Minutes of ARTISTIC GROUP meeting held on 9th January, 2007 at Paul and Barny’s Shop
Present: Pete Corser
Mark Heath
Sadeh Gayle
Beth Walker
Lynn Todd
` Karen Denny
Dave Hunt
Dan Carter
Copies of the synopsis that Pete has written were circulated to all members prior to the meeting to enable them to read it and come to the meeting with their comments.
Sadeh felt that her original idea from her storyline presented at the previous meeting had been incorporated well into the synopsis.
She felt that the synopsis might need more “umff” i.e. made a little more lively and dramatic.
Lynn expressed a concern that as poverty was the underlying cause of many problems, particularly “trafficking of people” that poverty should get a mention early on in the drama when our main character (Choi) tells the TV Chat show host about her home life in Africa.
It was unanimously agreed that the drama would be performed in two sets, i.e. split the stage with one half being the TV Studio and the other for the drama cameos/action scenes.
Everyone present (with the exception of Pete who had not been at the workshop) agreed that it would be good to capture some of the dramatic interpretation style that Hasna applied when she delivered her dramatised piece last Saturday.
Mark Heath emphasised that the “shock element” should be included in the drama.
Everyone liked the way that Pete had included both song and dance into the storyline and it was felt that drumming would fit very well into scene 2 and probably into other areas of the drama once the script is finalised.
It was generally agreed that scene 5 should be rewritten with the emphasis on trafficking only. Mark suggested that we could plant people in the audience who could contribute to this scene. Everyone was in agreement with this.
Scene 6 – Lynn suggested that there is no need to identify where the occupants of the van are from as the audience could make up their own minds about this.
It was unanimously decided to drop scene 9 and to either add a little extra to scene 8 or re-write scene 9 with the guard/trafficker either talking to the van driver or on his mobile phone.
Scene 10 All agreed that this scene lends itself to a dramatic interpretation which could touch the audience deeply.
Scene 12 – All agreed that we do not want a happy ending as we want to push home to the audience the seriousness of people trafficking.
Dan explained that there would be two screens either side of the stage at Leasowes Theatre onto which material could be projected.
Lynn asked the meeting to consider the possibility of having a break in the production for a “News slot”. This would give an opportunity to show/tell some ‘real stories of trafficking’.
Pete agreed to go away and begin writing a script for the dramatised sections.
The TV Studio scenes might be written/interpreted by the young people chosen to play those parts.
WORKSHOPS
It was agreed that a meeting should be set up with all the young people who have signed up as a result of Saturday’s events.
Lynn Todd
10.1.07
