Blog: Greeks Alive!

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On Sunday morning I donned my Responsible Adult DISGUISE and set off with The Exhibits In My Gallery to collect ourselves a NEPHEW. For LO! the pair of us were taking Young Max to a WORKSHOP at The British Museum called "Greeks Alive", where we were set to do two hours of animation, with a Greek Myth theme.

All was going well until The Students In My School dropped the pair of us off at the classroom where it was all happening. Max and I sat down at a table with a little lad and his Dad and I was suddenly gripped with PANIC: "I am NOT a Responsible Adult of ANY kind!" i realised, and had NO idea how to do this sort of thing. Am I MEANT to talk to the other kids? Do I even sit down, or should I be on the other side of the room talking to the DADs about CARS and FOOTBALL? EEK!

Panic ROSE when the workshop started and we were told we would be working in groups. FEAR! DANGER! DOOM! This is the sort of thing that TERRIFIES me - i get flashbacks to The First Day Of Polytechnic and CRUSHING SOCIAL ANXIETY takes over.

Things gradually calmed down once things got going though - if there is anything more relaxing than Cutting Out Shapes then I want to know what it is, and our table very quickly settled into a PROPER TEAM, with the adults doing that thing of trying to a) Gently Guide the YOUNGSTERS through the tasks alocated while simultaneously b) trying not to completely take over but c) really rather enjoying an excuse to make things out of PLASTICINE.

It was, to be honest, BRILLIANT, and we worked together really well, with everyone chucking in ideas. We did "Herakles VS The Hydra"... or rather, the first bit of it, as we got a bit carried away with BLOOD and NECK HACKING and a BIG FITE so didn't quite get around to animating the rest of the story. Ooh, it was ever so good tho, every time we'd done another second of animation we'd all gather round the laptop to watch the whole thing, and GIGGLE - especially when we did CLOSE UP: Herakles looks SURPRISED. That bit was MY idea!

The two hours ZOOMED by and when everyone gathered together to watch ALL the films I had to contain myself in order NOT to stand up and yell "HA! In your FACE, small children! Our film is THE BEST! GO US!" because, well, my dears it was far and away the most excellent. Ours was shown last and when it finished a small girl said "Encore!" (NB there were some quite posh children there) and the Supervisor said "You want to watch them all again?" "NO!" I thought, very loudly, "JUST OURS! IT IS BEST!"

It was a whole HECKLOAD of fun, and afterwards The Water In My Kettle bought us TEA and SCONES. This Responsible Adult business is a whole lot easier than people make it LOOK i reckon!

posted 21/11/2011 by MJ Hibbett

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