The Blog for Penryn (UK) -based Kernow Youth Society for the Performing Arts. Our society is open to young people aged 9 upwards from the Falmouth and Penryn area. Our aim is to allow members to explore their interest in the performing arts through drama and film activities. KYSPA has a strong citizenship theme with activities aiming to promote self confidence, teamwork and communication skills.

Wednesday 28 November 2007

New Blog Feature!

Just to keep you lot entertained and informed, I have added a "useful links" feature to our Blog. You will find it at the foot of the page just above the pic of us all on the Lindridge visit.

Film Street is mainly for 6 - 9 year olds - ideal if you have younger brothers or sisters interested in film making. It's just possible that some of you who are a bit older might enjoy it too.

Chew TV is a sort of youtube for Cornish young people. I hope to submit a few of our films quite soon.

Talented Young People is an amazing website that aims to help you achieve whatever career you are interested in. It's never to soon to start getting experience. This website offers career tips on just about everything and a HUGE contact database for organisations. Really Useful Website, that!

Tuesday 27 November 2007

Tuesday 27th November

This evening we will need ONLY the principles, the Princesses, Cruella and Long John. That is, Snow, Mirror, Dyllan, PP, Watt, Wen, Queenie, Ariel, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Craven & Ghoul.

We will be working on "There's Always Me" and "The Establishment Song" including experimenting with the use of backing singers to support the soloists.

The Children need not attend this evening - we will hold a rehearsal for just the 7 children for the first hour next week.

Why does KYSPA charge a membership fee?

As a charitable organisation, KYSPA is committed to being affordable for its members. Our weekly fee is quite low and we charge a reduced rate for additional members from the same family.

However, there are certain annual costs that make it necessary for us to charge an annual membership fee.

The first of these is insurance.
  • We have to insure ourselves against accidents occurring to our members whilst they are in our care.
  • We insure against our members causing damage or injury to other people or property
  • We insure our leaders against injury and litigation
  • We have a basic level of injury insurance for both leaders and members

The next set of expenses relate to training. Any organisation has to take "reasonable care" as far as risk assessment is concerned to protect its staff and members. This includes maintaining a certain level of skills for our leaders such as:

  • First Aid (a legal requirement)
  • Minibus Driver Training (for trips and residential visits)
  • Child Protection
  • Health and safety

Finally, we have running costs to cover such as:

  • CRB Checks for our leaders
  • Consumables such as paper, printer cartiridges, pens, costumes etc.
  • YHA Membership for residentials

Beyond these expenses we also try to build a slight pool of money to subsidise the cost of trips and activities, again to keep KYSPA as affordable as possible. Although the "minibus incident" was a blow to our finances, we had built a reserve to cover the cost. (In future, by the by, minibus will be hired WITHOUT an insurance excess!)

In the coming year we will be looking to develop our main website and this, too, will require money.

Overall, KYSPA does offer a great deal for the lowest possible annual fee. As stated on the membership information sheet, if we can generate more money through successful stage productions and events, we may in future be able to reduce the membership fee to a nominal ammount. However, the Trustees do feel that a degree of financial support and commitment by our members is not unreasonable, given the ammount of free time that is generously given by all involved to keep ther Society going.

Kyspa's "year" for which the membership fee covers our members runs in sync with our insurance premium falling due, rather than the financial or calendar year. Therefore fees paid this month will cover members until November 2008.

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Tuesday 20th November

Split rehearsals tonight please! Dress warmly!

6.30pm - 8.30pm Queenie, Snow, Mirror, Dyllan, Watt, Wen, Peasemold (Sam & Estelle too please)

7.30pm - 8.30pm OMF, 7 Children, Cinderella & Princesses

Any new people will have to read in/take standby parts and help manage props etc.

Hopefully I'll have got photocopies of the script by tonight. Queenie now has two henchpeople of her own (Sam & Estelle) called Craven & Ghoul! They're VERY nasty, evil witch type characters who put nasty ideas into Queenie's head!

I have beefed up the Princesses parts a bit too. See you all tonight

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Successful Auditions

Thank you to everyone who auditioned successfully last night. I will do some script editing this week to increase the size of some of your parts in line with the very high standard of acting displayed by everyone.

From here on in, KYSPA sessions will be split into two rehearsal segments of an hour each. We will rehearse scenes in chunks (eg. 7 children scenes, Snow & Dyllan Scenes, Mirror and Queenie etc.)

I need to stress again that just because you are not actually on stage at a given point during the session does not mean that you can misbehave. If not acting you need to be quietly reading through lines or, better still, watching your fellow performers and offering feedback.

KYSPA is about aquiring skills and confidence. A key aspect of this is learning to sit back and watch other performers. See from the audience's perspective what works and what does not. It's not just about acting; you have the opportunity to develop your directing and feedback skills. These in turn help you improve your own performance.

Sitting and watching others is not boring and it is not a waste of time. For one thing, there is always something to learn from watching other people act. everyone's style is different, each character interpretation offers something new.

Secondly, you can contribute to making this show as professional as possible. Panto may be fun, but good comedy is the most demanding type of drama, requiring good timing and intuitive interaction between characters. If you can perform good comedy, you can perform just about anything. This can only be achieved if we work together and pick up on good things (to keep in our performances) and identify things to put right.

I need everyone to pull together now. We have a strong cast. Don't let yourselves down by missing a great opportunity! I want my group back on track, with a clear focus on establishing ourselves as credible performers.

PS. PLEASE do not meddle with the Imac's settings! Our incredibly expensive PC is not a toy, but an editing tool. Respect it or you'll be staying home on Tuesday nights.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Tuesday 6th November

KYSPA as usual this evening... except it's not as usual! We advertised for Snow White auditions so I'm expecting a few new faces tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to put the core cast together and start learning (or re-learning) lines.

I expect better behaviour from some of you this week please. Think about other people's feelings and respect them. Also, KYSPA is NOT the place for charging around & mucking about. Sorry, but you need a different youth group for that. We're moving towards establishing a good reputation for producing serious drama and films.... and children's entertainment.... and pantomime.

The point is, we need to get these shows done. If some of you remember your panto lines from last year I see no reason why we can't move towards performance immediately after Christmas.

See you all there. Rich.