Drama course

It was a dramatic flexweek in 2022, as not only did this course return for the sixth(?) time, but the Erasmus Midsummer Night's Dream course also took place. We joined forces for the last day, watching each other's performances.

This course followed the traditional format: Daniel came in for the Monday morning session, and did some improv work with the group. After that, we divided into small groups, chose one of the scripts on offer, and got stuck in with three days of relatively intense line-learning and rehearsals. Students worked very independently, with minimal input from me, and showed admirable application and initiative.

The performances on Friday were very impressive indeed. Laughter resounded in the auditorium and everyone involved seemed to be having a great time.

Below are some reflections from some of the students who took part.

• The course went rather well and it was nice to do something very different from what I usually do. The hardest part was learning lines but that went fine enough after working on them at home by ourselves. 

• The course was nice and refreshing. Bit of a break from normal school activities was nice.

• Initially I felt like the course was going to feel boring and/or embarrassing since I have never really had any prior experience with acting. But, the first session with Daniel is actually quite good at freeing feelings of embarrassment and aversion. You get to do a lot of activities to get to learn about your (possible) fellow co-stars and it helped me feel a lot better about performing and understand that this course is supposed to be fun, not something that is stressful or anxiety-inducing. The lessons in the course were really free form and I enjoyed how we were given the independence to get familiar with the plays and rehearse on our own. When times for final performances came around I felt surprisingly confident and the lightheartedness of the course definitely helped in that aspect. 

• This course was really interactive and with a lot of interesting and creative ideas. Felt that the environment was really light with cool people to work with. The final plays were amazing considering we had a short time to learn everything so i would say it was pretty productive as well.