My name is Jodie and I am fourteen years old, My hobbies include acting (obviously) , playing violin and writing. I like to act because it let's me express myself and I love acting in front of an audience especially because I get to show people my talent and share it with others , and every time I perform I gain more confidence. I found out about this project because I was already participating in a drama project called 'love hurts' with one of the 'writing all wrongs' mentors from perform L8 , so when that project finished , we were all told about this new project and I joined straight away , because It was another opportunity to act and I knew most of my old drama group were going to join the new project so I would already have friends within the group.
As the project progressed we became closer and closer and felt more comfortable acting in front of each other. We also became closer to our mentors; Caroline and Jeni who supported and encouraged us throughout the project. Rehearsals usually took place at LIPA , and I enjoyed these sessions because it was a chance to see everyone , do a few warm up games and then get down to some serious acting. The rehearsals always had a really nice atmosphere because everyone was friendly and helped each other to do their best. I was anxious to perform in some venues , like in youth clubs because the teenagers were intimidating and I thought they might laugh at us whilst we were performing , but most of them didn't and on the rare occasion that they did , we decided not to let it get to us , because we were proud of our performance. I liked performing at the theatres the most. Such as the theatre in the Maritime museum and the Lantern theatre. I liked performing here the most because the audience were more mature and more people came to see the plays. Also ,I liked the fact that the lighting and sound were done to perfection. The feedback from the audiences made me extremely proud of myself and the rest of the group as it let us know that we'd achieved what we wanted , which was to help people in our characters situation and to make people understand how hard life is for people in various situations that we explained in the play. From doing this project I have gained knowledge on the civil rights movement in America , I have gained acting skills such as learning how to memorise a monologue and act in mime, I have also gained confidence in my acting skills and I have made some really good friends that I know I will stay in contact with even though the project is finished. Thankyou to Caroline and Jeni for giving us this amazing opportunity and I am very thankful.