Wagwaan? Evolving English!

So yesterday, on the recommendation of one Miss Emily Stride, I went to visit the British Library's 'Evolving English' exhibition. Not entirely sure what to expect other than some old books and a reading of Richard III in an 16C English dialect (apparently they all spoke like they were from Somerset), I was pleasantly suprised and fascinated.

My particular favourite artifacts were a collection of books suggesting a standardised phonetic spelling system (written in the 1700s and indicated some of the differing pronounciation to nowadays - 'dhe' and 'dher' instead of 'the' and 'their') and a medieval poetry manuscript that spoke about animal flatulence ('the buck farteth' - love it!)

Also featured was a dialect map with samples from all over the UK, which allowed you to compare accents from early 20C to more recent ones from the '90s. Interestingly, I was hard pressed, even in the southern counties, to find samples of RP or even a 'posh' (for want of a better word) accent. Goes to show how unrepresentative the idea of a 'Standard English' accent is. From the samples there, admittedly not as extensive as it might have been, one might think that the stereotypical 'country farmer' accent might be more appropriately representative.

Sadly I learned of the exhibition fairly late; it only runs until this coming Saturday (having been on since 12 November, shame on me!), so if you have a spare hour to kill in London over the next few days I would recommend you nip over there and have a mooch. I would particularly encourage those studying theatre, or anyone who is terrified about Rastamouse and his Jamaican Patois 'infecting' Britain's children. (If you are unfamiliar with Rastamouse,you can find out more here)

It just goes to show that any attempt to preserve 'Britishness' and the English language, and reductive notions of a white middle class Britain are ridiculous. We are a mongrel nation, and have been so since the earliest artifacts at the exhibition were created. In fact, as the exhibition shows, for the majority of the past 2000 years we've spoken a mulch of Latin, French and various Celtic tribal languages. We didn't even have a standardised version of English until the 1700s.

And why consider this a bad thing? Heck, embrace it. Wagwaan? Lets make a bad ting good.

Dear Schools...

As you may or may not know, since December I have been working for Rainbow Theatre Company, touring around primary schools, performing plays teaching kids about history. 

I know full well that despite the early mornings and such, I am very lucky to have a job that many would consider 'easy' (don't get me on to why it isn't... so many people underestimate the amount of dedication, hard work and good acting skills required for TIE), and importantly one that I love doing. 

Which is why I would like to say a little thank you to some of the schools I have toured to, not for making my job any easier, but for not making it unnecessarily difficult. So...

Dear (some) Schools,

Thank you. 

Thank you for making me feel like a visitor in your school. Thank you for showing us where we can make a cup of tea when we arrive (in all likelihood we have been awake since 5am, and a little help waking up never goes amiss!), a bigger thank you to the teachers who offer to make us tea themselves. The biggest thank you to the one or two schools who have offered us lunch. That was entirely unexpected and extremely generous of you. And tasty (school meals eh, who knew?).

Thank you for understanding we have lots of (sometimes heavy) props and allowing us to park near the hall entrance for five minutes while we unload, instead of making us lug everything along your long, winding corridors. Thank you for holding the doors open when you see us approaching with said heavy props, and for teaching your pupils to perform that same, basic politeness instead of letting them run and push in front of us. 

Thank you for letting your receptionists, caretakers and kitchen staff know we are coming, so they have time to make allowances in their busy schedules, instead of treating us like a nuisance (you did book us, remember, we haven't just wandered in off the street demanding to perform for you). And thank you for reminding them that we are (CRB-checked) visitors, and not a potential murderer or corrupter of your wards. You are setting an example for your children and thanks to you, they will view visitors, guests and strangers as 'innocent-until-proven-guilty', and thus help nurture a happier, trusting society.

Thank you for understanding that we need time to set up and prepare ourselves, and that when a show is due to start at 1:30pm, we really need full access to the room by 1pm if you want it to start on time. Thank you also for reminding your dinner ladies of this fact, and for employing sunny-smiled, pleasant people who don't look at us like we're the squashed peas on the floor they unfortunately have to sweep up.

We understand our presence might alter your usual school day, and so try as much as we can to stick to your schedule. Thank you for having a little flexibility if we are unable to.

Thank you for reading the teachers notes we sent in advance, and understanding what time we require the audience in the hall, how many student volunteers we need in advance and so on. An extra special thank you to the schools who teach the students any songs in advance, and encourage the students to dress up. It really makes the whole experience more enjoyable for them, and helps them to fully realise their roles in the shows.

And finally, the biggest thank you for having created well mannered, enthusiastic pupils who listen and engage with the subjects we are working on with them. Students who aren't afraid of being mocked by their peers for taking part and caring, an attitude which is far more healthy than holding a pretence of 'cool'.

Well. I did say some schools.

Ta ta, much love, mwah,

TIE actors across the country.

Flawed Coverage

Not a reference to how my makeup is failing me.

I watched the Olivier awards last night through the BBC red button footage, the first time for me but I also understand that this was the first time in a while that the ceremony was broadcast. Well, sort of.

At the same time I was partaking in what became a minor event on Twitter, as my feed quickly filled with posts by myself and others outraged at the, already scant, coverage being interrupted all too frequently by Paul Gambaccini and Matt Wolf providing radio commentary, interviews and analysis. I might have actually been interested in what they had to say if it was played post-ceremony, or optional (after all, I opted to watch the tv coverage instead of listening to the radio).

As it was the constant cutting away to watch Gambaccini and Wolf eating grapes and analysing the winners was annoying enough, but what I found more upsetting was the choice of material that they interrupted. Twitter burst into outrage, and rightly so, when Best Actress winner (which would have been one of the top three awards in any film award equivalent) Nancy Carrol's speech was skipped over for an interview with Gok Wan declaring himself a West End Wendy.

I'm curious, myself, as to why this happened. It could be, and probably was, just that the ball was dropped. I hear from other blogs that the coverage of Jodie Prenger's enthusiastic red carpet interviews had similar problems, showing a different guest to the one she was announcing. At varying points I gleaned that the ceremony itself was actually running 10 minutes ahead of schedule, and no doubt this caused some stress in the switchboard room and threw the interviewing schedule into disarray. If the ball was dropped, however, it was dropped too many times in the first half.

During the second half the coverage improved vastly, actually staying in the auditorium for lengths of time beyond the brief nominee and winner announcements. Once again I find myself asking why. One would hope that the BBC noticed the criticism they were getting and changed their strategy, but a small part of my can't help but wonder if it was because the awards in the second half were deemed more popular with the average viewer? Indeed, Fourth Wall Magazine tweeted that 'One of the reasons the Oliviers was taken off TV was because they were fed up with broadcasters dictating which were the important awards.'

It seems lessons have not been learned. I only knew from my twitter feed that La Boheme had won the gong for 'Best New Opera Production', and (do correct me if I'm wrong) I don't think I saw any coverage other than brief mentions in the radio sections about any technical or backstage awards. At one point The Oliviers themselves tweeted about the winner of 'Best Costume Design' giving a fantastic speech and I found myself frustratedly exclaiming 'Really? I wouldn't know!' Theatre is such a collaborative process and, coming from an actor, far too much emphasis is placed on those who are visible to the audience in comparison.

I want to see and be exposed to the leading professionals in the industry I hope to work with in the future, and not just the other directors/actors.

Perhaps I have begun touching upon a problem with the industry at large and have blamed the BBC for just following the demands placed on them by 'other parties', whoever they may be. It is a little comforting, then, to know there are many out there, on Twitter at least, who mirror my feelings that there's just something not quite right.

On a more positive note, it was good to see the awards getting coverage at all, if only via the red button. And I did enjoy what hosting I saw from Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball, the performances from Into the Woods, Phantom, Love Never Dies, and Sweet Charity were very good, although some of the entertainment could have done with being a bit more relevant (Will they have had Barry Manilow at the Tonys? And what was with the street dance troupe busting some moves during a delicate and moving orchestration of 'Somewhere' from West Side Story?) Hopefully this is a sign of improvement. Indeed, in a country with such a rich theatre tradition, we should be celebrating those at the top of their game just as much as those in cinema in theirs. Many congratulations to all of the winners.

A Fresh Attempt

Having worked on my professional website over the weekend, (www.nataliewinter.co.uk - but wait! Don't go yet, it's not up!) it occurred to me that it might be nice to have a place that wasn't quite so formal to speak my mind, drivel on about stuff only I care about, and be a bit more, well, me. Sure, I aim to have a newsblog on there, but no agent or casting director is going to want to rifle through my observations and ponderings to get to details about my latest show.

So here we are. My little rambling spot. I can't pretend there will be anything great or important said, or that it will even be updated frequently. Nor that it will be wiser and more eloquent than the one I had on live spaces 5 years ago when I was still in 6th form, before Facebook came out and stole my online time away from it. I mostly aim to focus on career stuff, but as ever with me my comments will inevitably stray to geekery from time to time. Posts will likely overlap with some content on my main site, and update notices will be posted on Twitter ( @winterweasel)