This year, I had another opportunity to participate in the ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association). I was able to attend last year as an MYP student and met so many inspiring people. I especially wanted to go as DP student to widen my arsenal of devising and theatre techniques. I have always been fascinated with theatre and ISTA gives me the chance to explore different styles of theatre through different lenses. Admittedly, I also enjoy meeting new people and spending time with my classmates who attend these trips as well.
(A group session with all ensembles. Credit: Mr. Lakshitha)
We were split up into different ensembles with leaders to teach and guide us. As we situated in our room, I could already hear the makings of conversation between students of different schools, I was excited to get started! The entire day was spent doing exercises to remember each other’s name and to get to know one another. We were constantly on our feet, moving around and sometimes, surprising out of breath… During all of these activities, I realized that any nervousness I had slowly started to disappear. I really appreciate how being around other theatre students makes you confident because everyone is here to embrace all sides of themselves. We did an activity where one person in the room was in charge of everyone else’s movement. If the game leader was slow, we were all slow. If they were waving their hands around, so were we. The activity taught me how to pay attention to detail, every step the person took, set the pace for everyone. The lift of a finger to the twitch of an eye needed to be mimicked.
We worked on exploring the seven different levels of tension: exhausted, laid back, neutral, alert, suspense, passionate, tragic. Our ensemble leader, Dean, told us to stand in a boundary. Within this space, we were told to embody these levels using only our bodies. For example, for alert, Dean told us to pretend like we were looking for something we lost, an intentional curiosity. We started by only focusing on ourselves, we then started to acknowledge others in the space. We ended up working together and effectively using the space to portray each level of tension.
ISTA is an amazing resource for information, we were introduced to concepts through specialized master classes. To understand the importance of scenery and the production elements, we were introduced to Kieran Burgess. The first activity was to watch a fellow student walk around the stage, we were told to trace their paths on a poster by watching their movement, direction, and pace. We then got into groups where we repeated the same activities with each other, using this diagram, we had to create a set. My group was particularly creative and resource fun as our set contained anything from shoes to ladders. During this process, I realized how much I like designing and experimenting with different ideas. While looking at other groups’ sets, I found that my attention to detail was greater and I gained a lot of inspiration from their ideas.
(Workshop with Kieran Burgess. Credits: Mr. Mr.Lakshitha)
Another workshop that we got to be a part of was by Lian Sutton’s introduction to embodying the elements. During this workshop, we worked on using masks. We spent time looking at the details of the masks, how they made us feel and what mood they resonate. We were put into groups of four people to start using the mask in performance. Each mask was a different color and had different expressions, it was interesting to see how each person interpreted the emotion in them. We wore masks and started to use movement and gestures to communicate our emotions. Lian started encouraging us to use level and interact with each other in the space. Through this activity, I learned that spending time exploring a mask before using it in performance is extremely important in terms of characterization.
(Our ISTA traveling group! Credit: Mr. Lakshitha)
I dubbed this trip another successful endeavor in the theatre world for me! I met new people, artists and discovered a range of devising techniques that I can apply this year in theatre. A bonus was to travel to another country and seeing traditional theatre there. Overall, I hope to continuously apply what I have learned and teach it to my peers as well.