Cee Cee's Latest: . . . AND I'M BACK!!! :D

It seems that the gap between my blog posts keep on getting larger :s. But that only means that I have more to write about :). If you remember my last post, you would have known that July was a jam packed creative month for me, and maybe even came along to support some of the shows I had going on. 'Truth About Youth' was predominantly the focus of the month as it was a two week project consisting of four main events, Three of which I was a part of and the other which I supported by attending. Two plays, a talent filled night and a film & documentary screening at the Ritzy Cinema. I can't say that it was anything but a complete and utter amazing success!! I am so pleased I was a part of it and it was definitely a month to remember.

Everyone who attended the two week festival, a massive thank you. It means so much having the support of friends, family, and even complete strangers who believe in a good cause, and support and promote young talent. I'll start by updating you about the popular promenade play called 'D', performed by the Oval House Theatre Company Class.

(The Cast of 'D')
By the feedback I received it was clear the audience weren't quite sure what they were in for until they arrived. As I mentioned in Junes post, this show wasn't in a theatre, but in different locations around Oval. The church yard, a mini park, a hotel reception, a dance studio. The audience were escorted from location to location, or scene to scene sometimes by escorts, and other times by the characters ourselves, to view snippets of a day in the life of a group of young friends, the day of the memorial, one year on from the death of their closest friend D.
Most of my scenes were in a small cafe on the high street. I played the character of Tilly who spent her days working in a cafe, close friend of D and was secretly in love with him, but never got the chance to tell him before he died.

The moment I stepped in that cafe for my first dress rehearsal on location, I felt right at home. The shop owner was incredibly friendly, she wasnt too frightened watching me use her cups, plates and making sandwiches behind her counter, so I didnt feel too nervous. My character had an emotional roller coaster to jump on every performance. Interacting with only Three other characters in the show. The first being her younger brother Antwan, who came to her work place for relationship advice.

You see her soft but stern side. Then Leon. Her former hostile boyfriend who just came out of prison the day of D's memorial, to what seems to be taunting her, then turns out to be seeking comfort in her. You see her vulnerably emotional as well as her taunting conniving side.

The last scene in which most of the characters in the play came together for the first time, was at the memorial sight. A small green space in the middle of a residential area, where we had flowers and little notes written to D. It looked like a real accident had happened there, and along with our flowers the portrait of D and our method acting with each of us in tears. . . members of the public often stopped to ask who died and offer their condolences. At first it was funny, after a couple of times I felt quite guilty. For people who didn't understand that we were just acting there was genuine hurt in their eyes. But as our rehearsals ended and the first show was about to begin, we saw it as a compliment to our performance. That our acting was that convincing that passers by believed someone had actually died.
We ran that show for four days. It was an emotional and challenging show to put on which we'd been working on since last year September, so you can imagine how sad I was to see it end. But I had another show to concentrate on the following week. . . .

'Bussin' It'!!!

Now Bussin' It was an absolute hit! We sold out every night before any of the shows begun. A play on a bus. . . in Brixton. . . It definitely drew a lot of attention from the public. This play was all about challenging the publics negative perceptions of young people, by exploring different stories of ordinary people on in a ordinary situation. A place you often find young people. . . a bus! Of course because it was on a bus there were only so many seats for an audience. A day or two into our shows we discovered our old bus had a CD player. This meant a lil party before the evenings performances. Babs. . . had a huge grill under a gazebo every day with BBQ'd Jerk Chicken ready for us before our call time, with snacks such as banana cake, chocolate and crisps. . . We definitely ate well that week.

In this play, I played 16year old Samantha . It wasn't hard getting in touch with the dialect of a typical teenager, but once I started I couldnt stop. Most of my friends found my new found so called 'ghetto' terminolgy quite funny, and it didnt help when I put on my custome for the first time. Ok, I have to admit I really did look 16 when I put on the school uniform. No one would have known it was a 23 year old they were looking at. Just walking through Brixton for lunch in my costume proved that. One evening I went across to McDonald's and a member of staff automatically begun to patronize me . . . I wont get into that story. It was annoying but it related to our project in big way (challenging the publics perception of youth), so I had to see the funny side of it.

My character was on the bus on the way home from school, and happened to be on the same bus that her annoying and over protective Dad worked on as the ticket inspector. My scene consisted of an awkward conversation about my character Sam, choosing a college to go to, which may have just been a little to far away for her Dad to handle. During the short and sometimes funny scene, you see Sam and her endearing father go from an argument to him accepting that she has grown up and really rather sensible. Myself and Kraig Blake who played my Dad, got a mention in the review of the show :). . . check it out . . .

Check out the Review for Bussin It . . .

http://www.ayoungertheatre.com/review-bussin-it/

The Documentary & Finale Bit . . .

The very last night of 'Bussin' It' we were asked to do two performances. It had such a high response and every night had sold out. Our director thought we should give another bus full of people the opportunity to see it. So of course the whole cast agreed. Also that night there was a viewing of a documentary of our work, from last September to that very week, across the square at the Ritzy Cinema. . . as well as a film featuring the cast of the younger Oval House Company. . .

It was an emotional day and had the entire cinema in tears after watching all our hard work squashed into an hour documentary on the big screen. The final part of Truth About Youth was our own after party, upstairs in an exclusive area in the Ritzy Cinema with canapes and a fab DJ, a beautiful balcony, friends and amazing vibes.

I cant forget to mention Summers Live! It was an evening of Music, dance, drama and our famous Oval House after party.

We had artists such as Lowkey, Obwena and Khalaeliah grace our stage with their musical talent. We also had Vintage Star with their unique infusion of dance, drama and sign language. We also had Summers Live very own Improvisation Group, with well known actors Michael Salami, Aiesha Lindsay, Sam Benjamin, Rosie Christian and many more. Hosted By Justin and Nick aka JCX and Slick. It was a fab and fun night!
It was a jam packed two weeks which I'll never forget. Of all the years I've been involved with the Oval House Theatre, this year has by far got to be the most fulfilling. Toby Clarke definately made a success story out of the very first, but I'm sure not the last of the Truth About Youth project.

Here's a little video of all our Best Bits
Courtesy of Michael Salami (MUST WATCH)

New Look CH>NCES!!!

In the midst of the Truth About Youth season, CH>NCES was also going on. The show I was a part of in March came back in July, and although I couldn't be a part of it due to my other shows, I supported the cast (my wonderful friends) in every way I could. I watched the performance on three nights. A lot had changed in terms of extended scenes and added scenes, and the space they performed in was a whole load bigger than previous. It was fab! and wonderful to sit and enjoy it from the other side. I was so proud of the Ch>nces team!

Me on the BIG Screen

As well as Truth About Youth, I had the long awaited greatly anticipated screening of 'Kool Beans Comedy Sketches'!!

For the first time I saw myself act on the big screen and it was definately exciting. Kool Beans have been creating their own comedy sketches for a while now and i was honoured to be part of the launch of their first series of sketches. . . It was great fun filming and even greater watching it! Myself and my friend Michael Salami rushed along to BFI in Waterloo, after an audition to watch the screening. We also met Malum of Malum TV. The famous comedy writer himself, which was pretty cool :).

Presenter For One Night & FELA the MUSICAL

About a month ago an old friend of mine Mr Ola Masha, asked me to present/host a film club that he was running. Now I've never hosted anything before and was very nervous at first, but I wasn't about to turn down a offer like that. It was held in a intimate cinema space of around 24 seats. . . very cozy. . . sofas with cushions, a lil canape for the audience to snack on. . . a bar downstairs to buy cocktails. A nice lil place in Balham called Exihbit. The film club takes place every month and the theme of the film club I happened to be hosting was African History. The evening kicked off with short film written and directed by Anthony Abuah.

"A short film that focuses on a single-parent family from Rwanda-Tutsi, now based in London, fifteen years after the Rwandan genocide. The title character, Cyirima is an aspiring musician who falls in love with her producer boyfriend who turns out to be of Hutu origin. This is an intense drama that deals with themes of reconciliation and unforgiveness that is often a struggle in people who have been treated harshly in life".

Straight after that film we had a short break and went right into the main film of discussion for the night. . . 1990's musical feauturing Whoopi Goldburg, Sarfina!

"This film is a musical take on the South African struggles against Apartheid in the mid-1970s, during the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. Sarafina recounts the political coming of age of the title character, a high school girl involved in the Soweto student protests of 1976".

Now after these two brilliant films and a short break Ola introduced a panel of three guest speakers to our audience for me to interview and help out with our discussion for the night.
I couldn't have been leading a more controversial topic for discussion. It got quite heated. But very educational. It left me hungry to learn more about the country I descended from. As a treat/thank you, Ola took me to see 'FELA' the musical!!

Everyone who knows me, knows i love a good musical, but this fed my hunger for education in this area a little more. Produced by Will & Jada Pinkett -Smith and Jay Z, it is a musical based on the true story of the Nigerian musician and civil rights fighter Fela Kuti, and his journey to defy the corrupt military government of his time. He devoted his life to bringing freedom and spreading his music. The show is currently on a world tour and i'm so grateful I got to see it before it left London to travel to Washington D.C! Gosh do I love Musicals . . . which brings me on to my last topic . . .

REHAB the MUSICAL!!!!!

"If a convict was victimized, and a victim convicted, who would need rehab?"

Last But Not least . . . I performed in another show! A musical to be exact. 'REHAB the MUSICAL' a Gospel production written, directed and choreographed by my friends Samuel and Sherrel Miller. We begun Rehearsals in July and performed for three nights at the Lost Theatre 1st, 2nd and 3rd of September. As long as ive been acting I learned my most valuable lessons working with this family run Christian Drama Company. It was an experience which came and went so quickly, but one I will never forget.

As you can imagine, theatre isn't easy as it is already, so imagine all the hard work that goes into a making a musical. There's the dancing, singing and acting, which on this occasion wasn't all done by the same people. This was Sherrel and Sams first production and they did it all by themselves. Their wonderful parents played a huge part in the production also. Cooking us dinner before each show, taking photos and recording our rehearsals, collecting keys in far off places so we'd have somewhere to rehearse, buying and making our props. I must say they are a very blessed and all round talented family.
I guess you're wanting to know what I learned. Well to be completely honest, the last few days approaching the show were extremely, tremendously stressful and frustrating. On top of us not having the chance to do a complete run through for various reasons, and the threat of one of our main actors not being able to perform the last night, I had absolutely no sleep in over 5 days running. I took up a night job in which I worked from 8pm till 7am the following morning. Giving me only enough time to go home, have a bath and leave straight for a 'full day' rehearsal.

From rehearsals, I'd leave to go home, have a bath and go straight back out to work again . . . and the tedious routine carried on for almost a week. I had no time whatsoever sleep, apart from on the train journey to work. I lived off coffee, espressos and Red Bulls which im pretty sure affected my moods. Yes! I know. Dangerous, but a girl has gotta make a living whilst perusing her dreams ;). On top of that, I was in the midst of a four day workshop course with some of the top theatre, film and T.V casting directors in the country. Not only was this a great opportunity for me to network, gain experience and knowledge about the industry I intend to get into full time, but this was also a four day audition to join the books for the agency that organised the course. Believe it or not, I have no agent :o. Even though I have done pretty well for myself without one for the past few years, It it high time I move further into my chosen career, and I most certainly need an agent to do so. Sooo that was added pressure.

My point is, I was so busy I had no sleep, I wasn't confident about the progress the show was making so I got frustrated, annoyed and even angry at times. I was so worried about how I'd look on stage if I didn't have scenes thoroughly rehearsed, my fellow actors didn't know their lines, if I wasn't familiar with transitions, and in all, how I would look. The 1st night of the show my lack of faith was clear to one of my directors, she asked me if I wanted to pray with her, and said we would be ok. With out her having to say very much, I went up to the dressing room to take a breather, listen to my gospel music, and meditate for a while. I quickly realised that this wasn't any ordinary show that I was part of. This wasn't about me, or just putting on a show for the sake of it. Sam and Sherrel wrote a play to reach out to people and spread the word of God, through the talents God has given them, through song dance and acting. I quickly realised that no matter how unorganized we were at the time, it would turn out fine, because we were doing this for God, and not ourselves. I was proved right. We did fantastically. Without ever doing a run through, knowing transitions, counts or even how it ended, we put on a brilliant show. We touched hearts, and enjoyed ourselves up there. After the first nights show everyone was surprised by how we managed to do it. No doubt God was definitely with us. We just needed a little faith.

. . . So many things threatened to let our show down, but it all worked out fine. The final night our friend Aaron Deacon stepped in as lighting director, as the man who worked the tech booth the first night couldn't make it. One of our leading ladies, who we originally thought may not have made it to the last show. . . did! We had a fantastic run! And I met some of the most amazing people. Its no secret that I grow attached to people I work with whenever it comes to theatre. Everyone knows I'm well soppy.
It doesnt help that I'm probably just about the most sentimental person in the world. But when you spend so much time with people and have almost everything in common, bonding is something that often happens. But the cast of Rehab was different. You're all fantastic, incredibly talented and some of the sweetest hearts I've ever some across. I want you all to know that you are in my heart. You are all beautiful inside and out and I love you!

I cant forget to mention two people who touched my heart the moment I met them. The wonderfully talented Gospel artists David and Martin also known as Dave Martin. During intervals I sat and spoke to them, about life in general. They inspired me to utalise all my talents, passions and abilities rather than just concentrate on one (acting). They let me know that if God has given me more than one, I need to use them all. That conversation was just confirmation for thoughts and ideas that had been circulating in my mind that week, I was supposed to meet them no doubt. And through that conversation I have already begun to put it all into action. So thank you David and Martin . . . AND a HUGE Thank You Sam and Sherrel. I'm sure God is so proud of you, I have so much love and respect for you both and your wonderful parents. I want you all to know that you have inspired me and helped me realize my purpose. To use my God given talents for Gods glory.