September Song

 Wednesday. 7.25 a.m. So, this will be the first blog post I write in the new month of September, although this is being written in August. That doesn't make much sense, but I know what I mean. I have two posts that I wrote as the month of August progressed, as quite a lot happened, and it's not easy to just ignore those incidents.

The title is a song from the Brecht/Weill musical show 'The Threepenny Opera.' Originally sung by Lotte Lenya the recording I found on Spotify has her singing in the original German. This show must have inspired such shows as 'Cabaret' and 'Chicago', which were both written by Kander and Ebb.

I went to Camphill yesterday, as usual. Several of the regular members of the theatre workshop were on holiday, and it wasn't exactly clear when they would be coming home to Camphill.

A new, permanent, member of staff, Craig, came for the first time, although he was involved with the 'Play In A Week' which took place a few weeks ago. Terrie, the workshop leader, took Craig off to do his induction, which appeared to be mostly showing him where the various departments within Camphill were how to open various doors and fill out forms for this and that, most likely, how to fill out reports and first aid forms, which is what I remember spending time doing when I was a shift leader within various NHS units I was a support worker in. 

The rest of the team spent the morning playing drama games. Terrie had compiled a list and Paul, another of the permanent staff, led the sessions. Some I didn't get involved in, as it is quite tiring. I will endeavour to describe when I can remember some of them!

The 'silent movies' are as yet incomplete, although the actual filming is complete. A wrap, as the correct term, is at the end of a day's filming or the entire production is finished. The editing is the most complex and time-consuming part of any production and then music has to be put on to the completed film and hopefully, we will be able to see the completed films in the next few weeks. It has been a long and complicated process, from coming up with the idea for the project, creating the stories and characters and then actually filming, so it will be quite exciting to see the results. Terrie wants to premiere the films in a sort of film festival and have all the Camphill residents come to the Chrysalis Theatre to watch, which should be amazing and to see the sort of reaction the films have, especially as most of the residents won't have any idea what the films are about. 

After lunch, we were split into two groups and I led one group on the stage. We were going to create a piece of improvised theatre, meaning, no script and made up as we went along. My suggestion was a hospital and someone suggested that it was haunted (not exactly my idea, but never mind, I could facilitate so much, and they had to fill in the details.

So, it went ahead. I was to be patient and arriving on the ward. The rest of the guys were supposed to be vampires and ghosts. The doctor wasn't a doctor at all. I was taken away by this doctor who attempted to make me into a vampire, but I resisted, in time-honoured Hammer horror film style!

The other group, meanwhile, were working on their improvised 'piece.' It was set in a nightclub. After the tea break we each had to show the other group our 'piece' and at the end of the afternoon, we had to say which part of the day was our favourite. Mine was working on the improvised piece of theatre.

Thursday. 1.05 p.m. The last day of August. Hardly seems credible that tomorrow will be September.

The Thursday Bible Study group went to Mursley Farm Shop, which isn't far out of Milton Keynes, going out of the road towards Buckingham, but I went with Jennie, who leads the Bible study group and she went a different way which I would never have managed if I'd driven on my own. It's great to drive out of Milton Keynes and into the countryside and see green fields and horses, cows and other animals grazing in the fields. Mursley Farm Shop has a nice cafe which serves delicious bacon rolls and lattes, which I had, and as we drove in we could see fields of chickens roaming around in the fields beyond as well as alpacas, sheep, goats and other animals. It did make me wonder, seeing all those chickens, how did they manage to get them to go in their chicken houses at night, before they started nesting in the trees so that they were safe from predators, such as foxes?

We left and drove back to the Oaktree Centre, where my car was parked, and then I drove off to Lidl in Oldbrook Boulevard to do some shopping and then back to Dexter House.