Roundabout Reviews and The Funny Award!

color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;
padding:0cm">11-14 age group - 16 attending

color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;
padding:0cm">15-18 age group - 14 attending

color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;
padding:0cm">We began this week's workshops, in both groups, by thinking back to the Paines Plough show we saw at Roundabout, Dexter and Winter's Detective Agency. The young writers all had a brilliant memory for the plot, remembering all its twists and turns and red herrings, with the older group managing to come up with all 18 characters (played by just three actors!) The older group were also treated to a brilliant mime/interpretive dance version of the plot from Lillia (who
was saving her voice for an audition!) as Esther gave us a great synopsis!

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color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;
padding:0cm">After recapping the main points of the plot and staging, and discussing what we enjoyed (and anything we thought could have been better!) as a group, the young writers then wrote their reviews of the play. The younger group had a 'Show Review' template to work from (with answers to fill out for what they liked, what they didnt like, what inspired them for their own writing, and what they learnt at the workshop) while the older group were given a review of the play from The Stage as inspiration and wrote their own journalistic review about the play and workshop, and their opinions on its best bits and shortcomings.

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Things the young writers especially liked about the show included color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;
padding:0cm"> the impressive doubling up of character roles, the funny accents, the costumes (especially the unicorn onesies!),
the twists and turns of the mystery plot, the movement and dancing – however,
some were less keen on the doubling up of characters and would have preferred a
larger cast, some found it cheesy, and others didn’t like the audience interaction and
participation. Overall though, most of us were seriously impressed, with
Lilly’s only criticism being that she would have liked the story to go on longer!

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mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;padding:0cm;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">After the half-time break,
we then moved on to looking at comedy writing, as we had some special guests attending the workshop this week, to introduce an upcoming 'Funny Award' for young writers. We read through an extract from
Louise Rennison’s ‘Confessions of Georgia Nicholson’ series and discussed what
made it funny – the relatable content, the embarrassment and awkwardness
(dressing up as a stuffed olive – although this might not sound that relatable,
a surprising number of the younger group had similar stories, including
dressing as a pumpkin and a chicken!) and the very dramatic, but super authentic voice of Georgia Nicholson telling the story, which many teenage girls in the groups could identify with! We then had a go
at writing our own diary entries based on similar awkward/annoying moments, in
the style of Georgia Nicholson.

mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;padding:0cm;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">We then handed over to our guests - Louise Rennison's sister, Sophie Severs, and her daughter Libby, and the stand-up comedian, Horatio Gould, who told us more about the 'Funny Award' and were eager to find out how to make it appealing to the young writers. We discussed what sorts of comedy
the young writers are interested in reading, watching and creating, what sorts of prizes they would be interested in winning, and what might help them to prepare for the award. mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#2B2B2B;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;
mso-border-alt:none windowtext 0cm;padding:0cm;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> Lively
discussion about comedy ensued and many of our young writers in both groups are
very keen to get involved in the Award when it opens in the summer – we will
definitely be revisiting comedy writing soon (perhaps some will even creep into
our spooky Halloween workshops next time!) We cant wait to see
what the young writers come up with next!

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Roundabout Reviews and The Funny Award!