works we'd 'played with' in varying stages of their development or refinement. As the participants in the workshops always seem to have a new show casting, in rehearsal or running (with Monday evenings off), there are plenty of early 'heads up', invitations, flyers and the odd comp tickets flying about. And because of the diversity of the workshops' participants and their work, I've often been pleasantly and rewardingly prompted to get out of my comfort zone of whom to see doing what and where. Spoken word + improvised music performance of a Surrealist text in a radical bookshop, anyone? Or a searing, one-woman play about abuse experienced (or perhaps perpetrated) and triumphed over shockingly hilariously, in a poetry cafe? And then there was that challenging and exhilirating documentary theatre work which I'd have previously dismissed as a staged, peopled lecture on a subject and story I'd followed exhaustively (and somewhat exhaustingly and dispiritingly) years ago. Professionally and socially, both directly and indirectly, as a result of my participation in many of the workshops, I've been: invited to auditions; cast in a beautiful film (subsequently, by a workshop observer); made new friends and useful contacts (There's that generous-player actress I met whose natural, 'home' Cork accent I'm pretty sure she'd coach me in) - and lost any residual fear of (and gained increasing respect for) directors, writers, casting directors, actors, workshop observers and theatre audiences… I mean, once you've all sweated with the exertion, stretched yourselves even further as performers, experimenters, improvisers and devisers, and giggled and gasped in awe and wonder together in the exercises, explorations and daft warm-up and icebreaking games, there's that liberating, uplifting awareness that we're all sharing in the business and game of theatremaking. All seriously, playfully and safely - but not too safely and securely: there's a fair amount of bumping into the furniture, grasping after meaning or expression or just words, any words - or maybe a gesture?, and creative risk-taking going on in the workshops! Oh, and it helps enormously that the workshops are very reasonably priced, you can usually be able to squeeze into even the most heavily subscribed sessions, and they're fun. I'm looking forward to getting out to play at Transmission as soon as the run of my show ends!

By Frederick Roll | Wed 14 Nov 2012

http://www.spotlight.com/2457-1270-2489

re My lengthy comment above: As a writer, I do usually employ paragraphing; as a performer, I do occasionally use pauses, remember to breathe... This form appears not to recognise this. Ah, recognition! [Exits, pursued by a brace of overworked parentheses being chased by a rogue semi-colon]

By Frederick Roll | Wed 14 Nov 2012

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