Homeless again.

Actually, we aren't homeless at all.  Thanks to the nice people at the signpost centre, we have a very nice room, that's just a little too small, so we can't stay there indefinately - we need to find a bigger place.  Also we have had to change our normal workshop to a Tuesday.


It turns out that the Universal Social Club in Doxey was having trouble heating our room, and it has been very cold over the winter, so a bit of a relief to get out of there really.

So the last session we did something a bit different.  I got everyone to walk around the room, and in their heads become travellers, each on their own journey.  Each group member started to create their own traveller character and story.  During the  next few minutes, I talked them through a sequence where it started to get cold, dark and started to rain.  One by one, they entered a scene, adding to the detail as they did, and took their places in a sheltered spot, out of the rain.  They built an imaginary fire and as each traveller came and joined the group, they began to share tea.  Once everyone had sat down, the group took it in turns to narrate their story - describing thier character and the nature of their search.  As the session began to draw to an end, each person drew their character, and then used their character as a puppet, through which they said goodbye to the group.


The idea of this was to facilitate a feeling of group ownership of the room.  By creating the shared shelter, the group made use of the intimacy afforded by the small size of the room. This will add a challenging dimension to the sessions, and will affect the nature of the workshops.  For instance there won't be too much running and jumping around.


The moon costume is coming somewhere near completion.  I have found someone who can sew the costume far better than me, in exchange for me painting their bathroom ceiling. 


We didn't do any of Urashima this week in the workshop.  I wanted us to settle into the room before getting any more into the story.  Also I need to learn the lines!  Terrible memory.


Next week we will get back to Urashima.  In the meantime, here's a pic of the moon costume in progress...