Nine adults sitting in a circle on a Thursday night, telling stories. Sad ones and happy ones, true ones and outrageously far-fetched ones, all pulling together to create one huge woven story collectively. Two whole hours pass in what seems like minutes. All the worries and concerns of real-life are left outside in the car park, every Savvy session is like a mini-holiday from reality and stress.
We’re in the middle of an 8 week Comedy Theatre course led by John McCraw, an inspirationally talented visiting Drama Tutor. John manages to create such a warm feeling of trust in the group that it’s perfectly fine to have a go, even if that means we’re risking making a complete fool of ourselves. It really doesn’t matter, and everyone is supportively pulling together that sometimes it’s when things really go wrong that it’s funnier than ever.
Tonight we started with a Ten Finger game. Around the circle we went, one by one revealing something about ourselves that we think might be unique, holding our hands outstretched in front of us. When no one else can match the story, a finger can go down, but if others share the same experience, they too can “lose” a finger. We now know that people in our group have met Cliff Richard, Bjorn Borg, Prince Charles, David Cameron and travelled on the same bus as Terence Stamp. Four of us claim amazingly effective techniques in being able to put a sleeping bag back in the teeny weeny bags they come in, and someone wears a K size bra.
We moved onto another game, where questions, maths problems, personal questions and body language movements were fired at one person relentlessly, while they tried to cope with answering or copying everyone simultaneously. Then it was a group monologue, taking turns in carrying on a hilariously unlikely tale, the first one about starfish, mermaids, drug smugglers a necklace, a shootout and then the day being saved by Popeye riding onto the beach on the back of a whale. The second was even funnier, based in a toilet cubicle, locked in and terrified, with all sorts of twists and turns as we delved deep into our imaginations to keep the story moving along and fresh.
Finally, a group of us had to collectively tell a story, with at least one character dying by the end of the tale. Thinking on our feet, having to trust each other and change direction in where we thought the story was going, pulling it all together with some surprising revelations at the end.
What is Savvy? It’s a place where everyone is accepted, there are no auditions, no pretensions and no prima donnas. Authentic drama classes for grown-ups, but so much more than that too. We learn to take risks, to work as a team, to build trust, to accept that sometimes things go wrong and it really doesn’t matter, all skills we can take back, energised and laughing, to the car park outside and incorporate in our real lives.
Thursday evenings are just so much fun, but they also get the old brain-cells working too. We take over the hall from the Savvy Young Company, the 13 – 19 year olds doing much the same things in their sessions but with a lot more energy and oomph and fewer creaky bones.
There is also a Savvy for adults with learning difficulties as well as many groups running in schools and communities.
In this blog, we will attempt to share the essence of Savvy, it’s people young and old, and let you be that fly on the wall as each Savvy Group prepares for their next performance event. It would be great to meet you at one of them soon!
Girl on the Platform, at Brighton
These guys are awesome!
Cinderabba was amazing last Christmas, can Snow Queen raise the bar this year?