First and second year UAL Extended Diploma in Acting for Stage & Screen students recently enjoyed an inspiring trip to The Lowry Theatre in Manchester to see A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong by the acclaimed Mischief Theatre Company.

Lecturer Gavin Bell said “the day began with a dynamic storytelling workshop in The Lowry’s studio space, led by experienced facilitators. This session directly supported both year groups’ current projects — Festive Farce (Year 1) and It’s Grimm Up North (Year 2) — by deepening their understanding of narrative structure and performance through play.”

“The workshop was so much fun” said student Joshua Kay “we were able to warm up with some great activities and team based exercises that brought us together as a group, ahead of our main task, devising a small piece of theatre in chosen groups, utilizing a helpful guide that was set out for us, in order to create something that was engaging, imaginative and clear in it’s storytelling! I found it extremely helpful for me when creating work, providing me with clear elements to consider when approaching creating your own work, providing me now with a lot more confidence going into making my own work as part of my next project on the course.”

“Although our workshop was actually with a freelance director and theatre maker, I really enjoyed working with him and his knowledge for what makes engaging theatre and storytelling really helped us as a group, to get the most out of our ideas we had when devising during the workshop, and when devising in the future also in oncoming projects.”

Acting student Emily Weeks said that in the workshop students “looked at abstract ways of story telling and devising, in which we made a short piece in small groups. I found this workshop to be quite fun as it wasn’t something I’d done before. The tutor was confident with his ways and offered constructive criticism on the pieces we made and challenged us as actors. I found it to be quite interesting overall. I greatly enjoyed working with the theatre company and thought it was a lovely experience.  The activities showed us the importance of teamwork and ensemble in theatre and I am glad to have taken part.”

She continued “The performance itself was a masterclass in comic timing and theatrical precision. Mischief Theatre, known for their West End successes and BBC series, delivered a high-energy, expertly crafted production that left a lasting impression on our students.”

Students all had the opportunity to watch the stage production of A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, “I loved seeing the production” Emily said “I’ve been a big fan of mischief theatre since seeing one of their other productions a while back, so I had high expectations for the show. These expectations were met and exceeded.  The experience of the show was so fun and something I’m very grateful to have done. The cast worked well together and had good stage presence and chemistry, and the show flowed well. The gimmick of the mistakes weren’t overdone or underplayed, making it incredibly comedic. The show set a fun and festive theme which was carried throughout. My favourite aspect was the set, notably the pink dollhouse which substituted for Fred’s house as I found this to be incredibly funny, and I loved how it tied in to the earlier part of the show. I would say I overall don’t have anything negative to say about the show as I enjoyed it a lot.”

Reflecting on how it will impact her work she said “as an actor, I love seeing live theatre as it inspires me to go out and perform. At our college, our up coming project is to create a show in the style of mischief theatre, so seeing this show has been a huge inspiration for this. Seeing how the whole cast worked together as an ensemble was something that I know we will include in our show, and has inspired me personally to be a team player in my acting. As well as this, the comedy aspects of the show have definitely inspired jokes for my future performances.”

Speaking of the production Josh said “I absolutely loved a Christmas carol goes wrong. I love mischief theatre company and have seen pretty much all of their work, and it completely fulfilled my expectations. I really enjoyed the way they changed the show from the original Television version they produced, It was such an entertaining and slick production I hope to catch again soon!”

Josh said his takeaway from the trip was the importance of confidence, “this trip has reminded me of the importance of having confidence in my ideas, and how confidence in performance (Like the members of mischief have), is what creates that energy for an audience. I feel more confident to take my ideas into action when approaching work now, and look forward to applying these skills and important lessons to my next project, in which I am adapting work to fit with my own ideas and creativity.”

Student trips like this are great opportunities to develop their skills, enhance their social connections and give students the opportunity to see a little more of the country exploring major cities and creative venues. Experiences like this underpin our acting diploma, if you are interested in studying acting at college level make sure you check out our course page here.