13 August 2016

EIF 2016 - Shake, a Shakespearean Twelfth Night Remake

On the menu today, a matinee performance of Shake, a retelling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The performance was in French, with English super-titles, and the jury found the exercise somewhat exhausting to watch. Director Dan Jemmett also sat down with us after the show at the Lyceum bar to chat a bit about the production. We agreed that the plot as complicated but intriguing once you sink your teeth into the action, and that the actor playing Malvolio and Duke Orsino was amazing (it was the same guy in two parts! We were stunned when we realised).






More of our dope squad: (left to right) Rebecca, Louisaurus, Emma, Jamesasurus, Jordandactyl.

RAWR.

"this will bite you"



To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

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11 August 2016

EIF 2016 - Flit

Tonight's performance: Flit. 

First photographic appearance of our dinosaur masks (to go with the Juryassic Park theme), plus the jury got stopped exiting the venue for a few official interviews. Exciting!


Revealing their identities: (left to right) Daisy, Louis, James, Jordan
Just a fraction of our dope squad: (left to right) Nicole, Daisy Rex, Cerys, James, Cameron, Louisaurus, Jordandactyl.

We've stopped using our hands, these tooters is how we applaud at the shows! POOOOOOOOOT.
After evaluating the show, we got stopped by some pap.
So we schooled them.

To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

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10 August 2016

EIF 2016 - The Glass Menagerie


Today's show is the American theatre classic The Glass Menagerie. There was a bit of a mishap walking from our meeting place at The Hub down to King's Theatre, but most of us slid in right as the house lights dimmed. The rest had to watch from the upper circle until the interval, when they could join the rest of us in the stalls.

We took to a surprisingly raucous uproar when someone in the audience whispered loudly "You know who she reminds me of? My mother." as Amanda Wingfield exited a very dramatic scene. Our entire surrounding section burst into giggles until someone whispered for us to "shut up"!


A lot of strong opinions were heard from everyone as we made our way down to the front for the post-show talk with the director. You may know John Tiffany from his slightly more famous production of the new Harry Potter play in London. He talked to us about his decision to abandon medicine to study theatre, and about some of the unusual use of settings and props for this show. Laura, for example, enters and leaves the stage through a sofa.

(Yes, a sofa.)






The jury agreed that the show was pretty bleak. There were a lot of feelings about the aborted romance between Jim and Laura, which had probably frustrated audiences since the play premiered in 1944. The more things change, etc.




To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

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EIF 2016 - First show at The Lyceum: The Destroyed Room

Tonight was our official first show as the jury of the EIF! After a brief meeting at The Hub,we walked down to the 8pm showing of The Destroyed Room at The Lyceum.



Before the show began! We enjoyed the posh theatre decor

 We were invited upstairs after the performance to meet Matthew and Sarah, the director and assistant director of the show. We had a few questions for them, especially about the scripted vs. improvised staging of the show.

 From the festival website -
"The Destroyed Room is about the profusion of lenses that bring the world and the pain of others right into our rooms, but also keep them at a distance. It’s about what we see and what we turn away from. And what’s coming."
Reflections about the show from Nicole, one of our jurors -
"If you want to see a show that makes you think and gain opinions about controversial issues, The Destroyed Room is the show for you. At first it began with an easy almost funny question which slowly developed into deeper conversation.

All though our group came to the conclusion that it was scripted to some extent however, none of us could tell the exact point in which it started.

The show made me think and develop my own opinions that I have about issues surrounding terrorists and the refugee crisis, it showed just how away from it we all are but highlighted how involved we all are through the media.  

It made me ask myself questions about how moral it is to watch videos of people suffering and if people should decide to not see the things they do in the media...such as beheading videos or pictures of refugees on the boats.

The only emotion that I can say I had fully by the end was helplessness. These are big issues that are happening in the world and there we all were in the theatre just watching like it was a film."

Post-show thoughts from Emma: 
"Destroyed Room was a gripping production that often made me want to join in the conversation. I spent most of the time either wanting to interject my opinion or intervene and stop the on-stage conflicts. Overall, I didn’t enjoy the show too much as I felt the conversation was sometimes a bit forced and obviously scripted; however, I did like the rather ambiguous ending which was reminiscent of a sci-fi film. It was left up to the audience to decide what the man in the white hazmat suit was doing and what his purpose was."

Matthew Lenton and Sarah Short. We asked Matthew if the actors were given "characters" to improvise from. The answer is ambiguous...
Everyone listening
Everything is ambiguous
More listening
To the left is Barnaby Power, one of the actors. Beside him is Eva, our artistic director trying to get a good shot in.
Popups make it all official, as we know

To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

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09 August 2016

EIF 2016 - Barry Humphries' Weimar Cabaret


Tonight's show was Barry Humphries' Weimar Cabaret! A man whom the locals know as the famous comedian behind Dame Edna, and whom the Canadians know as "...hmm?". A big thanks to everyone who had to explain it to us. And a thank you for the fabulous Meow Meow, who came to meet us backstage after the show, still in full performance get-up. Wild.



You can't see them, but Cameron's holding special #edintfest branded M&Ms. We were all pretty impressed.


Post-show meet with Meow Meow

Getting papped by all the cameras.

So many cameras.

A video posted by EIF Young People's Jury (@juryassicpark) on

To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

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08 August 2016

EIF 2016 - monumental with The Holy Body Tattoo and Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Tonight we attended our fourth performance at the Edinburgh Playhouse: monumental (lowercase intentional) performed by the dance company The Holy Body Tattoo, accompanied live by the art-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Quite a shift from yesterday's orchestra performance.

Hazel, one of our coordinators, waiting for the jury to arrive to snap photos

Hello!

Looking good

Filling out the evaluation forms after that intense performance

Still thinking about it

After the performance, we were invited onto the empty stage to speak with Dana Gingras, the show's choreographer. We asked her what inspired her to became a choreographer, and afterwards she briefly explained how the show was conceived. The text projected in the show was from Jenny Holzer's art exhibit, circa 1989, called Selections From the Living.

The rehearsal director also took some questions, and we learned that a decade ago, the dancers for the first ever performance of this show had to learn the entire choreography in three weeks. And to capture the tense energy of the piece, they began their training right away on tiny pedestals seen below (giving the dancers aprox 2'x2' of space to dance on). Rebecca and Nicole had fun climbing onto them to see what it's like. We concluded that they were definitely tough to dance on.




To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

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05 August 2016

EIF 2016 Opening of the Festival and Press Conference at Scottish Parliament

The 2016 International Festival kicks off today! This morning 5 of our Juryassic Park-ers visited the Scottish Parliament for a press conference announcing us as the festival's official jury. 

Just to remind us that this is, in fact, Edinburgh, the weather started drizzling halfway through. Seasoned "models" as they are, we pressed on despite the rain. 



The hood-up, hands-in-pockets, get-me-out-of-the-rain aesthetic
The happy, I'm-under-an-umbrella smiles
Looking good!
 
We just got our statuettes for the photos

Listening carefully to the art direction by media photogs

 The yellow wellies and statuettes were provided by the EIF. You will see later on that they came into good use.


JUST WALK STRAIGHT INTO THE WATER, ALRIGHT?

MSP Christine Grahame joining in

 Here, Cameron takes a few pictures with MSP Christine Grahame, who visited us during the press conference. She tried to take a statuette from the bunch on the platform in the middle of the pool! If anyone walking by Parliament wants to try the same thing, we can tell you now that they are affixed firmly onto the platform. She did wind up with one from a box though... But for now the only one to get one of these will be at our closing ceremony on August 27th, where specially decorated statuettes will be handed out to every show that we see.
At this point there were about five or six media photogs snapping away and shouting conflicting instructions. "Hands up! Hands down! Look here. No wait, look there! Show your lanyards! Or don't show 'em!"

#glamshot
"I'll have to keep the wellies on now, or else it'd look like I peed myself." - Nicole, 18yrs old.

To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out more at our Instagram @JuryassicPark.

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04 August 2016

EIF 2016 - Making the Awards & Touring the Deep Time Installation


We've shaken up the Children's Choice Awards, appropriately renaming it the International Festival Young People's Awards, as we're working with a group of twenty teens from five Edinburgh schools. These local youth have been appointed the official Festival Jury, and will come up with their own criteria for judging all the work at the festival. After a month of theatre, opera, music, dance and more, the winning shows will be revealed during our (FREE!) awards ceremony on August 27th.

Today we held a creative workshop at Castlebrae Community High School where the teens hand-made the awards that will be presented later this month.





 

After the workshop, we were invited to Castle Rock to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the lighting and music installation for the Festival's opening event, Deep Time, an epic outdoor light show that will be projected on the sides of Castle Rock and Edinburgh Castle. It took a team of ten animators and extremely powerful computers to create, and the final show requires 42 projectors in total to execute. We were greeted by the director and producer from the production company, who also gave us a brief tour of their setup.





Here they are - Leo and Richard, the director and the producer from 59 Productions. We asked them to film a premature acceptance speech right there on the rooftop, in case they can't make it to our awards ceremony.

Each show seen by the Jury will win an award, but which one remains to be decided!


Deep time includes audience-submitted portraits of people in Edinburgh. It's too late for regular festival-goers to submit their photo, but the Jury are VIPs, so we managed to squeeze in some last minute photos; and with a backdrop of Castle Rock itself, no less! Very self-referential.




And one last group selfie to finish the day!
To follow our adventures during the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival, check out our Instagram @JuryassicPark.




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