Last Few Months...

I am terribly sorry for not keeping up to date, I've been busy and not checking up my blog. I've realised that recently I've been doing a lot of stuff and not sharing it! I've been in Inverness, Pitlochry, London, Glasgow. I'm doing two courses at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and workshops lead by Solar Bear, working in the office, doing a show in the Arches on the 18th of December. I am too busy these days.

Well, I'm just relaxing in my bed, with my iPod next to me which I got for my birthday. It's one of these relaxing days (I like relaxing days...). I'm just having a think about the last few months, I've been doing a lot!

In October, I did an audition for Frantic Assembly and got shortlisted! Which is something I'm proud of considering that it is a physically demanding course and I'm not the world fittest person. Also I've been visiting Pitlochry Festival Theatre, observing their rehearsal process for "The Steamie" and interviewing their staff members. It was a different experience and the reason because it wasn't the kind of theatre I've heard of (I should but honestly, I didn't!). They do 6 shows a week during the summer season meaning they would have to constantly change the sets on stage and actors had to get into different costumes and different characters (they're in 4 shows a week...). Fascinating. I also joined a course which is called "Introduction to Acting Training" which is so far a fabulous course but challenging. We have our journals to do and try and remember what happened the week before as the course is happening every Sunday not everyday! Although it being every Sunday, it's hard to keep track but it ensures that you're able to connect with the class and keep in touch with them all. Also I've start Deaf Theatre Skills which runs every Tuesday night and it's going great so far. I've done it last year and I've enjoyed it immensely and I wanted to continue with it.

In November, I've visited the Citizens Theatre which was interesting. Met a lot of staff members and observed the rehearsals for Jungle Book (I'm seeing this tonight, can't wait!). I also went to London to see Deafinitely Theatre production of "Two" and it was fantastic. I got a bit emotional on some parts, especially the abusive boyfriend. That gave me a lump in my throat. Also met the co-founders of Handprint Theatre and also Reading University students.

In December, I went down to Inverness to visit Eden Court Theatre which is great fun. We helped to make props for the production of HUMMM-BUG! It was great fun and the show is hilarious even though it is for under 5s! If a 20 year old laugh at this show and enjoys the show then I'm pretty sure it's for all ages. I'm seeing it this Friday which I'm excited about.

Ok, I pinkie promise that I will blog more and I will keep you guys up to date with numerous of things that are happening. Next plan? Jungle Book at the Citzens Theatre, performance tomorrow and HUMM-BUG! this Friday. Then it's Christmas! In the New Year, I will be down at the Conservatoire a lot so if you're a Conservatoire student, please contact me. I got questions. Plently. It doesn't matter if you're in short courses or a full time student. Any courses will do. THANK YOU! (email: ciaran@solarbear.org.uk)

I'm freaking hungry and I haven't had lunch yet so hope this is interesting...

Forest Fringe: Future of Accessible Theatre

Recently I went to the Forest Fringe where they made performances accessible for deaf people. It was a great day. There was interpreters there. There was artists willing to have interpreters in their performances. This is the attitude that theatre makers/directors should be having. A willing attitude and to allow accessibility happening. It gets me excited but it is still a long journey in the future and it will take time for it to happen...

It started off with a discussion about accessibility in theatre. There was two groups, one for the audiences and one for artists. I joined the "artists" side as it is something I feel strongly about. I raised my hand up to say something but we ran out of time in the end sadly so I spoke to Andy about what I wanted to say. I wanted to raise the point about the word "deaf". When people talk about deaf, they tend to generalise "deaf" and assume it means someone who can't hear anything at all and signs. This is not the case. I am profoundly deaf with a cochlear implant and I prefer oral over sign language. I've only been learning sign language for 3 years now but I prefer to speak. There was talks about "problems" with deaf people when really the only way to "solve" the "problem" is by communicating with the deaf person via email or text. They will tell them about their preferred communication methods. Interpreter or no interpreter? It is up to them and if they don't need it, they don't need it.

There was two shows that really stood out for me, "I wish I was Lonely" and "Hoke's Bluff". They were fantastic productions. "I wish I was Lonely" was a show that involved using phones. At the start, we had to write down our phone numbers on a card, give it to the performers and sit anywhere in the audience. Once everyone sat down, the cards got passed around with someone's number on it. We had to text one another saying why we needed our phone. I got someone number who I've been working for that week so therefore it was a bit funny. I had awful signal in that room so my text couldn't be sent through and I couldn't receive their text until later. Sadly. The performance made me think about phones in general. I admit I usually spend my time with my phone in my hand checking facebook or twitter occasionally. One of the performance said that you should go out without your phone in your hand and take in everything around you. Get on the bus and look out of the window, admiring the scenery. So far have I done it? Not yet but I will... Only problem is that the interpreter can be difficult to see. It's to do with the positioning and sometimes the actors can go in front of it but that's just a minor problem. Apart from that, fantastic performance. Possibly the best performance I've seen this year.

The other performance I saw was Hoke's Bluff. This was filled with energy at the start. Cheesy songs, a mascot dancing in the middle of the stage, someone with a tray filled with popcorn, a referee. This made me feel like I'm in an American Football game. High energy. But this play focuses on the couple, one was a cheerleader and one was a football player. It was great. The football player was called Tyler and what I love about it is that they used the audience and refer to a member as "Tyler". It was something different and hilarious. It was like the audience were actors and characters. Great. I love their use of the interpreters. They've integrated the signing into the performance. They didn't make Yvonne Strain in a corner just standing and signing away. They got her to be a part of the performance. They got her dressing up as a coach and reacting to what was happening on the stage. They showed a great example of using interpreters in a performance. They balanced the tragic side to the story and the energy side of the story. There wasn't a slow transition between them, it was face paced. It was fantastic. I was dancing along with the cheesy songs and sympathised  with the characters on the stage. It was fabulous. GO WILDCATS!

Forest Fringe is the start of something new. I cannot believe it existed for 7 years and I wasn't aware of this. I have subscribed to their newsletter and hope to see future productions with them. Fantastic day. Met a lot of wonderful theatre makers and artists. They were the loveliest bunch of people I have ever met and I hope there will be more people like them. It is still a long hurdle. A long wait. But it will be worth it. 

My week with Deaf and Hearing Ensemble...

This week, I have been in Edinburgh working with Jennifer Bates's up and coming theatre company called "Deaf and Hearing Ensemble". It was good fun and it had it's up and downs. I've spoken to many people this week and increased my confidence in networking. I just wish I had my business cards printed out then. I arrived on the Sunday the 18th, meeting the cast of "Deaf and Hearing Ensemble". I couldn't ask for the most welcoming bunch I've ever met. They made me feel like I'm a part of their crew.


I was nervous about working with them. They are experienced in the theatre world and had a wealth of knowledge. I talked to them and they were talking about their experiences and what they did previously made me want to achieve my dream so badly. They were working with a lot of people, had great relationships with directors, performed on stage multiple times and most importantly, they were talented. This talented bunch were Sophie Stone, Jacob Casselden, David Sands, Nadia Nadarajah, Brian Ferguson and Lucy Ellinson. They were my inspiration.


We did several activities throughout the week and even though I wasn't performing, I wasn't afraid to contribute my ideas to the piece that they were doing on the Wednesday night/Friday night. My favourite task of this week was being given 20 minutes to go and find a location, 3 minutes away from the rehearsal space. We were given 20 minutes to write down about that location that we were in. I chose mine to be at the bottom of the stairs and loved it. I wanted to run down the stairs in the building to see how far I would get. When I got there, I had no signal on my phone and I felt lonely. In a good way. There was a fire exit next to me so I felt safe and heard noises upstairs which sounded like ghosts singing. I felt like I was scared. Scared of what might happen to me. Which is a weird combination, a combination of safeness and creepiness. When I went to see the others, they all had an interesting choice of location. Sophie was at a grassy area near the Edinburgh Castle, Jacob was in an isolated land surrounded by rubbish and David was at the opposite side of the Castle with coaches blocking his view. It was different. I have done this task before and it was weird to see the differences in what Deaf Youth Theatre did before and what they did with the task. I felt that I've used my creativity well in this activity and I felt proud of myself to be able to showcase my thoughts and feelings. They used the idea of the stairs and the haunting feeling into their piece on Friday. Love it.


Another activity which was new to me and I've enjoyed was the "breathing" task. Lorna Penney lead this workshop which was odd for me because she worked with my dad before when he was a lecturer at Ayr College. Small world. She got us to go back to back with a partner (my partner was Sophie) and told us to basically breathe. We had to learn about our breathing and ourselves whilst learning about the partner's breathing. It was odd for me as I only met Sophie the night before for the first time and we have to do something that is quite intimate and close. We were then told to lie into each other shoulders and breathe once again. Afterwards we had to move around and communicate with each other by using our breath. We would breath quickly, slowly, quietly, loudly. In any shape or form. We were communicating. I felt like we were in trouble and did something awful but we had each other. We had elements of love, trust and support with each other. It was a great way of getting to know one another without using English or Sign Language to communicate. It was surreal and quite nice. Probably the most weirdest thing I've ever done but I thoroughly enjoyed it.


As I mentioned, they did two performances and I was heavily involved in one of them which was for "The Bloody Great Border Ballad Project". I had to check on Youtube the right order for this title. It is a pretty long one right? We saw the performance on Monday night. Basically, it's a bunch of poems about this girl who was born on the border between England and Scotland on the day of the Scottish Independence. The first poem starts off with the girl's birth so she's a baby. The next artist adds on a verse when she's 5 years old. Then the next artist adds on a verse when she's 10 years old. Get it? Yep, I didn't either. It's one of these projects where you had to be there to understand what the fuck is going on. I watched the performance without understanding what was going on but we spent all day on Tuesday the 20th trying to understand what was going on in the girl's life. It was just fascinating.You can check out the verses on Youtube. Just search "The Bloody Great Border Ballad Project" and there it is. Simple eh? I wish the title was... Here is the video of the Deaf and Hearing Ensemble performing verse 17!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D84V3YtOMJY
Check it out!


This blog is probably the most hardest blog I've ever typed up. It's really hard to condense my time in Edinburgh so this blog is dedicated to Deaf and Hearing Ensemble. Jennifer Bates, thank you for the experience. It made me think about my future and made me think about my own decisions. It certainly opened my mind a bit. In the next blog, I will be talking about my time at the Forest Fringe.

Deaf and Hearing Ensemble do have a twitter so check them out! @Ensemble_DH

Over the next year, there is going to be changes in my life. It's going to be a toughie and a risk but I am willing to make rash decisions. Watch this space...

My Experiences as a Bad Guy...

Recently, I have finished performing at the "The Birthday of the Infanta" at Eastwood Park Theatre in Glasgow. I've been up early, travelling to Glasgow, working there from 10 till 5 and staying over there for a few days. It has been a tiring time but a rewarding experience. We started rehearsing for this piece last year with the performance supposed to happen in October. It got cancelled due to other commitments and the fact that some of the actors was really busy during that time. I portrayed a character of Don Pedro. I was Don Pedro last year and this year aswell.


Don Pedro is one of the most difficult characters I have ever portrayed. He is a villain in the story and his controlling nature made it difficult to play this character. For the first two weeks of the rehearsals, I used a stick that used to be a mop but was used as his own staff. Using this has helped me so much as it gave me an idea of how would he be holding the staff and how would use it. The stick is his power. The stick helps him to control people in a way he expected to do so. He didn't care for anyone, he only cared for himself. He wanted to be able to run the palace in a way that it should be run. He believed that the king was an awful king and he doesn't take things too seriously. Don Pedro didn't care for the Infanta aswell. The Infanta (spanish word for princess) was the daughter of the King but after the death of the Queen he decided to give her up. Don Pedro was the one who raised her. He wanted to be able to be the one who controls the palace so morphing her into someone who is quite reserved and easily controlled is something Don Pedro is happy about. He can do as he pleases. But she found someone called Carlos who she loves and is happy again. He was furious. He had a scar on his face and his back. Don Pedro thought that it wasn't a good look and the fact the Infanta loves him means he could be the future king. He didn't want that and decided he must go therefore is responsible for the death of Carlos.


He was a horrible person. I had to disconnect my emotions at the end and not cry for the Infanta and Carlos because of emotions involved in that scene. I almost got into tears on Saturday when I saw Claire (the Infanta) coming on stage, almost in tears. I managed to ignore the feelings and carried on with the scene without crying. Even though he was a horrible character, I had a lot of fun playing him. There is something compelling about playing an evil character. You get to do things you wouldn't normally do in real life. I get to stamp my stick in frustration, I get to give judgmental looks, I get to control people. I'm not like that at all but being able to do this is so much fun. It wasn't easy but once you ease yourself in it, it was great fun.


My favourite moment in the rehearsals was when myself, Connor and Adam (who played Carlos) went to a room with Jane (our choreographer) and Daniel (works at Solar Bear and is an actor) to do some work on our character. Jane brought in a bag filled with grass, sticks, soil, bugs from the forest and dumped it on a bunch of newspapers for us to play about with. It was very helpful for Adam to work on as his character lived in the forest since he was a baby. I sat down and created several pieces based on the characters of the play. I created the King with a wilted leaf, representing his heartbreak, I created the Infanta using soil to make her dress and several petals shaped like a heart all over the dress itself, I created Don Pedro using soil to made a torso and several sticks in place to represent several hands, controlling the palace as he is a puppeteer. I also created the palace and what would it look like. There was a lot of long grass so I placed them together and made a roof out of them along with soil placed in front of them, with grass on top of them. It looked a bit dark, representing what it looked like under Don Pedro power. It looked like there was life sucked out of it. Happiness didn't exist. There was more judgement, discrimination and prejudice occurring. There was a certain sadness to it. Daniel brought in masks for us to try out and get ourselves into character with. We got ourselves into mask and improvised a scene. We can do it with interaction or no interaction at all. It was great fun. I've managed to pick out a couple of things from it which made Don Pedro who he is now. He is a perfectionist and obsessed with things being clean and precised. His posture suggested that he looks down on people, his tall stance made him seem superior. His judgmental nature came across in that scene when he meets Carlos and his disgust at him showed. This workshop really helped me a lot. It helped me with the understanding of the story and the character of Don Pedro. It helped me develop him future and make him a well rounded person. An evil person.


Performing Don Pedro in front of the audience was the hardest thing I've ever done. I knew the audience wouldn't like him and I was nervous about it. I didn't want to play him as a panto villain. I wanted him to be a subtle villain. I wanted him to bring an atmosphere to the stage, a negative atmosphere. I think I've achieved this after hearing the audience feedback. The feedback was great as they said they hated my character, how evil I was, how they wanted to punch me and how surprised they were that I was a lovely person in real life (this is ironic considering they are really negative things but it's positive to me). I was pleased with the reaction. I am happy they reacted like that. It was exactly how I wanted it to be.


This has been one of my highlights of 2013. The Birthday of the Infanta is amazing. I don't care if I come across as bias but it honestly is. I loved every minute of it. This won't be the last time you'll see Don Pedro though...

Did I mention, this was one of the best weekend ever?

                                     DYT crew at NFYT. Picture taken by Karen Forbes. 

I am currently upset. I've been eating plenty of chocolates, crisps and drank so many Irn Bru. I can't sleep. I am in denial. I am suffering terribly. I have not been well. A terrible condition called "NFYT blues" has taken over my body.


Okay, that is a little bit too dramatic. A couple of days ago, I've came home from a 4-days festival called NFYT and it has been the best weekend ever due to the workshops. NFYT is short for National Festival of Youth Theatre. This is the eighth year NFYT has done their weekend and my third year with them. NFYT provides training opportunities for young people to participate in. They can do the workshops, make up a performance from "scratch" or get involved in the young critics programme. It also gives the youth theatre the opportunity to perform on the main stage at Rothes Hall in Glenrothes. They also gave people who are 18 and over the opportunity to become "Amigos" which is basically a youth theatre. They were in charge of their particular group and took them to their workshops. They also lead workshops, playing games with the young people. One of the ex-DYT members, Bea Webster, was one of the Amigos and I thought I would give her a special mention in saying "YOU'VE DONE WELL BEA!".


I literally just sat in front of the screen, thinking about what I should talk about in the next paragraph and I didn't know where to start. We've been camping in Fife for NFYT for 4 days, a lot has happened over the weekend. I would have to say that the camping has been my least favourite part. On the first night (last Friday, 5th of July), a swarm of midges has attacked me and Danielle. We screamed and sprayed midge repellent all over the place. It was horrible. Today is Thursday (the 12th of July) and the midge bites are finally healing up. I woke up one day thinking it was actually 6/7 in the morning. Got dressed and grabbed myself a towel, ready for a shower but when I came out of the tent, no one was up at all. It was actually half 3 in the flipping morning! I was not happy. Here's me who forced himself to get up thinking "it's time for a shower" and then realising that it was too early. Apart from that, the weekend has been fab. I can't believe I just said the word "fab"...


As I mentioned before, NFYT is an opportunity for young people to perform. My youth theatre group, Deaf Youth Theatre (DYT), performed Funk'n'Love. This is the third time DYT performed Funk'n'Love and this is also my third time performing Funk'n'Love. We've performed this at the Arches in 2011 as part of Inspiration Festival and in 2012, we performed in the Arches for Arches Live. We've had great reviews and to perform this again was an amazing opportunity. I must admit, when I first heard about this, I was a bit skeptical because there are new people who has never been a part of the performance before. I felt like they wouldn't understand the importance of the message and what inspiration means to all of us. But they've understood the performance quickly and brilliantly. They worked their butts off to make this the best performance. Our director, Jennifer Bates, came back from London (she left DYT/Solar Bear to move to London with her husband) to direct this performance. She said this would be the best Funk'n'Love ever. Thank god she was right. When we performed, we received a standing ovation and positive reviews from people who cried their way throughout the performance. I was proud of myself and the fellow actors for putting out the best performance of Funk'n'Love ever. We only had 5 days rehearsals yet the performance was fantastic. Yes, I will keep saying that the performance was fantastic because it was!


Moving on, the workshops at NFYT has been top notch. Better than the past two years I've attended. Workshops included stage combat, dance, magic, text and comedy. They've all been great workshops but my favourite was magic. We did a 3 hours long workshop and I had so much fun. Learnt magic that everyone else couldn't do so. What I love about it is that they didn't just focus on magic but also on the showmanship of magic. The importance of "milking it" in magic. When you're doing magic, you present magic and connect with the audience whilst doing so. This adds more to the magic as the actual magic trick itself is very short. I loved learning the tricks and mess up people's brain. I did one of the trick the other day and she was shocked by the tricked and kept asking me questions on how did I do it. I also did other workshops but this is by far the best. I will continue to be a magician and keep the secrets behind the tricks. When I did the dancing workshop, I was atrocious at it. It was cheesy pop dancing and I couldn't do the dance to save myself. Despite this, I had a great time. Mucking up the moves was an ice breaker and got me joking with other people. I am terribly sorry if I have stepped on your foot or punched you in the face by accident. The dancing was hard...


I'd like to thank Promote YT for the best weekend. I've throughly enjoyed it. I would list all my favourite moments into one blog but it'll be massive and a bit too long to read. Also to Solar Bear for making the weekend happen. You're the best (cheesy person here...). To check out our weekend and our pictures with clips from our performances, here is the video for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6B-uJ_nosA.


I am a new blogger and would appreciate criticisms on my blog. I want to learn and improve my blogging skills and learn from you guys. If you like it, please say so and why. If you don't like it, please say so and why. I am learning.

104 Film Workshop

I was suppose to type up about this as soon as I got home but stupid me decided to forget my own username and after hours of working out what it was (it was a bit silly really, I should of asked Google to email me my own flipping username!)

ANYWAY, on the Tuesday the 25th of June, I attended a workshop which was at Edinburgh which was based solely on film making. This was a different experience for me because I am an actor and I've always been interested in performing on Theatre stage and in front of camera. This was about being BEHIND the camera and directing. It was very interesting although there was only one workshop really for two days. The workshop we did was with William Mager who goes by the name of Billy. He did a workshop about being a director behind camera. I wasn't really interested in becoming a director but it may possibly happen in the future and is something that I might give a try so it was useful hearing from him about his experiences and camera techniques. I learnt something new! It was also fantastic to hear from a deaf person who was at the top of his profession and is doing well for himself. He is a director who just happens to be deaf.

After the workshop, we went down to the Traverse Theatre Bar (it was only exclusively open to people who were film directors, actors etc so it was nice to feel special in that environment) and had the most delicious food. Afterwards there was a free bar and as part of the workshop, we had to do some networking. I am the shiest person in the whole world (although my father may disagree with me on that) so networking is something I've dreaded. I gave it my best shot and only received one business card...

This is something I found difficult as a deaf person as the environment was extremely busy and noisy and for me it was not pleasant as I had to rely on lip reading. Sometimes it works out well, sometimes it doesn't but having an interpreter there really helped me to get all that information. I was with my pal, Bea Webster who helped me to think of all the questions to ask and I tried my best to speak up but me being shy, it was hard.

The film workshop was a part of the Edinburgh Film Festival so there was the opportunity to go out and watch some films. We saw a film called "All Cats Are Brilliant". You would think it was about cats and me being a cat lover, I was really excited about this film. It did not involve cats at all. Disappointed but moving on, the film was okay. It was about a girl who was obviously struggling with her own life. Her fiance was in jail for being a terrorist, she was in part of the group who wanted to free him as he wasn't a terrorist, her parents didn't support her beliefs, she wanted to move out but couldn't at the same time as she was a nanny to a young boy who she loved and cared for. Despite her struggles, in the end, she danced away at a party forgetting about it all. For me, political films are not my favourite things in the world but this was focusing on one person who was going through this struggle which was a different perception and really interesting. The end was just stunning as she was at a party just dancing away for the last 10 minutes and only one single shot was used. It was just simply beautiful and lovely to view.

The next morning, we got up with breakfast at our door in the hotel (we were staying over at a stunning hotel with modernised rooms which was comfortable, best hotel ever). We went back to the cinema to see another film which was completely different called "Of Snails and Men". It's about a guy who worked in a factory which was about to close down and he decided to buy the factory by getting all his fellow workmates to donate sperm to a clinic for 50 dollars each. Of course things didn't work out so well. It was a Romanian film which was unique for me because I've never really watched that much international films so watching a film in a different language with subtitles was weird because I'm so used to watching films that are in English. An experience which I hopefully will never forget. The film was quite good, the performance from the actors in the film was really great. The fact that the film had three languages involved, Romanian, French and Spanish which was something I found quite interesting. Therefore there was language barriers for everyone but still understood through subtitles.

We headed back to the Traverse for lunch and then went to a talk by the people of "Coming Up" which was a scheme that helps scriptwriters and directors to showcase their work on Channel 4. Although I wasn't really interested in writing up scripts or being a director the scheme was quite interesting which got me and Bea thinking about writing up a script. Se we decided to collaborate and write our scripts together. There has been interesting debates and not so interesting debates. This happens all the time eh?

The two days we've spent felt really short. The networking hour could be more and maybe have an extra networking hour on the second day and maybe stay in Edinburgh for 2 days. Also have more workshops. I felt I only learnt a little and only motivated me to do something. Maybe workshops on acting in front of camera, camera work, young critics etc. This would be something that would benefit the mass audience rather than just directors and film makers. This is just my opinion. Apart from this, it was a different experience as I wanted to become an actor but made me think of trying out different things.

My Sparkling New Blog

As part of my Solar Bear's Apprentice work, I have to draw up a blog about my work in Solar Bear and here it is! My new blog! I haven't really blogged before and it wasn't really my forte with these kind of things but here goes...

I am Ciaran Stewart (dunno why I repeated this as it is in the info part but hey-ho!) and I am from the simple town of Ayr. Boring really. I have worked hard in building up skills and confidence so that I can become a professional actor. My history consist of being a part of youth theatres and doing productions in a local theatre companies but since two years ago, I have performed in various parts of Scotland such as Glasgow, Dundee and Fife! My experience of theatre has been wonderful and I do hope you don't mind me sharing me this information with you.

The quote that I have placed above is a quote by the fabulous Jenny Sealey of Graeae Theatre's company. She has welcomed myself and the other two Solar Bear's Apprentices (Ej Raymond and Connor Bryson) to see the rehearsal of "Iron Man". She had introduced us to the cast and the crew and said this quote which has stuck to my head to this day. It is lovely to say "Oh I loved this performance" "Oh this theatre company has been lovely to me" but it is also lovely to have a balanced criticism about the performance/theatre company. In my blog, I will be honest about what they do and their particular performances. I wouldn't be harsh or horrible or anything like that but I want to be able to express my opinion. It is not a form of a personal attack. However this blog would hopefully not turn into a moan and groan session.

Although I may be honest, I am still new to this thing and I am not as experienced as the other theatre bloggers but I am learning the ropes...

Hope you do enjoy the blog!