Theatre Classes (for introverts)!

Having been assigned a very minor role in the Wizard of Oz at school (I played a farmhand that didn’t even exist in the film – I was too tall for a munchkin), I never really considered drama or theatre. I’m shy, awkward, I have a very soft voice and hate my accent.

But Portugal is different – all bets are off. Back in early 2018 I had already done (and passed!) the CIPLE exam but didn’t feel at all comfortable speaking in Portuguese. I had somehow ended up being a shift manager at my voluntary work at Refood which did challenge me and I was improving slowly, but I was always on the lookout for new challenges to meet new people and stretch my language abilities. I saw a post asking for people with no acting experience to take part in a theatre project called “A Manual on Work and Happiness”. Don’t be fooled by the title, it was all in Portuguese. I decided to apply and was accepted along with 17 other people from the local area. It was a good mix of people of different ages and I feel like I have a bond with them all forever. My comfort zone discarded, we set to work at rehearsals. The stage manager shouting at my about my pronunciation of “União Europeia” which for some reason was almost impossible for me to pronounce almost had me jacking it in, but I have to admit, the absolute terror of having to present it on stage in front of a paying audience, although terrifying was also a great motivator.

I’d say that that first experience taught me that I still had a long way to go to be fluent in Portuguese, but I thought (and still think) that theatre is an excellent way to stretch yourself linguistically and to also meet excellent people. One of the cast of the “Manual” went on to start up her own theatre classes which I have been attending on and off ever since. These are less structured without necessarily having an end performance to work towards but aside from challenging by still not fluent Portuguese, it’s really good fun. We laugh and play and dance like children, and as adults we don’t do enough of that!