Writing Exercise 23/10/12

At the writing workshop we went through a whole process of writing and re-writing to come up with a final piece, it was a great experience.

Peter asked us to write about a performance that we had seen,

• Firstly we had to brain storm some ideas.
• Then we had to find themes amongst our brainstorming and generate a piece of free writing, this involved just putting pen to paper. no hesitations and no stopping!!! 
• Then we had to read it back and have another go at free writing...
• Only then did we put pen to paper with the intention of someone else reading it as a final draft.

My work changed dramatically over this process. I have to say that the final piece is so much better than my first draft.

I will share with you my first and last draft so you can see the difference the process made and hopefully get some feedback from peter himself, the first draft was meant to be for my eyes only but I'd like to be able to share with you just how much difference the process made :)

1st Draft....

Starting with the positives as i have picked a kids production, the performance certainly had the argh factor, the children certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves and at times the visuals were great. on the other hand from the audiences point of view although we all know the plot it was at times hard to follow and to be honest just a tad dated. the story is so overdone and could have benefited from a lot more preparation and attention to detail. The volume issues were typical of any school play but could of easily been addressed.The whole performance was far to long and there was a definite show of conflict which only comes from to many directorial influences. the spacing made it hard to follow. i suggest that next time they pay more attention to the children's strengths and use a bit of innovation.

Final draft...

After yet another evening spent watching a group of primary school children's rendition of Oliver, I have to say...Is it not time that the school play as we all know and love it is dragged kicking and screaming into the modern day. Over the last ten years the importance of the arts in education has most certainly been acknowledged, so why are we not yet doing more to impliment it and reap the benifits that it can provide. With just a little more thought, time and innovation we could certainly make a huge difference to the children's experience and learning. In turn also relieve that element of 'Oh no not again!' that goes hand in hand with the obligatory tear in every parents eye.