Contents of our Workshops
We use the ‘active approach’, where the classroom becomes a rehearsal room for play, discovery and learning.
Our drama workshops contain specifically focused activities to explore a theme, characters or plot. These activities stimulate creativity within scenes and characters.
At the end of workshops lasting more than a day, we have an open lesson for parents and peers. This means less stress for the students performing than in a ‘performance’ setting.
Imaging the text during the Winter's Tale workshop with secondary students
Above, the monolugue by a character called ‘time’ is being imaged, in other words, acted out by a pair of students. Each pair had 2 lines to ‘image’, which they showed to the rest of the group, which lead to a better understanding of the text.
Students from CC Ming Kai College
Students practicing their scenes for the performance.
The 'Boal sword fight'
Students have one hand behind their back, while the other holds an imaginary sword, with which they try to touch their opponent’s [inactive] hand.
Freeze frame
This is a freeze frame (10 second still image) entitled: a ‘Happy wedding? This image relates to Act 1 in Hamlet.
Reading a scene in different ways
Students experiment with different ways of speaking the scene. Here they are reading the script back to back, making them more senitive to each other.
A Midsummer Night's Dream 'whoosh'
In a whoosh, students typically sit in a circle, while the teacher ‘tells the story’. This could be a summary of a whole play or just a scene. The students are not ‘cast’ before-hand. while the teacher tells the story, she/he points at any students to enact a character, animal or object related to the scene.
Whispering
Students have one hand behind their back, while the other holds an imaginary sword, with which they try to touch their opponent’s [inactive] hand.
Learning By Doing
The secret of learning Shakespeare is: doing Shakespeare!
Shakespeare wrote plays. Drama is therefore the most accessible way to learn about his characters, plots and stories.
Through Shakespeare Experts workshops, students of every level are able to access Shakespeare at their own pace through tailor-made drama strategies.
Group drama work, makes students confident performers and team players.
All workshop contain all elements of language teaching: Speaking, Listening, Reading and writing.
How we do it
- A step by step approach.
- Manageable, edited scripts size to suit the group.
- Walking the script, rather than being stationary.
- Working in pairs or small groups, who share with the larger group.