For the last year, I’ve been going to weekly drama lessons, which culminated into an amazing verbatim play a couple of terms ago. I knew going into this term that it would be my last one, as my sixth form has Saturday school which would clash with the lessons going into September. But this last term, though tinged with the sad knowledge that it would be my last, was absolutely jam-packed and so much fun. As well as our normal lessons which are always something I look forward to, we had two really fun workshops hosted by professional actors. One was with Joel Beckett, an actor (whom I spotted in The Office UK!), who did a voice acting workshop; and one was with Frantic Assembly, a physical theatre group known for their almost optical-illusion-creating lifts.
A local newspaper article was actually written about our Joel Beckett workshop. Look out for me in the long red cardigan!
The physical theatre one was also great fun. We learnt how to do all kinds of lifts which look really complicated on stage, but are actually a lot easier to perform than they seem. Most are between two people, so one lifting the other around, but a few involve a whole group lifting someone up and coordinating with each other in such a way that the audience almost forgets that the group are there, and the person being lifted looks like they are genuinely flying.
I will really miss these lessons. I know it’s cliche to say, but they really have shaped me over this past year, both in terms of my acting skills and my general confidence as a person. I have met my best ever friend and I know we’re going to be in touch for a long time to come. This era of drama may be ending, but a new one at sixth form will be beginning, and little did I know this past year that these lessons would be preparing me for that, too 😊