The restrictions have eased, and workshops are back! On the 29th of April the IGCSE and IB Theatre groups were treated to a rare physicality and vocal workshop by local artist and theatre practitioner Gey Pin Ang.

The workshop

On Friday afternoon, the 15 students and two drama teachers met in the Black Box studio excited to be visited by such an esteemed local theatre practitioner. Gey Pin got straight to work asking the students to be mindful of how their bodies and minds connect, and spent 45 minutes or so warming us all up with movement exercises that helped us to break down barriers and relax into the work. We then spent time playing with how the voice connects with the body, and creating physical and vocal representations of text.

Grotowski was one of the main theatre masters of the 20th century that emphasised an embodied actor training. He created the ‘Poor Theatre’ movement in which he believed that all a performer really needed was an awareness of their body, voice and an audience to perform to. Gey Pin guided us through creative playing and active participation, with the aim of learning to find our intuition and expand our self-discovery. It was a fun, engaging and challenging workshop. We laughed, we felt safe to explore, and we all came away closer, more confident, and more mindful performers.

Who is Gey Pin Ang?

Gey Pin is best known locally for the title role in the Chinese version of Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree and being the artistic director of Theatre OX. Gey Pin was a member of the Workcenter of the world famous Polish theatre practitioner Jerzy Grotowski, and performed lead roles, touring internationally with the company promoting the development of theatre arts. Her embodied practice and research are featured in scholarly journals, books of intercultural theatre and anthropology. Ang holds a PhD in Drama by Practice-as-Research, and her recent works include The Peculiar Tra La (Intercultural Theatre Institute, 2019), The Silly Little Girl and the Funny Old Tree (Young People’s Performing Arts Ensemble, 2019), and Antigone (LASALLE College of the Arts, 2019).