Actiontrack blog: the final day

Michael Kemp signs off his Actiontrack Showbuild blog, and indeed his Transition Year, with this final contribution about Saturday's experience:-

Part 5: The Redemption

Wow, that went fast, Transition Year gone WOOP WOOP, Fifth Year now heading towards us like a voluminous dark cloud. YIKEs!

Still, all we can do is wait and prepare for the bitter assault of work that will come at us, this time with extra vigour that it presumably built up during our year-long truce, and what you do most during Fifth Year other than pant-wettingly heavy amounts of Leaving Cert preparation is looking back and thinking about how awesome Transition Year was. So why not get to the point and purpose of this entire blog and write about the swan song (I almost wrote "swang" there but I thought that I should try and resist having abbreviations and conjunctions take over our world) that was Actiontrack.

Well for those who are reading this and hadn't seen the one and only production of JAWS: The Musical and are seemingly begging me to go in to encyclopaedic detail of the production and plot: tough luck, blogee, you're just going to have to let that slide past you like this year's Glastonbury - all you're going to get is my hazy summary of events.

It overall was an incredibly busy week. I remember at the start thinking we'd be doing ZIP ZAP BOING! each morning yet I was oh-so-wrong as the realities of production hit home, and the dizzying amounts of work and the untapped flow of creativity took over. Each break and lunch left us all starving as we gorged ourselves on anything, just anything to give us enough energy for the next dance rehearsal. To be honest, during the whole week my kidneys were painful with exhaustion and I couldn't stand for long without needing to sit down and rest my deflated legs. One morning I actually slept through my alarm I was so tired - which doesn’t seem like anything major - we all do it eventually – but my alarm isn't a little ringing clock or one of these EXCURCIATINGLY ANNOYING dadadaduh digital ones that slowly build in ear-bleedage until you turn them off. No, my alarm is a speaker-box right next to my pillowed head that blasts out Florence + the Machine each morning - and I still slept through all twenty minutes of it!

Either way despite our tired, creaking mass we still kept goinig on that last day, which involved putting the entire set design together, sound and video checks, setting up the seating rows, learning new dance steps, prepping our costumes and fitting in a whole dress rehearsal while the bustling queue outside tried to drown out our howlings of 'The Head, The Tail, And The Whole Damn Thing'.

As the lights went down and we scampered back into our 'green room' only to scurry back to clear out and take apart our week's work - tears stained faces as the end had rolled over and left us, not just the end of the show, but for some their whole time here in the school. It was rejuvenating and saddening as we tore down our papier maché and willow sharks, but for some it was a metaphor, the ridding of the ephemeral, taking down what was never meant to last.

A special extra big jazz handed Thank You must go to the Actiontrack team - who tried to stay oh-so-modest behind their instruments and amongst the crowd and criminally never stood up to take their long overdue and deserved bow at the end. So I might as well try to ruin your anonymity by thanking Nick, the Hannibal of the Actiontrack team, who was able to siphon our creative flow into something of the calibre as the final show; Nate, if we were to still go by A-Team logic would be Howlin' Mad Murdoch, who pieced together what a bunch of kids caught on a sound recorder and turned it in to one effective and unnerving soundscape and also taught me the revelation of Power Chords; Katie who let everyone relive the ART ATTACK! phase of their childhood by making excellent set dressings in the form of giant hanging legs or dead tiger sharks; and to Molly whose cheesy dance moves were another highlight of the show, and who also taught us something we will never forget - that the "Shake Your Tail Feather" move originates from the original Hairspray.

So to cap this all off - hmm what to say - I’ve got nothing planned - I have to have something, every other post had some kind of simple, self-referential, expectant poetry to it - Hope It Won't Stink et all - I can't be expectant now unless I end on a downer mentioning Fifth year, but now that's not right - think of something; what would Nick say; he'd always have something planned, Like Hannibal - wait that's it!

(*cough*-clear throat-*cough* deep breath in, look up, jut out jaw, do an Eastwood Squint)

Actiontrack was all about taking the different frayed ends of our imaginations and piecing them together and weaving it in to something that can be presented and get across the true overwhelming freedom Transition Year brought us, and despite it's freeform nature, it had planned to bring all fifty of us together and just make a show for us to celebrate that without leaving anyone out and letting everybody in - I Have To Say, (dramatic pause, chomp cigar) I Love It When a Plan Comes Together.


[coming soon: some photographs...]

Actiontrack blog day 4

The Actiontrack Showbuild performance is at 8.15pm tonight. Here is Michael Kemp's final day-by-day blog entry. He'll summarise next week:-


ACTIONTRACKED: The Nutty Serial That Won't Get Stuck in Your Teeth!

Part 4: The Revenge

Captain's Log*: As I’m writing this it's only 20 hours left until the lights shine down on the valiant galleon of our SS Actiontrack as she docks into the Harbour (Nautical Puns *sigh*). Although there are pre-show nerves we have little reason to worry as today was one of the most productive days so far.

Already our soundscapes and set decorations are nearly complete and have been worked into rehearsals, dance moves are nearly all learned, with each break seemingly producing a new step for us to try and awkwardly recreate, some easy ('From Cape Scott to South Beach' is a rare opportunity in our lives to do some of the most clichéd arm waverings from the Boyzone catalogue) some oh-my-legs-why-do-you-spasm-so? ('We Need Your Summer Dollars' is a mad meld of square dancing and some classic Madness shapes from the Our House video). The animation and mini-movies are now completed and the BSR has taken a radical change as we have literally scattered about it bits of jetties, amps and staging - even an upturned boat whose position has rather safely blocked off the main fire exit - no worries then.

Although on a non-life threatening note our progress has even allowed us to do a full run through - even with a big supporting role having to drop out and be replaced by an entirely different originally-care-free-but-now-cacking-it-with-all-the-lines-to-be-a-learnt pupil. Just watching in the back there's already a noticeable fluidity to the musical which is ruddery (a rudder is what steers a sail boat - sufficient Nautical Pun), important for our home made production to gain any kind of composure.

The overall vibes for those of you readers lucky enough (or unfortunate enough if you're one of those disillusioned parents who's sat through 10 years worth of school plays to see their kid papier-machéd as a tree while the kid who gets drama lesson practises his audition for Julliard) to be going to our show tonight, take note - the best way to describe an Actiontrack performance would be either to reference the production values and structure of The Mighty Boosh or to say it's a Give It Your All And See What Sticks kind of show. That’s not to say it's ramshackle or immature but that in the short period of time we've been working on this, we have pushed ourselves full on, to urge the hull forward.

Those soundscapes are composed of our screams (that's actually true - thank Angus for the Deafening Alto Yelp). That wrecked boat is painted with our blood. Those papier-machéd legs were made from our sweat. Those barrels are weighted with our tears.

Hopefully Everything Won't Stink.

Actiontrack blog day 3

Michael Kemp continues his series 'in 3-D'. Pictured: a grainy obscure photo of what looks suspiciously like a bunch of boys with blackened faces 'dying' in our swimming pool at 10.45pm last night. Keep tuned...

Here's Part 3: in 3D

Yesterday I mentioned that today things would really start to set sail (again - necessary nautical pun) but we've not only set sail but are now hitting 40 knots and ramping tides. After a quick run-through of all the songs, our parts were given out - casting has revealed a quirky but fair-to-say-ingenious selection. I won’t reveal a who's who yet, but I can honestly admit to be thrilled with my part and as is everyone else.

The main event today was the chaotic multi-tasking involved in assembling our show. While rehearsals are happening in the BSR, the assembling of our movable sets and decor continues outside, while in the Cadogan, sound-scaping and stop motion film-making trundles on; there are even some lads running around trying to record the perfect sound for a shark biting off someone's leg.

Meanwhile as the production rumbles headlong, our best efforts are demanded to pick up some wind. The responsibility is on us now to learn our lines, lyrics, dance steps and to piece together a lively period costume from whatever bit of old thread we can find.

This evening we were introduced to our sprunky choreography, seemingly fabricated to embracing the best (well really the worst) of 80s dance trends - there's plenty of stomp 'n clap, a bit of Greased Lightning finger-pointing-wave-pumping, even a Hairspray tail feather wiggle; it's a almost a pity there's no room in JAWS for a run through of the Time Warp*.

Even tonight some of the guys are going out at 11 o'clock and using the school pool to film a vignette to tell the story of the USS Indianapolis, not the best of associations for the pool but you can recognise the dedication of our year to Actiontrack when Max sacrifices time to get in a pool and thrash about when he could be sleeping**

*If you do not know what the Time Warp is, you are dead to me, in fact simply typing that has made me YouTube it straight away - it's like a little goblin that's stuck in your head that constantly makes you smile; the thought of people not being aware of the Time Warp seemingly too saddening to imagine (they might not have it in Venezuela - would Rocky Horror fly over there? Nah it might, but would they bother to dub it or would it even have an audience?)
*No offence intended to Max, but come on man - you spent 18 hours sleeping last Saturday, no joke.

Actiontrack Day 2

Michael Kemp writes:-

WARNING: WHEN WRITING A DAILY BLOG ABOUT THE MAKING OF A MUSICAL BASED ON JAWS, IT'S NOT ONLY ACCEPTED BUT MANDATORY FOR THERE TO BE BARRELS OF UNFUNNY NAUTICAL PUNS - EVEN IF THEY'RE A BIT FISHY -SORRY.

Day Two of our production has been incredibly productive - no more of the obligatory Zip Zap Boing! round to start the day off, as we set off immediately into our Production - JAWS: The Musical.

First up was learning the songs all the Actiontrack team had written last night, which varied from a Green Day-lite acoustic ballad ('From Cape Scott to South Beach'), 80s hued synth pop with a self-aware dollop of Billy Joel ('The Head, The Tail, The Whole Damn Thing') to a tender, harmony-laden duet ('Catching Fish Tonight'). When those songs were all learned we then began to select our scenes and begin the weaving that would thread our narrative.

Already by the evening the script was done and dusted, which is incredibly early for an Actiontrack Show, but our plans for a media collage spectacular is going to be knots of work (knots – lots *stifled cough*), which will take up the rest of our week. Although signs are good on the Good Ship JAWS: The Musical, with the Van unpacked and casting tomorrow, our production will now be full tilt to get its jazz hands in order (Jaws, Jazz hands - Jaws Hands?), with casting, dance, set and sound design all about to begin.

It looks like the sail's beginning to billow as a mighty wind is blowing us starboard.

Actiontrack Blog Day 1

Michael Kemp (who won the TY English Prize) is one of the 46 pupils who yesterday started the 2010 Actiontrack project (performance at 8.15pm on Saturday evening). He will be blogging here every day leading up to that, and here is his first entry:

Tuesday: Today was the first day of Actiontrack Showbuild for Transition Year, which intends for us little varyingly talentless tykes to try to write, star in and dance our way through our own homemade musical to be performed this Saturday, jazz hands and all. It's early days and getting 46 different people to sit down in a huddle and bang out some Gilbert and Sullivan wasn't happening - so we started off with the game ZIP ZAP BOING!, which despite sounding like a 70s New Wave band, is a game where imagination, energy and performance are drawn together in a fun, competitive icebreaker.

As the day went on, it was time for us to group into fours and fives and begin improvising our own little sketches that continue the creative flow, taking different little parts of setting and genre and melding them into one consistent whole. The acting had to end though as we looked at the meaning of genre and its conventions and clichés, and we soon studied Steven Spielberg's Jaws to form a tangent for us to spring off from, and eventually reach some footing on our own musical.

Listen to a podcast interview recorded a year ago here with Actiontrack's Nick Brace about their work and the Showbuild process.