Instant Soap Opera: Write, Act, Film and appear on YouTube

Has your life become a melodrama? When you're finally catching your breath after particularly heated moments, do you swear that you hear violins and organ music?

Are you working on a way to loudly hang up on someone over your cell phone? (Pressing the "end" button really hard and snapping the little phone shut like a Venus fly trap just doesn't have the same impact that slamming down the receiver did. Darn it.) I have a strange interest in carnivorous plants, but we'll talk about that some other time.

Well, if you're living your own little soap opera, why not head on over to Godstone in the UK where the good people at the Orpheus Centre are doing an intriguing sounding workshop called The Instant Soap Opera. It just may help to get out some of that pent up drama. You may go into the workshop just another name in the crowd and come out a star ... on YouTube at least?!

"On this course, you can create, write, star in, film and edit 3 episodes of your own soap opera – in a week! Then broadcast it on You Tube for all your friends to see. You’ll look at what makes a good soap, then as a group you’ll come up with characters and storylines, learn about scriptwriting and acting on television, and put the whole thing together for a world premiere screening to an audience on the Friday evening, before seeing your work broadcast online!" Runs July 26-August 1

The Orpheus Centre is a residential performing arts centre for young disabled people. "We don't set out to train our apprentices to be actors, singers or musicians. We use their enthusiasm for the performing arts to teach skills for living and improve self-knowledge, self-confidence and teamwork." (Photo above is from their web site.)

The main tutors, Pete Lawson & Jenny Sealey, are very experienced in The Biz. Pete is an acclaimed playwright and screenwriter, with experience of creating work for adults and young people from the National Theatre to Radio 4. Jenny’s directing career started with Interplay Theatre Company. Her reputation for devising signed plays for deaf audiences and creating multi-sensory theatre enabled her to become Artistic Director of Graeae in 1998. You can read more about them on the Orpheus pages.

I'll put YouTube links here when they become available.

(Venus Flytrap photo from flytrapcare.com)