Spring Term 2010

Amnesty International stall for Haiti
Students work with Hollywood Actor
Ex-student becomes West End Leading Lady
The Henley College Lecture: Wednesday 31 March
South Oxfordshire UK Youth Parliament elections
Youth Speaks competition
Victory for under 18s Rugby team
Rugby success for Nathan Busby
Next drama production announced
AS French trip to Lille

 

Amnesty International stall for Haiti

As part of a "Henley for Haiti" day organised by the Student Union, the Henley College Amnesty International Youth Group recently ran a stall to highlight concerns about human rights abuses in the aftermath of the earthquake, especially concerning women & children and those fleeing over the border to the Dominican Republic. Over 200 staff & students signed letters to the authorities in the Dominican Republic to ensure the protection of these vulnerable victims, and money raised was donated to the Red Cross. Thanks to all those at the college who signed letters and/or donated.

Students work with Hollywood Actor

A group of Performing Arts students spent their February half term in College participating in a week long intensive course of Acting workshops.

The lucky group of students spent the week working with American actor Kirk Baltz. Kirk’s work developed the Acting work the students have done as part of their college courses and then pushed it in new directions. Kirk’s work is based primarily on the ideas of practitioners Sanford Meisner and Sandra Seacat and his focus is on the ways in which actors can develop characterisation through accessing, understanding and employing their own emotions and life experience. It is very personal, intimate work and the students had a very challenging week, but they all agreed that it was “the experience of a lifetime”.

The College was very fortunate that Mr Baltz agreed to come over from Los Angeles for the week. Internationally renowned as an Acting Coach, Kirk is also a working actor and has appeared in films such as “Dances With Wolves” and “Natural Born Killers” and TV shows such as “Will and Grace” and “24”. Kirk is probably best known for the role of Officer Marvin Nash in Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs”.

“It was really great that Kirk would consider working with our students – I have no doubt that we will see the benefits of his work in all their performance work from now on. It wasn’t an easy week and Kirk took them to some difficult emotional places, but the students gave their all and responded really well. It was great for them to work with a professional actor for a long period of time and it’s given them a taste of what to expect if they continue their training after Henley”, says Nic Saunders.

The Dame Periam Memorial Lecture:
Peter Taylor

Wednesday 31st March 2010
Rotherfield Hall at 10:20am

The next Henley College Lecture will be given by the well known BBC journalist, Peter Taylor. Peter is an acclaimed Troubles reporter who now focuses on global terror. Peter’s talk will be entitled “What is a Terrorist?” and promises a fascinating insight into his work and dealings with terrorist groups worldwide.

Peter recently presented a documentary series on BBC2 entitled “Generation Jihad”  investigating the terrorist threat from young Muslim extremists radicalised on the internet. Although they represent a tiny minority of the Muslim community some would argue they now constitute the single biggest threat to our national security.
Watch Episodes 1-3 online >>

 

South Oxfordshire UK Youth Parliament Elections

College student Alex Longworth-Krafft is standing as a candidate in the South Oxfordshire UKYP elections.

Voting starts today, 5th February and ends Thursday 11th February. Students can support Alex by collecting a voting card from Deanfield Reception and by placing their vote by SMS or online.

Click here to read Alex's manifesto and find out more about the UKYP >>

Youth Speaks competition

Here are the two teams which represented The Henley College recently in that most terrifying of activities: public speaking. At the Youth Speaks competition at The Kenton Theatre, Alex Longworth-Krafft spoke passionately about the dangers of the DNA data base, with Olga Pankova as Chair and Wandia Wahogo as Vote of Thanks. The other team, which received a special mention from the judges, featured a powerful speech on Youthism from Subi Wahogo introduced by Vicki Morrish and thanked by Alex Harris. It proved a stimulating and entertaining evening!

AS French Trip to Lille

The AS French students had an early start on the Eurostar, which gave them a whole day to soak up the festive atmosphere in the northern French city, Lille. The Christmas market was very pretty with lots of unusual gift ideas in the decorated wooden chalets. After a walk round the main squares and sights we all had lunch in a lovely traditional crêperie, with delicious crêpes au chocolat definitely being the dessert of choice! Then students had a few hours of free time to wander around the town, enjoy the Christmas lights, and practise their French in the shops and cafés, before falling asleep on the return Eurostar journey. A very enjoyable day was had by all!

Rugby success

Henley College rugby player Nathan Busby represented the South West Division in the recent England Under 18 Divisional Festival in Yorkshire. The tournament went ahead as scheduled thanks to the state of the art 3G all-weather surface at West Park Leeds RFC.

A former pupil at Chiltern Edge school Nathan played his junior rugby at Abbey RFC before attending The Henley College. The 17 year old A level student who lives in Tokers Green had come through a long selection process and training camp in Spain.

Prop forward Busby had a storming game in the tournament final between London & South East and the South West and thanks to a last gasp score by London both teams preserved their unbeaten tag after a 22-22 draw. "It was a good final and it's been a good festival," said England Under 18 coach John Fletcher: "Lots of players who have come through the County route have had an opportunity to represent their Division and it was a fitting end. It was a close game and a draw was probably a fair result."

Next drama production announced

The Completely Cuckoo Theatre Company have announced that their first production of 2010 will be “Our Country’s Good” by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

“Our Country's Good” is the story of convicts and Royal Marines sent to Australia in the late 1780s as part of the first penal colony there. It follows Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark's attempts to put on a production of George Farquhar's restoration comedy The Recruiting Officer with a cast of male and female convicts. The play shows the class system in the convict camp and discusses themes such as sexuality, punishment, the Georgian judicial system, and the idea that art can act as an ennobling force.

Says director Neil McCurley, “It’s a terrific play with lots of interesting staging possibilities and I’m keen to see what myself and the students can bring to the piece.”

The play will be performed at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead from 18 – 21 March. Tickets will go on sale in February.