The hard-hitting piece of theatre is sweeping into Oldham sixth forms once again, after its successful first tour last November. The team got together three days ago to revise the piece and I was lucky enough to be involved in the process. When I first joined the creative team, I didn’t know what to expect; I placed myself down on a chair, notebook at the ready, whilst the cast organized themselves. The atmosphere was welcoming, but you could sense that people were preparing and concentrating for what was to come. The room, with its dense black curtains and continuous dark floor covering, was quite empty. The scenery was at the other end of the long room, being cleaned. It consisted of four movable flats, each showing small snippets of bedrooms and a kitchen. As the flats revolved, they revealed four unflattering mirrors, all unusually cut. It was the first run through they’d done in a while, so I was expecting a stop and start performance, with a few forgotten lines and repeats of the same scene until they had done it correctly. They stood, abate and silent, waiting for their cue. It was from then on that I realised my assumptions were completely wrong. The piece was amazing. Emotive, though educational at the same time, it pulled me in from the beginning, leaving me no opportunity to write any notes. For those thirty five minutes, I was completely absorbed in the drama.
Once the piece had ended, and I snapped back into reality, I got an opportunity to get to know the group. I know everyone at some stage in their life has experienced the feeling when you walk in to a room with people you barely know, and you feel like just keeping your head down and only speaking when you're spoken to. Well, that was my first reaction. However, after I'd been introduced to Lucy, Mark and Rob (the cast that are touring with Split Second) I realised that I'd be perfectly fine, after all, they're all lovely people and we got along very well.
With all that in mind, I don’t want you to think it was all play and no work- after all, the actors are professionals and although they had already performed the piece before, it needed tweaking in places. One of the things I really loved was how the cast asked questions about their performance, like how they could improve or if the timing was suitable. They worked on every single detail until it was just right. They spoke a lot about the background of the character, why they would feel that way, why they’d say something in a certain tone of voice, tiny little things to make the performance more convincing. Sarah, the writer, revised the piece originally directed by Stephen Finegold with the actors. She explained to me before we started about the play, and how it was inspired by Becca Dale, the sister of Christopher Dale, who was tragically killed by a driver in 2009. Joining with Oldham youth council, they worked to produce this piece of drama called The Split Second, and toured from school to school performing it. Now, they are doing it again.
With a mixture of Lucy's hilarious rants, Mark's impression of "Nessa" from Gavin and Stacey, along with Rob's dancing to "Only girl in the world" by Rihanna, the whole experience was really enjoyable and I truly felt in the company of friends, it was also wonderful to know that I was working on something that was making a difference. Through this, I’ve learnt a lot more about the sort of work and projects Oldham Theatre Workshop create, and how much impact they have. I think it was a fantastic decision to carry out work experience at Oldham Theatre Workshop, and at such an exciting time!
Jessica Wiehler