Johnathan Colourfield

So I was searching for stuff to actually do over summer because i'mma have 14 weeks with not much to do. Then i saw a thing for a summer school in London, and I applied. And I gots it! I'm going to be an Arts Activity Leader (Drama, Art, Music) at a centre in central London - and I get accomodation! A whole summer in London How amazing is that gonna be? Also, they asked me to interview for a Management position - which is scary. They've asked me to interview for Welfare and Accomodation Officer, which is the second in command! I only report to the Center Manager and the CEO of the company... All because i knew about Safeguarding and Behaviour Management principles and been on a course last week about them. I mean it's only seasonal work, but considering the work that I am in, it is fluctuating anyway with no work during the summer holidays. Note - We don't have a 14 week summer in the UK, just that they've told me supply teachers basically don't get work in Term 6 (June-July), so it would be a good idea to search for work in that period anyway. Which i've done! So new summer job - either Activity Leader or Welfare and Accomodation Officer Then in September, back to my regular Supply job. Life is good. Terminally single. But good ** By the way - I LOVE my supply teaching job - so much variety and different subjects, groups and schools. Really my sort of thing. I'm going to be in a school for 7 weeks, as a Resident Instructor - which means i've got 4 days guaranteed work a week for a short period. And if i don't like the school, I'm basically done with them after 2 months lol Means i'm going to be even more busy than I normally am, but who cares! It's work and money to pay for stuff I want LOL Like my doctorate...

So I quit my job this afternoon and I feel great about it. I wasn't really all that happy with teaching stuff that sort of got treated like a 'spare part' in their education and some classes were just badly behaved. But! I had an interview on Friday and I got a new job as a Supply across different years: Drama Instructor (Year 7-Year 13) Cover Supervisor (Year 1-Year 13) SEN Teaching Assistant (Year 7-Year 13) Its better paid, it's in my home town. After 10 days I get a extra days pay bonus for staying with the company and after 10 days I can transfer office so should I move, I can just move to wherever I go to. I was due a change in my life because I was getting blah about my experiences in the job I had, but i'm so glad that i got the chance to work for this new company Positivity YAY

Oh wow! I'm so glad I took the time to read this now The characters of Devin and Alex are excellent and well written. I'm looking forward to hearing more from the Dad character. Annabelle needs work, as she is just sounding a bit psycho and would do well with some shelling out, same can be said of Parker. A story with good pace, although there were three major things i noticed that could have made it much better: I did feel a bit like the death of Sean was a very sudden impact, a bit of a left field hit. I mean if that is what you were going for then awesome. Also, coming from a legal perspective, Annabelle wouldnt have access to Sean's phone, that would come under his legal guardians responsibility. How did she get the phone? Did she steal it? Was it given to her? Finally, you mention Sean died in an accident, but you never go into any detail about what actually happened to him - this leaves me a bit lost because what kind of accident it was, depends on whether Devin could have done it (e.g. car accident versus falling down the stairs and breaking his neck). If this is added in, in much more detail it will make the story so far much richer in detail. I think devin should find out more details before this point in the story I'm excited to see what happens next!

RIP Alan Rickman - you were one of my acting idols and carried some of the strongest acting in a scene i've ever seen in HP7 during the past sequence with Lily and Dumbledore

@Kitt totally understand what you went through my sister in law went through the same thing, but she was diagnosed three weeks after having a C section - so she was like the walking dead for about a year, including taking care of my nephew 2015 was a bit of a rough year for me, I did a research degree which i'm very proud of, lost a relationship which was sad, had one or two hilaraiously disastarous dates and made quite a few new online friends. Add in the fact I was part of a theatre company for most of the year who fired me, meaning I was isolated from alot of the friends I had made. Not a nice year. However, 2016 will be fabulous. I'm aiming to meet new people, get to know people i work with a bit better (theyre a bit isolating where I work so i think i might just throw myself in there, i dont know they seem a bit eh, but thats another story). And most of all, in October I start my Doctorate So 2016 = year of change I hope xD Plus shifting a few pounds would be nice... lol Happy New Year Everyone Hope you all have a good year

Happy New Year and Holidays Lenny and everybody We need to catch up soon, we haven't spoken in an age! <3 for Uncle Lenny

Warning: Totally depressing post here. I'm actually okay, just needed to put this somewhere because if I didn't I'd scream. Merry Christmas Everyone! ** My mother is officially pure evil. I know i've had my problems with her over the years, but this morning has really taken the cake. She's had a cough for a few weeks, but she's got friends round at the moment. She's telling her how she was on an oxygen mask, went into hospital for a week, hasn't been able to move off the sofa and hasnt eaten for weeks. NONE of these are true. She had no oxygen mask, never went inot hospital, has been out every day this week and has eaten 3 meals a day... She has made them up to show off to her friends. And the worst thing of all? She has been broadcasting to everyone how she tried to kill herself, which is a total lie because we would have known. It's just out of order. I'm sorry but you do not joke or make light of things like eating disorders, suicidal tendences and oxygen masks. It's just out of order. She is truly a monster if she's making these things up to show off to her friends. If you are suicidal, you don't say to every tom, dick and harry in the street. I work with seriously vulnerable children and adults and KNOW that they are serious issues people don't talk about until they are ready. It angers me that she makes light of such serious issues. Also, she's blaming everyone else for not carrying on with her lies. I just dont understand it. She's obssessed with lying to everyone and with being the most ill out of all of us, which makes those of us with genuine mental health problems shut down even more. I wish i felt anything more than disgust for her right now, I really do. What a way to start Christmas

Thank you everyone! You're all fabulous

Arman was a perfectly ordinary boy, who lived in a perfectly ordinary village in a most ordinary part of rural England. In this perfectly normal existence, Arman had two fathers. James and Stephen. Daddy and Papa. Two apparently normal people, one a lawyer and the other a truck driver. They were both very content living their perfectly average lives. However, it would be this Christmas Eve that Arman would find out the truth about his supposed reality and just how unreal his family truly is. Ev

A perfectly ordinary boy with a perfectly ordinary family. That was until a police officer came to their door and they had to hide in the closet. Just your average Christmas really!

So hey! I thought it'd be a good idea to write a post here, which i'm going to try to do every month from now on, just so that I feel a bit more motivated to do stuff lol So first, I started a new job in September which I actually forgot to blog about lol I'm an elementary school cover teacher, 3 days a week I cover all the years from Year 1-6, and I spend a morning or afternoon with them when their class teachers are doing their lesson plans and marking etc. Giving teachers 3 hours to plan/mark everything is a bit ridiculous in my books, but that's beside the point... Thats the british education system for you I'm employed by an agency sadly, not directly through the school. And that's where my problem lies. The company I work for can be a bit chaotic with the paperwork. I mean they've been great when i've had to have days off recently either due to other contracts I agreed before starting or illness. If i worked directly for the school, I could negotiate extra hours to do additional work for the school but because I work for an agency, I can't do that. This works good for them, but not for me. It's bad for me because I don't get paid for any work I do outside of the time i'm employed for. I really want to contribute more to the school, but I can't do it if i'm not being paid for it. If i was a full time member of staff, i'd be more willing but i'm on a 0.6 contract, so there's only so much I can do. For example, the company I work for expected me to write 688 reports in February and July (One per child), plus 42 class evaluation papers (twice in the year) without claiming any extra hours. Thinking in terms of employed hours, I'd need 80 hours (about 2 weeks full time). It's just very demotivating and unaffordable in terms of my time. Especially when in comparison to my normal rate, I'm getting not very much. I just have to think its good to have a year's teaching experience under my belt... That's my motivation.... So i'm applying for all sorts of other part time positions to see if I can get a better deal directly through a school... Here's hoping... I have to go part time because of Masters exam issues and then on top of that starting my PhD in October, i'd like something I can continue doing alongside my continued study. Oh yeah! I got a place! At University of Reading, which i'm very excited about. It's like almost Ivy League lol Add in that I might be doing a collab project with University of Bristol, it's all very exciting. That's my november update

Omg you've got Deadpool's attitude down to a tee xD I look forward to the rest of it

So after a pretty disastrous September, October has started out really well! Launched our own company, with which we have three projects under our radar which I thought i'd blog about PROJECT ONE: The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, July 2016. I'm casting for a new 50 minute version of the above novel with a multiroling cast. It's going to be great fun and a wonderful production. I'm in the directors chair for this one and it's partially devised, so it will be nice getting back into my roots again. PROJECT TWO: Diary Entry Number Fifty Two, Jan 2016. This is an experimental project i'll be doing with a local arts gallery. We are going to gather diary entries from the distant past, the past, the present and the potential future. 52 to be exact. Then assign them to a card in a pack of cards. Then this is our open rehearsal process. We pick four cards. We make a show. We have 4 afternoons to do it in, and we perform on the fifth Sunday in January. It's going to be great fun. I'm in the performer seat this time, with two other performers. It's going to be great to experiment again. PROJECT THREE: The Final Letter by S. Jordan, August 2016. This is a new play that i'm working on as a performer/assistant director about suicide and suicide prevention. We are developing it as a promenade performance around a house/building and hope to put it on the next 12 months. It's nice to be back on the performer's side in a project again. So three experiences and three opportunities to revisit my different skills as a director, collaborator and performer. I love my work sometimes

Thanks guys It's true it is all about negotiating with them and making sure that they aren't intimidated Yes Dyno - I agree with you there. It felt like a gut reaction when they asked me to leave the company. So, I think he was intimidated by the skills that I brought. Thing is that I know I have bits that i'm hopeless at, and thats why i hire assistants to cover the bits i know that i'm weak at. It's just common sense and its what the Assistant Director is for - I don't think the company quite understood what the role of an assistant was. Westie - 100% agree with you. I'm glad I worked with the company because it gave a huge learning curve - because I was 100% taken advantage of by the assistant on the production. He threw me under the bus with the company, with stuff i'd said privately between me and him - in which the relationship between director/assistant is sacred - it's like a doctor and his patient in my opinion. But I know now that I do need to assert myself ALOT more than I have been. Thanks for the great advice

So an update. The company I was working for decided to let me go with no notice - which sucked. Their reasons were that I was defaming the company at every opportunity with my cast. Which was 100% inaccurate, I never called on the company at any point in the process. I stated quite openly that the production was unsupported and in the private conversations on how to handle this with my assistant I was quite harsh - but I never publically showed my frustrations. That would be incredibly unprofessional. My number one focus in community theatre practice is to create A) a happy cast a cast that had fun C) a good show. I achieved all of these with my most recent project, and i'm very proud of it. Even if certain people in the company aren't happy with my style of working, it's just that everyone works in different ways - and the introduction of a different style (a more professionally aimed style in my cast's view) just didn't function with the group. Which is good to know I think they felt threatened myself, but that's beside the point. I know that I'm leaving them with my head held high, knowing that artistically I directed two quite good shows for them. It is a shame that they let me go, because I have got a hold of the script for the new show I was going to direct for them - and it is frankly dreadful. They're doing nothing more than what I would call a very bad mish-mash of words, in comparison to JM Barrie's fantastic original script. Why do you think it keeps getting revived? Because it's a bloody fantastic piece of writing, for a younger cast. They've retracted into an overly simplistic, boring style - which doesn't work with kids. The script went from 52 pages to 23 pages. And it's apparently going to be the same length... I genuinely don't understand it. But it's none of my business - I just care about the cast and the kids I was going to work with (who I cast darn it.) But as i said in my other blog. It is a huge learning curve, and I know how now to work as an artistic director of a company. It's almost as if the last 10 months have been a 'How Not To...' Guide for me. Which is fantastic for my development as a director. I was going to carry this blog onto another topic, but i'll leave this here for now and I'll do that one in a seperate one in a few days Onwards and upwards!

ooo new glasses Exciting stuff drew I always go for netural colours myself My glasses are grey currently i usually go for black though lol

Another good series is Manners for Men/Manners for Women by Mrs Humphry. Had to read it and study it for my 1800's english unit

Thanks Drew my cute American haha. Honestly people xD He's just a good friend xD

Zombie this was amazing advice. I was asked to leave so now I don't have to have all the grief. There are lots of positives in the last few months and I must not let the negatives run my life. Thanks Palantir. My life is very full on. Yes I thought it was one idiot, but it turned out to be another two people throwing me under the bus. I was fired for saying some things, which weren't entirely untrue. They just don't seem to like facing up to facts. I'm going to over time contact people saying that I was happy to work with people but the company wasn't happy for me to work with them. Their loss. As with the show I just directed for them, I was told that it was the best production they had seen by the company by many audience members - so I am very happy with myself and with what I have achieved over the last 10 months with the company. Sad I didnt make it to a year but things happen

I was asked to leave the production this evening, because of reasons - so this isn't a worry any more. One less stress!

Hi Everyone So i haven't updated this in a while so I thought I would. Life is going very well - I'm about to finish my Masters, just achieved an Associate Fellowship of a national teaching organisation (and have been asked to apply for full fellowship) and i'm sort of seeing a nguy - not sure what will happen with him, but we shall see. Keep you posted But that's not the purpose of this blog. So I am currently volunteering as a director for a local theatre company and I wanted some advice. I to the best of my ability try to avoid conflict because I just don't like it. I have a co-director and she also hates conflict, so that doesn't help. She is going through some mental health issues at the moment, as she normally handles the drama, I can't put that on her at the moment. We all signed a piece of paper stating our responsibilities, because I don't have time to be marketing a show or stage managing a show. I did that all with our most recent show and it was far too much for me, especially when working alot, which I will be doing from this month. I also did this to protect myself legally because I know he breaks the law frequently - and therefore I am indemnified from all legal responsibility (I was clever when I wrote it ) So here is my problem. I spoke to a girl who i know makes costumes, and asked if she would be interested in making some costumes for our production of Peter Pan. She brought in some work she'd made and I thought it was wonderful so I said we can approach the artistic director to ask if he could add some funds to the produciton so she could purchase fabric to make select costumes. I also said to the regular costume lady that we won't need her help with this show, as we are asking the cast to source their own costumes - so she can focus on the other shows (as they have two shows in November, and one in October). Now i'm not sure if she took this the wrong way, because when the girl approached the artistic director he turned around and said 'That's not John's decision to make, it's a production decision, which has to involve the whole production team.' Now, that's my problem. I did consult my production team and we do have specific slots that we talk in (Mondays at 8.3) FYI) about production issues. He doesn't realise that he's not a member of the production team - and I did discuss with them. It just seems whenever I try and do things for productions, He instantly says 'Oh it's John's idea I should say no.' Also, he hates creative ideas. For example, our Peter Pan is going to be very very different from the tradition. Hook is a woman, Peter is a Girl, Michael is a girl. The pirates are the Government, The Lost Girls are the Street Urchins and it's the Urchins overthrowing the Government of The City of Neverland. Very original, very different. And I already know that he's going to hate every second of it because it's not a traditional boring adaptation of a show. I'm sorry, I hate doing what is expected, it's not me as a director. In my work, I rejuvenate existing work into a context of the subliminal, grotesque and chaotic world we live in. <- Bit of an extract fro my Artist Statement for you there I'm just fed of the he said, she said environment that he produces. I've had every member of my cast from the most recent show saying that this show has been the most relaxed and fun environment of any of the shows that they have done. Which is exactly what you need to do in community work - make it fun, but also keep it serious about the work - which I know I achieved. One other thing that upset me, was that he didn't bother to turn up to the opening night of our most recent production. And also, he openly stated in front of several people that for the performance he turned up to: 'Well the pressure's much more on now because I'm here, I must give them a bit of a boost.' Oh and also at the very start of our rehearsal process he in no uncertain terms said 'We take too many breaks and you don't get enough done in your rehearsals.' and continued to talk. At this point, I essentially said to him 'How dare you. I'm insulted that you think that we piss about in our rehearsals, you were at ONE rehearsal where it was our first one. We wouldn't take that many breaks normally, and if you don't like how I work then fire me.' I just wasn't having him insulting me or my cast. I draw the line there. All of these things, I dont understand why he does them. And i'd love to know is it something I did? something I said? What did I do to deserve such horridness? I'm nice to everyone, I try to keep a good rehearsal I just wanted to share the air on this because I just think his behaviour is simply horrid and I don't understand why he is like it. We are all there to make good theatre, but he just seems so stuck that it has to be the him show all of the time and if he's not taking the credit then it's not right. Example: There was an article in the newspaper, and I didn't get mentioned more than once. It was all about my co-director because he hadn't directed before and about how this guy helped him throughout the process. He was at one rehearsal at the start! It's just upsetting because i NEVER get recognised for the work that I do for this organisation. I so wish I could drop out of this company now because i'm unhappy doing work with them. It's not the cast I work with. I adore working with my casts that I choose. It's the ego and the nastiness of some people that ruin my hobby/professional work, and that isn't right. Sorry to have a massive rant, I'm just fed up of his narcissism. In other good news, I have the rights for an English premiere of a play and also am gathering a cast for a summer production of Note Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo. I'm also now an Elementary School Drama Teacher So life is good at the moment - it's just the drama with my extra-curricular stuff that makes it not good. But after December that all changes.

Here in secondary (11-16) we're expected to buy our own stationary but workbooks are provided. When you get into sixth form (17-18) you have to buy everything. I miss sixth form. I had awesome notebooks for all my subjects and it was all colour coded xD Pink was drama, yellow was english, blue was business and green was economics lol

*hugs* Very very well said. Some of my best friends are Christians/Catholics and they still love me Just have to be patient with those that are disrespectful - not all religious people are nutjobs and its a shame that the small number cause problems. I am not a religious person but am 100% for the teachings in the Bible or any religious text for that matter - there are so many great lessons that can be learnt from the holy texts that anyone can benefit from - even if they don't believe in a higher deity. Also - you are allowed to talk about anything in your blog Politics and Religion

Welcome to the club. We're all mad here When theres people in chat come say hi

This can't happen anymore.