By Eve Allin, Drama Tutor

This half term the Drama department have hosted at least one drama workshop every week for all students at Bedales. Even though these workshops have all taken place online, it has been a brilliant way for students to connect to professional artists working in theatre.

We had a special workshop from Emergency Chorus, an emerging experimental theatre company, with Bohunt Drama students to kick off the term: 

“The workshop with Emergency Chorus, makers of Landscape (1989), was interesting and the creators were insightful and kind. They gave us a presentation about their process and artistic intentions for the play whilst remaining inclusive and allowing us to ask some questions or ask us what we remembered about their show. I said that I liked the musical choices throughout and the atmospheric effects they all had that enhanced my pleasurable viewing experience.” — Gus McQuillan 

“I was inspired by the way their play was so contextually and historically driven. Specifically, how they focused on Capitalism in such a powerful way whilst still balancing this quite informative aspect with strong visual and aesthetical moments.” — Arthur Richardson 

Old Bedalian Amy Blakelock gave us a fascinating workshop centered around her Offie nominated play ‘Easy’: 

“From learning about story-archs and other writing techniques to playing a guessing game of which extract appeared in her final one-woman show, Amy’s playwriting workshop was hugely thought out, informative and really fun.” — Nay Murphy 

And OBs Hebe Bartlett and Roly Botha gave us a masterclass on auditioning and getting an agent: 

“I was lucky enough to participate in a brilliant workshop led by Hebe and Roly. They talked about the acting industry, how they both individually got into it and gave us tips on auditions and agents! It was very helpful and I will carry the information they gave me with me in the future.” — Jessica Asamoa 

Actor and workshop leader Benjamin Press joined us for a workshop centered on the Meisner method – a well renowned and unique technique to approach acting, Ben was brilliant at working with students over Teams: 

“Even though we were online, the Meisner workshop was ace. Keeping the energy sharp had a whole new challenge when not being face-to-face, which I found really useful, and it was brilliant to have an expert like Ben come in to help us along the way, especially since we’ve been studying naturalism this term. I had a lot of fun.” — Jamie Thorogood 

We had a brilliant visit from three Central School of Speech and Drama students, who are running workshops around how to create open spaces for women and girls: 

“The CSSD Research workshop was such an amazing experience for me. It made me reflect on my female friendships and solidify my relationships with my girlfriends, not to mention that it was so much fun and such a compassionate, lovely environment. Sophia, Safura and Naomi were so kind and made the workshop so friendly; it was one of the best workshops I have done.” — Elena Belisario 

“As a Drama A Level student I have learnt so much from the CSSD Research workshop. I have learnt how to create a creative space when devising in a group and how to produce a meaningful and powerful piece of theatre. Sophia, Safura and Naomi were very approachable and enthusiastic when answering questions, especially when I asked how I could transfer the activities we did, into my drama lesson. Overall, I believe that this was a very important workshop as I learnt so much from the way I work and made me feel very connected to my inner feminist.” — Aryana Taheri-Murphy 

For our final workshop on Wednesday this week Anita Pollinger-Jones gave students an insight into subtext in performance in her bespoke acting workshop using Hamlet and Pygmalion. We are delighted that so many students took part in our workshops this term, and we will be continuing these sessions every Wednesday in the Summer Term.