Yellow Academy's journey began back in February of this year, with initial taster talks held in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Belfast in order to reach out to as many young British East Asians as possible across the UK. April and May has seen the second stage of the process, the audition workshops. The London workshop, held at ALRA in South London was led by ALRA's co-Director Clive Duncan and Yellow Earth's Education Associate and Founder Member Kumiko Mendl. London attracted the biggest number of applicants, providing a variety of East Asian backgrounds as well as a variety of ages. With the auditionees having little or no acting experience, it was to be an interesting afternoon.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, beginning with an introduction by Kumiko and Clive, supported by Yellow Earth's co-Artistic Director Jonathan Man, the auditionees sat nervously against the far wall of ALRA's Great Hall, a room that wouldn't look out of place in a Harry Potter movie with it's grand decorative interior and heavy wood paneling. Kumiko led the initial physical warm up exercises, which was followed by Clive's vocal warm up. Our actors were now ready to begin the audition workshop.

Split into two groups, auditionees were instructed to pair up and ask questions about each others backgrounds. Then, they were asked to present their findings on their new partner to the rest of the group. The next task saw the group construct a short narrative as a collective. Having created a story, auditionees were divided into smaller groups and given a short amount of time to act out the story with minimal props. When it came to sharing these short sequences, it was great to see how creative some groups had been with the minimal time they had been allocated to prepare. Each group had a different interpretation and it was intriguing to see just how many possibilities there are when it comes to retelling a story.

After a short break to give the auditionees a chance to freshen up and mingle, Jonathan Man led the next session, a name game. Introducing yourself in a room full of people you've never met is always a daunting task. Introducing yourself teamed with a physical gesture is doubly tough. There was no break in pace, with auditionees having to learn everyone's name and gesture in a very short amount of time.

The final audition task of the day was to create a short interaction between three characters. Two characters were to engage in a short interaction in which a piece of news was broken, with the third character to enter with an entirely unrelated piece of news of their own. The chosen topics presented ranged from believable, unintentionally hilarious to downright ridiculous. There were deaths in the family, to lottery wins, puppies being born to bubble tea being offered mid conversation. Clive and Kumiko were on hand to give guidance to the groups and it was interesting to see how the rehearsal process really made the sequences presented come to life.

After the audition process was over I noticed a real breakthrough, there were some memorable performances and some bona fide talented actors in the making. The feedback from the auditionees of the audition workshop was that is was an enjoyable and positive experience, and I really hope that regardless of whether or not they are offered a place on the summer acting camp, that some of them will put some serious consideration into pursuing a career in the performing arts.

Were the auditions a glimpse of things to come? I hope so. We all know of the traditional overseas East Asian families expecting their children to have steady jobs and be financially stable in comfortable lives, not like the struggles that they and the generations before them may have had to endure. I suppose for me, it's about following your dreams and defining a future that you want. Being British Chinese myself, I have experienced first hand how difficult it can be to break away from family expectations and pursue a career in the arts, especially without role models to look up to growing up. Yellow Academy is a unique opportunity and it's great to see so many other young British East Asians embracing the arts,

Watch out, the next Robert Pattinson or Emma Watson might just be British East Asian.

www.yellowearth.org

Article by Elaine Wong, a recent Visual Arts graduate of Reading University, UK and Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, USA.

 

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Bob - Good summary of an enjoyable e Posted 18:48 on 8 July 2010 As an attendee of the workshop I am glad I came across this article. I did thoroughly enjoy the whole experience and am fortunate enough to get on the summer camp. As you were watching from a neutral standpoint it is interesting reading your perspective on the event In particular I have to agree with your summary of the final showpiece: "The chosen topics presented ranged from believable, unintentionally hilarious to downright ridiculous." I think my act (lottery) was probably down the more ridiculous route. Reply | Quote

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