Storming The Castle: DYT meets Dochas Pocus

Today our guest writers are Kerri Walsh and Louis Flanagan, giving us an account of our recent foray into the Development sector, the European year for Development, and  trips to Dublin Castle x 2! Enjoy!

Two conferences. One castle. And a whole lotta teenagers….

Don’t worry, I can safely assure you this isn’t the tagline to a new big-budget sappy teen blockbuster. Nor is it an elaborate plot to blow up a castle either. It’s much more entertaining, much more intriguing than any of those things…it is – what we at Droichead Youth Theatre to call – a Grand Droichead Adventure!

You’re probably asking yourself what in the hell I’m on about – and I don’t blame you. Well, about three months ago – December, if you insist on being precise – we were contacted by the lovely Claire Lynch, who had a most intriguing task for us. Not only is she a Drogheda native – well, a Duleek native to be politically correct – but a Droichead Youth Theatre alumnus and junior facilitator too. Claire had been hired by Irish organisation Dóchas to plan a conference in Dublin Castle celebrating the European Union’s Themed Year. In previous years, the European Union’s annual themes have included Peace and Equality; however 2015 marked the Year of Development, a year to combat poverty in Third World Countries, a year of fair trade and fair solutions and a year to close that ever-widening, ever-frightening gap between nations of the North and South.

We could not change the world entirely; but luckily, we could help! And that’s exactly what Claire wanted us to do. She gave us the task of creating a short theatrical piece relating to the theme of development, allowing us to marry our love of theatre with our love of economics! Our only trouble was…well, where to start! It wasn’t long before we got cracking on the research and over the Christmas period, we discussed all of our findings, everything from sanitation in Developing Countries to ongoing debates on the ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ charity single to radiators in Norway!

Discussing these topics and stories certainly was an eye-opener and it wasn’t long before we had kinds of ideas about what we wanted to do for the conference and what message we wanted to convey. After some long brainstorming, we created a three-minute piece, which we jokingly named Dochas Pocus – a name that stuck around! The piece which shows the ineffectiveness of aid to Third World Countries and the corruption of many of the First World governments. As well as this, the piece also allowed us to use many theatre techniques, including ensemble, tableaux, movement and music. With the conference day looming, we had some time to polish and perfect it before show time arrived!

The big day – Thursday January 22^nd – soon arrived and we descended on The Big Shmoke (via the divine Irish Rail), props ready, clothes neat, hair and make up perfected and butterflies fluttering about in  our stomachs! Arriving in the city of Dublin, we frolicked our way to Dublin Castle – it really is a castle – and made our way to the ever-so-not-green- green-room where we met many of the speakers and conference participants. One particularly interesting group was Clowns For Haiti, a Dublin-based charity who travel to poverty-stricken areas of Haiti – especially those areas harshly affected by the 2010 Earthquake – and perform and entertain children using magic and circus tricks.  Meeting this particular group was one of the highlights of the event for me. Another highlight, you could say, was the opportunity to meet our very own President Michael. D. Higgins, who was one of the special guest speakers at the event. We even got a few snaps with the man himself (who is, like us, an avid fan of theatre!)

Performance time was fast approaching and we waited anxiously in the corridors, hearts palpitating and pulses racing, for our cue. No matter how times you’ve performed onstage – let it be twice or two hundred times – you still have to battle those pre-show nerves, that keep rattling inside you. Suddenly, our names were announced and we paced across the thronged room towards the stage, cool as crisp, and took our starting position. There was an amazing atmosphere in the room and our performance went flawlessly. Rapturous applause swooped through the room and it was definitely one of the most exhilarating and memorable moments I’ve had during my time at Droichead Youth Theatre. We celebrated afterwards, in true Droichead style, with a well-deserved trip to McDonald’s on O’Connell Street – FACT: the widest street in Europe – before we ventured home to our abodes in Drogheda.

However, things are never quite as they seem and what was supposed to be a once-off performance at Dublin Castle turned into something of a theatre sensation! Less than twenty-four hours following our Dochas Pocus performance, we received an invitation from the National Youth Council of Ireland (NCYI) – best youth council around may I add! – to perform the same devised piece at their conference celebrating the EU Year of Development! And naturally, we couldn’t refuse another offer to play in the castle!

The date was set for Tuesday 10^th February, which unfortunately clashed with the mock exams, meaning a cast reshuffle! Despite this, the strong performance remained the same and soon we were setting off towards Dublin Castle, energetically eager to perform in our favourite castle once again! The wonderful NCYI welcomed us upon our arrival and the whole conference hall was bustling with representatives from every aspect of youth life – from scouts to sportspeople to slam poetry artists! Our performance took place shortly after lunchtime and once again, we received a great response and much praise from many spectators.

With some time to spare in the afternoon period, we whisked ourselves off to the fabulous Murphy’s Ice Cream parlour, for some good ‘oul County Kerry ice-cream – the sea salt and cookies are a personal favourite of mine – a place so magical and heavenly, there are so limited words to describe it. We also managed to stop by in Trinity College – home of our very talented facilitators Christina, Cathal and Lorna -taking time out to see Front Square, the Trinity Drama Department and an exciting exhibition piece in aid of the Jack and Jill Foundation by Drogheda artist Ciaran Dunleavy! We even broke out into a few Midsummer Night’s Dream poses – how could we resist? – before heading home to our beloved Drogheda!

This experience is nothing like we’ve done before. This whole experience got us out of our own comfort zones. It got us discussing, got us talking about issues well worth taking about. We’ve met some influential people along the way and most importantly we’ve learned that we can’t save the world completely – but we can certainly try.

– Louis Flanagan and Kerri Walsh xo

A week of Good Times and Memories: a blog, by Gavin Byrne

This week our guest blogger is Gavin Byrne, giving us an account of his transition year work experience with our Artistic Director Christina Matthews. Enjoy!

Aloha reading people. So, I’ve asked to do one of these blog things. This shall be an adventure as they say, so I’ll be doing it based on the pleasant experience of my work experience with Christina. Well, one thing for sure, it’s a lot more exciting than doing boring Stuff in a shop. Even if this time I didn’t get any candy…. But despite the lack of expired candy, it was a super fun experience! For sure. On the Tuesday of the week, me and other Droichead Youth Theatre members went down to the best, and possibly only Conference venue, Dublin Castle! We performed our very special Dochas Piece for all the viewing persons present. It was a very moving piece to do with development, and Aid, and such concerning stuff. Some may say we had the Acting Force of an Almighty Mountain! Cause we were tremendous in Acting Prowess. After our amazing spectacular performance, we went and got Ice-Cream from Murphy’s on Wicklow Street. It was fantastic with a side if brilliant. They had oh so many flavors to choose from, from scrumptious ‘Sea Salt’, to totally bonkers ‘Brown Bread’! We embarked upon great fun, dashing through Trinity College on a Photograph Frenzy! From Stromtrotters to impersonating structures, all the way to Building Pointing, oh we had it all!

But the very next day, I was to do classes with Christina, and after slight misadventures, I arrived upon the place of my destination! To start off with, there was a Hardy Hip-Hop class. We had the fun dancing to much! Including, but not limited to, The Spice Girls, All about that bass, and more of different kinds! It was exhausting to be sure, but it ended like most things do, and then Drama Classes began, and fun and merriment were had! From neutralness, to quick thinkingness, many useful skills were explored.

Then for reasons, I had to attend a fabulous play, called “Patrick Kavanagh, A life”. It was a one man play, about the life of Patrick Kavanagh. It seemed to be a fun life, full of growing up up on a Farm in the odd place that is Monaghan, to even more stuff. But I’m going to digress here, did you know, that Monaghan is the smallest county in Ulster, and is actually part of the Republic of Ireland. But back to the play, there was such a moment of explosive excitement, as Kavanagh made a Pyramid of Tin Cans go Boom! All across the stage! Tension was high, as one can in particular tried to crawl off the stage, no, it was stopped, by its own lack of momentum. Truly a tear jerking moment. He talked of his sad life, of struggles, hunger, ducks, children, the bishop and about poverty. Fun subjects all round.

And then for the ‘Ante-penultimate’ day of the week, (that’s the one that comes before the Penultimate one) travels brought us to the area known as Swords again. Drama was done, and Superheroes were the topic of the room. Batman is not Superhero as we all should know. And Martian Manhunter’s status as a ‘Superhero’ was questioned…. I maintain that he’s not… The option of eternal life was brought up, along with other fun, cool stuff….. Yeah, that was neat. Wow, this blogging thing has been interesting I guess. Who knows, I may do another! We’ll see. This has been the Fabulous, Marvelous Brilliance that is Gavin. Y’all are welcome.

Frequency 783 and Emperor’s Clothes

This week we have Andy McLoughlin fresh from NAYD’s Young Critics course with the first installment of his three part series of reviews and thoughts on theatre. First up, Frequency 783 by Brokentalkers!

Our second weekend of the Young Critics took a turn for the weird. Shortly after arriving in Dublin we scurried off through the rain to our first production in The Project Arts Centre. The show: Frequency 783, devised by Brokentalkers and directed by Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan. The plot is… abstract. The play opens with a teenage boy walking onto the set and unleashing a noose from the ceiling, more or less setting the tone for the rest of the play. Shortly after, the play’s other character, an ageing woman, walks on and what follows is a disjointed series of vignettes displaying interpretive dance, operatic hymns and impressive visual effects, all for the purpose of conveying some sort of loose message about fear of the future.

If this all seems a little disjointed that’s because it is, but in this production, the look of the show was every bit as significant as its ambiguous content. The set appears to be a recording studio, cutesy synth pop instruments and all, but its uniform, symmetrical shape and pale grey walls call to mind something as otherworldly as The Star Trek holodeck or, given the show’s fascination with death, possibly some sort of purgatory. Beyond this it conveys absolutely nothing about the actual story, but instead provides a blank canvas for the beautiful projections, colourful costumes, and yes, even some glitter.

There are a few assumptions that you might be inclined to make about this show and to be honest, I’d probably agree with you. This is probably some avant garde nonsense that people pretend to like because they’re too worried about sounding dumb to just admit they didn’t get it. Even if you don’t consume theatre, you’re probably familiar with this idea. Whether it’s a hipster trying to sell you on the debut album of a synth jazz didgeridoo quartet, or an art critic staring for hours at a canvas featuring nothing but a straight black line. These are the people who try to convince you that only a fool couldn’t see the emperor’s clothes. Too often symbolism is used not for dramatic effect, but to give a sense of depth to a production without putting in the legwork required to give it a real sense of meaning.

Now, I’ve always been a great defender of symbolism. At the best of times it’s a powerful narrative tool where enchanted objects make concrete the abstract feelings and emotions that drive us as human beings. But a symbol still has to be a complement to an existing narrative, and not just a substitute for one. The reason you don’t need an arts degree to understand the symbolism of The Emperor’s New Clothes is because there is already more to it than just the symbolism. It’s got archetypal characters, and a plot, and it reinforces our strange human desire to believe that if something confuses us, we shouldn’t take it seriously.

So my negative feelings for Frequency 783 didn’t come when I walked out of The Project Arts Centre with that delicious dazed look on my face and I turned to one of my fellow audience members and asked them, “what was the deal with that dude wearing a mask and running into the wall while the 65 year old played synths?” and they said, “Jaysus Ted, I dunno. Symbolism maybe?” Because, as with any aspect of a play, if it makes you feel something and it’s compelling enough to make you question it, then authorial intent just doesn’t matter.

But at the end of the day, the symbols alone can’t make a piece worth watching. As an audience member I understand that when the boy in Frequency 783 puts twenty elastic bands on his face and moans it’s supposed to be an expression of his teenage angst, but otherwise it meant nothing to me. If Brokentalkers only wanted me to walk out of that theatre thinking “Wow, I really connected with that show in a way that forced me to think about these issues,” then I’d have to give a bad review. But, being avant garde as it is, this wasn’t just a piece of narrative drama, it was also a visually striking work of art, and I have to review it as such. When all is said and done, the emperor might be naked, but he still looks good with his clothes off.

How to adult: a blog which explores how you can apply lessons you learn in drama class, to real adult life.

This week we have guest writer Sophie Flanagan, reflecting on the practical applications of drama class to the quest of becoming a grown up. Enjoy!

As yesterday was the anniversary of my 19^th year of being on this earth, I took time to reflect on the past 365 days of being 18; a fully-fledged adult. In hindsight, I did in fact spend most of the year acting exactly the same as my 17 year old self. However, since the completion of my leaving cert I feel I have morphed into somewhat of a “young adult”.  “How do you know when you’re an adult?” I hear you ask.. well, first you must diagnose yourself.

WARNING: If you’ve more than three of the following symptoms, you could be at risk of becoming a grown-up.

-You catch yourself watching the news.. and actually finding it interesting.

-When people ask you to hang out and you can’t be like “my mam said no”, so  you just have to change your name and move to Peru.

-When you see a child under 10, and instantly become concerned for their safety.

-Contemplating that maybe Mr. Snuggles doesn’t have feelings and it’s okay to put him in the washing machine.

– Not being disappointed when you get clothes as a present.

– Your occupation on Facebook is no longer “Being a Full Time Mad Bastard”.

I, unfortunately, have developed all of these symptoms in the past three months, but for the most part still feel some Peter Pan syndrome inside. BUT DO NOT FRET! Though, you cannot be cured, you can cope. And here are a few tricks you’ve probably already learned in drama class to do so.

“Walk The Space”- You know that strange warm up, at the start of almost every class?  Well, it’s surprisingly handy. As an adult, you want as little unnecessary communication as possible. As in, avoiding small talk, people you don’t want to talk to and people who will get in the way of your busy *schedule. In this case, you literally “walk the space”. Look for the area least people are populating and use that as your route to walk from place to place. Trust me, it works. And you might even save some time than by taking the short cut, by not bumping into people and talking about how aul Rita was “never right after **”that fall”.

*schedule- adult-y word for a to do list.

**that fall- all old people suffer from that fall, and are somehow “never right” after it.

Simon Says/Simple Simon- Knocks out the one that don’t comply with what the big man says. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being different and taking risks, but for the most part, in the workplace of the adult world, you got to just do with what the boss says. I know, I know, it’ll be hard sometimes, but in times of struggle, dealing with their every demand, just think to yourself, this is just like a really professional game of Simon Says, except this time I’m getting paid for it.

Character Building –  Name, age, location. Now build a character. This is probably one of the most useful tricks you’ll read about today. As an adult, you’ll find yourself in many scary situations. You’ll feel nervous, shy, and completely clueless. But, as always, there is a solution. If you feel in anyway uncomfortable in a situation, in your mind, give yourself a new character. On your exterior, act completely casual, but internally, imagine you’re someone else who is completely comfortable and confident in whatever situation you find yourself in. I recently found myself using this trick when I discovered it was about time I opened a *bank account. I was incredibly nervous as the people in suits we’re quite intimidating, but in my brain I just took on a new character that completely knew what she was doing and wasn’t afraid to ask questions. Trust me, it helps, and makes you seem more adult-y than you might feel.

*bank account- a really big piggy bank.

Bollocks- On one hand, you learn some really good curse words, and on the other, the projection lesson really helps you when you’re trying to talk to your friends over really loud music on a night out. Which, trust me, is essential if you don’t want to have a hoarse voice the next morning.

Adulthood is scary, and inevitable. But with a bit of acting and pretending, we can all learn to adapt and live as normal civilized adults, even if on the inside we’re all still 14.

Smock! A review

This weekend, in preparation for the commencement of Droichead Versus Theatre, an optional DYT programme in which we enjoy going to see plays, discussing them and working out where they fit into the larger theatrical map, a gang of us trekked up to Dublin to go see Smock! a new play by Martin Maguire. We’re all looking forward to discussing the play further at our first seminar, but there were a few things we could all agree on. This was not the slow moving, three man historical piece we were expecting. The play was whimsical and fast paced until the curtains fell, and miraculously comprehensible for the amount of content being delivered. A play that’s earned its exclamation mark if ever there was one. Check out what some of our members thought below!

 

“Well what can I say, seeing Smock! was an experience to be sure. I felt, while watching it, that I was in a dream like trance, I was captured so it would seem, from start till finish. Simply put, Smock! was both brilliant and clever, the method of history told through theatre was captured perfectly in this play and they made it both insightful and funny which is a tough combination to execute. I didn’t think, coming into this play, that it would be half as entertaining as it was. The actors were just pure class in Smock! They brought the whole history and the set- mustn’t forget the set!- completely to life. It was a shockingly good play, that is all.”

-Aoife Gallagher

 

“The fact that this show was in any way comical is what came as the biggest surprise to me. When the show started I genuinely expected to see a man older than time walk onto stage and ask us to cast our eyes back to a simpler time when infant mortality was at 75% and we didn’t have to worry about things like civil rights or democracy. It was so refreshing to see a kinetic and hyperactive comedy where they could make use of the huge time scale by adding recurring jokes and showing all that’s changed as well as all that hasn’t.”

-Andy McLoughlin

 

“It was really good. My favourite part was when the girl read a story and the others pretended to be children. I thought they were all fabulous actors they worked well with the accents. The way it was written was funny but still family friendly. All in all I give it 5 stars.”

-Ella Coyle

 

“Most history lessons can be sombre, melancholy affairs that usually result in involuntary napping or tears or both. Smock!, however, was something special. A rare gem that was buzzing with energy, injected with a well-needed dose of youthful electricity that provided the audience with enough laughs and insight to last until their next trip to the eponymous theatre. The three actors gave wonderful performances and really made it their own production, making excellent use of the space, lights and acoustics of their stage. The show is whimsically written, and delightfully performed. A real treat for all ages.”

 –Aaron Finnegan

 

“The idea of a play, aiming to tell the story of Smock Alley’s 350 years as ‘Dublin’s oldest newest theatre’ in 47 minutes, may seem ambitious and risky; however, writer and director Martin Maguire does it brilliantly. The incorporation of movement and props in the show, audience involvement and the actors’ enthusiasm, humour and energy onstage makes Smock! a terrific piece of theatre. Often historical or period theatre can be long, tedious and monotonous and often rich, complex language is used; however, Smock! is told so naturally and in a way that everyone can understand it and the idea of the actors playing both the narrators and the variety of characters worked well. Smock! is a wildly imaginative and creative show and definitely a new favourite of mine!”

-Louis Flanagan

 

 

“At first, I was not sure what to expect. Yet, the three actors worked well together in the most imaginative ways. The set up was simple, making the focus on the actors much more manageable. It was fast paced, switching between accents, simple costume changes and different props to mark the settings. Overall, it was very enjoyable to watch.”

-Kerri Walsh

 

  “I was intrigued about the show upon hearing about it as I was interested in knowing more about the theatre and its vast history. Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t anticipating the show being sugar coated as not to be too monotonous. I genuinely wanted to leave the theatre with a better knowledge of its past, and the show didn’t disappoint. I can say that I know more about the building having seen it.  The actors performance ranged from frantic racing across the stage to meaningful monologues, and then to spontaneous Irish dancing, all within a matter of minutes. This left me baffled at the amount of emotions that I was subjected to, which I immensely appreciated. But remaining with the fact that I walked in wanting history, I’d have to be critical in saying that I wanted more. There were moments where I feel like there was a joke just to keep the audience interested, and I can understand that. However, I think, that yes the comic element is important but, also as a historic play; the history is paramount. My personal opinion would be that I would rather learn something, than laugh and be confused about it. However overall the play was so much fun to watch, and I loved the fact that the actors seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. A great see.”

-Jack Rogers

 

Louth Youth Theatre Day

This week our blog comes courtesy of Thomas Caffrey, on his experience at Louth Youth Theatre Day, a wonderful gathering of Dundalk Youth Theatre, MAD Youth Theatre and ourselves for a day of master classes and skills sharing, programmed by Create Louth, the Arts Service of Louth Local Authorities.This year we hosted the event in Drogheda, and the day focused on Stage Combat, Ensemble, Shakespeare and Musical Theatre, facilitated by two wonderful specialist practitioners, Barry Morgan and Evelyn Purcell. Here are Thomas;s thoughts on the day:

“Louth Youth Theatre Day. The prospect was tantalising- a day of theatre, great! Sign me up immediately! And so that was that. I confess, I had no idea what I would be doig as I ascended the steps of the Arts Centre that morning. Utterly clueless, apart from having read something about “Twisted Shakespeare” and stage combat. Stage combat sounded straightforward enough, but “Twisted Shakespeare”? This put me in mind of the 80s hard rock band Twisted Sister, which may have helped sway me toward expressing interest in this course. As it turns out, awesome 80s silliness played a (slightly) smaller part than expected. Which is to say that Twisted Shakespeare revolved around Bard-ified versions of speeches from Star Wars, which was every bit as….interesting as it sounds. We learnt the proper breathing techniques for such performances. It was initially tricky to find our way through some of the dialogue, but an endlessly rewarding workshop nevertheless. After a brief break filled with sorrow, heartbreak and tragedy, we returned for stage combat. This was perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the day as a whole, revolving around beating the living daylights out of our dearest friends and total strangers. We learnt the techniques of the close hand slap, long ranged slap, pummelling punch, stunning uppercut and the vicious headbutt. We displayed our own rough fights to one another and offered pointers and advice on what to fix, what to change. Once mastered, the rest of our day was spent beating our accomplices senseless and recreating famous fight scenes- from Vader and Luke, to a Mountain and a Viper, our fights were innumerable and never ending. Unlike this article- the end.”

NAYD’S Young Critics programme

This week we are fighting fit and back in action, with an account of NAYD’s Young Critics weekend by Andy McLoughlin!

 

The Young Critics Workshop took place last weekend over the course of three days and there’s a lot to talk about so I suppose the best place to start is at the start.

About two months ago, after drama, a senior DYT member came in to talk to us about this Young Critics programme in Dublin she had been to. You go see two plays over the course of 3 days in April and again in October. Accommodation and food would be provided and you would get classes on how to analyse theatrical productions. It seemed strange at first to be learning about theatre outside the context of actually being involved, but the idea appealed to me. I knew almost nothing about theatre compared to my almost embarrassing obsession with the rest of pop culture, and this would be a great opportunity to learn a thing or two.

   I filled out the form, which included a very short critical review of a play I had seen recently. This was easier said than considering, as I’ve mentioned, I really didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. But I did my best and came up with a smooth 150 words and sent off the form off to NAYD with my fingers crossed. A few weeks later, I got a call from Alan King, the Youth Theatre Officer in charge of the programme, letting me know I had gotten in. I stifled my girlish squeals of excitement and began preparing for the course.

  After no time at all I found myself at the GPO meeting up with the rest of the participants in the course to be bussed over to the Marino institute for the first day of activities. That day we all got to know each other through drama games, awkward small talk and Shakespearean battle sequences. When the two workshops were done we were shown to our bedrooms and hung out in the common room, sharing in-jokes and generally getting on the banter train.

  The next morning was when the fun really began. We got up at the ungodly hour of 8 a.m. and went down to the first workshop. It was here that we discussed things like the role of the critic, who a critic writes for, why they are important etc. After that we discussed the plays we were going to see that afternoon. I had already seen  “Quietly” by Owen McCafferty and reviewed it to get into the course, but “An Ideal Husband” by Oscar Wilde was something I knew almost nothing about aside from the brief bits and pieces of research I had done before the course.

  We went into Dublin at around 12 and after a quick bite to eat, we went straight to the first play. I wasn’t expecting much from “An Ideal Husband” as I’ve never considered myself to be a fan of period dramas and a play about aristocrats and extramarital affairs really wasn’t my scene. I was shocked to find that the play compared more to “The Thick of It” than “Downton Abbey” with its non-stop one liners and bumbling politicians.

  After the show we were treated to a conversation with Marty Rea, who played Lord Goring in the play. After gushing about his fantastic physical performance for an appropriate amount of time, we got down to asking questions. He was full of great advice and insights, from editing out the vaguely sexist parts of the play, to what it’s really like getting into acting young (not to mention the fine art of the tongue twister).

  From there we took a short break before going to the next play, Quietly by Owen McCafferty. I had seen it before and it isn’t exactly a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sort of play, but it’s always nice to get a closer look at something in a different setting. After the dynamic and relentless adventure of “An Ideal Husband” and the boiling tension of “Quietly” we were too exhausted to do anything else and went back to the college to catch some shut-eye.

  The next morning was a bittersweet experience. It being our third and last day, the initial awkwardness between us had subsided but was replaced by the underlying knowledge that it would be our last few hours together. We went down to the workshop room one last time for a lengthy discussion about the plays we had seen. We split up into four groups to discuss the plays and each group then elected 2 spokespeople to speak on a panel about the plays we had seen. It was then that we realised what we had really learned over that weekend. I was thinking about things like the role of a director in a play and the importance of personal opinion in analysis that had never even crossed my mind before.

Overall this will certainly be a weekend to remember. And not just because of the free accommodation and food either. It’s refreshing to spend so much time around so many people who are smarter than you, but share a common fascination with the art we’re so privileged to consume in the first world. All of that’s left me looking forward tremendously to the second weekend of the course this autumn.