Friday the 15.02 was a very exciting day for the English advanced courses. The weeks ago we had started reading Shakespeare and our teacher Mrs. Vis organized a workshop dealing with his plays.
I guess I’m speaking for my whole course when saying we were rather nervously excited – even though (or because) we did not really know what to expect.
Personally, I had not imagined it would be Dan, the British actor, who awaited us. From the first second we were hooked. That was due to Dan’s personality. He is a very quirky and open person, welcoming us happily. His goal was to arouse our euphoria for Shakespeare and his plays – and he definitely managed to do so.
Given the fact that we still were a little unsure what would happen in these ninety minutes, we were all standing at the side, feeling rather awkward. But that is a state which makes acting impossible. As acting was Dan’s vision, he had to change our attitude.
We started off by some stretching. Dan really was the least embarrassed. While we did not dare to give in on opening our mouths as widely as possible or jump as high as we could, he did it naturally. This confidence and energy spread and after a few minutes we were all part of a very funny-looking group.
Dan successfully took away our insecurities about what other people might think – the essential basis for acting because it’s all about expression and one can’t do that feeling uncomfortable. We played rock-paper-scissors, too, but not the typical way. We took three characters from Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” and made them fight each other with specific gestures that matched their personalities.
Afterwards, we began to act out a specific scene. We split up into groups and prepared our parts. Again, Dan’s experience was of great use because as an actor he knew what the human face can do and showed us some very convincing expressions. With his enthusiasm he managed to convince us to overcome our shame and, when we presented our acting, we were all positively surprised what we had achieved. Sure, when Dan gave us some tips and eventually acted as well, it got more professional and fun, but I was impressed to see that there is an actor in all of us.
The lesson was over way too quickly and we only had five minutes to ask him questions. However, he still managed to encourage us to do what we love even if it is unconventional.
All in all, we had a great time. The workshop offered us new insights into the play and the characters. It was very cool to try this extreme way of performing and to leave the comfort zone, even though that was still challenging. It was definitely worth trying this creative attempt to understand Shakespeare and bring his characters to life one more time.
Emma Hartung, Q2 English Advanced Course (Mrs Vis)