INKBLOC Ensemble Rehearsal Diary – Week 3

As INKBLOC Ensemble hurtle ahead with their theatrical vision we get a Week 3 update from company member Alison Cowling. Here we find out all about the real life story that has inspired their debut show LEGO Beach...

This has been a super productive week for all things INKBLOC and Lego Beach. Workshopping ideas of who the ensemble are was the focus for our workshop on Thursday. We explored the ensemble as the sea and as Lego hunters who are commenting on the action (bunch of nosy parkers!)

On Friday we focused on the real-life Lego hunters looking at the popular Lego Lost at Sea facebook page. We used stories of people’s posts about what they had found to create scenes, which was a blast to bring these stories of exploration and discovery to life! The influence of the Lego within the hunting community seems so huge!

This week, I especially loved creating a sea shanty with INKBLOC, inspired by The Ballina Whalers and some classic sea shanties. Sung by the sea ensemble, the lyrics came from our free writing exercise “I didn’t ask for coloured tides, but once off shore a ship I sank”.

Claire, our director, has done a sterling job leading us through loads of exercises and it’s been so much fun devising so much music, movement and characters and working out what we like as an ensemble. It’s great to see and feel our style starting to emerge!

INKBLOC Ensemble are this year’s resident company with Made in Bristol – Bristol Old Vic Young Company’s theatre training course for ages 18-25. For more information about the programme, click here.