From the 4th – 6th December 2020, our DP1 Theatre class participated in the ISTA TAPS workshop. This was a workshop that usually takes place with hundreds of students from nearby international schools in Asia, but we had to do it virtually this year. The workshop was led by Mr. Joachim Matschoss, who had visited OSC before. He was hosting our sessions from his home in Melbourne. ISTA was not mandatory, but I decided to do it because it would help me in my DP Theatre experience.

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Day 1:

The workshop started with a quick introduction session, where we explored different aspects of theatre such as exaggeration and portrayal. In the second session of the day, we took notes and watched videos on Bunraku. Bunraku is a style of Japanese Puppetry, where multiple humans control a singular puppet, using strings to move it. In our next workshop, we focused on applying our knowledge of this theatre tradition, and we created performances using our own puppets. We made these by putting a stick into a Styrofoam ball (the head), attaching googly eyes, drawing on a face and nose, and using a tea towel as the body. We were given various pieces of feedback on performances, and our group revised it multiple times. For example, I was told to go under a sheet, so it was darker and the puppet stood out more. The day ended with us individually watching a Frantic Assembly play which is titled “Things I Know to be True.” It was an extremely emotional and dramatic play.

Day 2:

Day 2 had a very similar structure to the first day. However, we started with note taking this time, focusing on directing and working with play texts. This was of course then the theme of our interactive workshop. We then focused on Bertolt Brecht, someone who we briefly studied in grade 9 drama. Through doing further research and note taking, we were able to create two Brechtian style performances, which highlighted his style of theatre. The first was in small groups, and the second involved everyone. For this performance, we were each initially only given a line to say. Mr. Joachim then kept on giving us details of the specific scene, each of which helped us get closer to the end product. Finally, we were able to perform the full scene, which was inspired by WWII.

An Example of the Slideshows we took notes from

Day 3:

Day 3 started much differently. We had a special masterclass with Mr. Shane Anthony, who is based in Sydney. The class focused on viewpoints, and was very much a movement oriented class; we hardly sat down throughout the 90 minutes. A large focus of this class was on space, and how to utilize it to the fullest extent. This was a very good class because of how practical it was, and it was a breath of fresh air from the usual workshops that we were getting.

After a short break, the next hour and a half was for note taking, in which we focused on the creation of original theatre using a starting point. Lenny and I created our own performance from the starting point on the ever increasing plastic pollution crisis. When we went back to the call, we spent time performing and continually revising it based on Mr. Joachim’s suggestions. We ended with a reflection session on the whole experience. Questions and clarification when it came to research topics like Bunraku. We also thought about specific performance elements, and how we had benefited from this workshop.

Ultimately, ISTA TAPS was a positive experience, and is bound to be extremely beneficial for the rest of my IB Theatre course, especially as I plan to pursue this course as a higher level. Performance has never been my strong suit, but this course did help me with that aspect of theatre.

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