Working Holiday Part 3 : Changing Roles

My foot: looking worse,
feeling better

Today's session at school began and ended with improvising and plotting out scenes.  The group all took on roles in the story and have developed their characters throughout the day.  We've seen a real growth in confidence and performance!  This is very pleasing, as is the lack of any further growth of my swollen foot, which seems to have stabilised and has been much more walkable-on today.  So, no wheelchair required after all.  For the middle section of our day, we split the group; some opting to work on music with Rich and the others developing story with me.  We've asked them to bring in costumes tomorrow. I think that dressing up is going to help the group feel more at home with their characters, and to make their performances bigger and better.




After the session I joined my family, who had
made their way to the Victorian Village at Blists Hill.  What an amazing place!  They had already walked the green way, changed their holiday money for old money, tried candle dipping and stilt walking, taken a horse and cart ride, and visited the confectioners.  All before I got there!  It's a huge site, and with all it's period buildings, many of which have been transplanted there brick by brick, is reminiscent of the Avoncroft building museum in Bromsgrove.  The difference is that Blists Hill's buildings are peopled by a great number of role-playing Victorian staff who, along with many working exhibits and rides, really bring the place to life.  We got back and sorted some accommodation for Thursday, ate a very good bean chilli at the YHA cafe and visited the Shakespeare Inn so that the boys could go crazy in the play park that they have in their beer garden.




Experimental observations today:  I notice a that it takes a good couple of hours to switch from work to holiday mode.  BecauseI work in a way that is very flexible and reacts to the needs of participants, I am used to spending time after a session reflecting on what has happened within it, and devising approaches for the next one.  I'm reluctant to rush on to the next thing in case I might miss something about the thing I've just done.  All the same, I can't envy Rich all that reflection time he gets during his long drive home.


Links:
Avoncroft: Museum of Historic Buildings
Blists Hill_Victorian Town