Le théâtre en 2nde européenne

The drama workshop

On stage with Dario

Last Wednesday, I took part in a drama workshop with my English class. This workshop was organized by Mrs Pavard, our English teacher, and Dario Costa, an Australian actor. It took place in the school’s theatre in the morning. In fact, I really looked forward to workshop, it was the first time I had done something like that. I am a little shy and I was really afraid of staging a scene in front of other people, however I am interested in the job of an actor and I wanted to know more about it.
When we arrived, Dario presented himself and we began the workshop. Firstly, we stood in a circle and in turns, we had to step forward, give our names and get back into the circle. The others had to mime what we were doing, it was very funny and I found it very easy ! Then, Dario gave us some concentration exercises, when he was saying an adjective, we had to do the contrary for example. What was challenging was to always be focused on what Dario was saying, it was very hard ! Afterwards, we did some miming exercises, we were still standing in a circle and we passed on an imaginary object. It was a very surprising exercise, we had to imagine an object very quickly, and at the same time the aim was to mime this object as best as we could. Personally I mimed a telescope ! It was also very funny to see what objects my classmates found to mime. After that, we began by staging the poem that Dario Costa had written. Dario gave us a lot of interesting advice, then we had to present our scene in front of our classmates, which was really difficult. However, according to Dario, we did a really good performance despite the stage fright we all had !
The Drama Workshop was a really great experience, it enabled me to gain self-confidence and to overcome my shyness, staging a poem in front of 30 people is not an easy thing ! This workshop also enabled me to improve my miming skills and to develop my imagination. I really liked this workshop, I will never forget this moment ! Thanks to Dario and Mrs Pavard for having organized it, thanks a lot !
Fayssal Nait Moussa, 2°1

Wednesday 11th of January, we went to the theater, we stayed there from 8:30 am to noon. There we met Dario Costa, an Australian actor who lives in France. I didn’t really know what to expect, I thought it would be like my drama class, warm-up exercises followed by improvisations. Even though there were some similarities, I was surprised by most exercises, that I had never experienced in my nine years of drama classes.
First we warmed up, for example we walked around and we had to follow his orders, jump, stop, clap our hands, go… But then it became less easy and we had to do the opposite of what he was telling us. We also had to mime emotions or states, I found it easy when everyone was focused on themselves, but it was really different when all eyes were on me. After a couple of other warming-up exercises ( we had to cross the stage acting like animals or models, we had to change places in the circle with members of our group, we had to run if we were wearing black…), we started talking about the play. Dario introduced some characters and situations of his play, we talked like Mad Dan, we were lost in the desert like Burke and Wills, we saw the fate of a convict who had been transported, we also staged the introduction poem in groups. I think this is the part I enjoyed the most, I’m really fond of improvisations. For one minute or so, you can escape from reality, you become someone else, you’re caught up in your imagination. During the improvisations, we were more or less free ; sometimes we had some advice, sometimes we were just given a starting point.
I think the easiest exercises were when everybody was walking around, you could really let yourself go. And the hardest was obviously the one where you had to stand up in front of the entire class and mime an emotion. In my opinion, the funniest was the improvisation in the desert, I was quite surprised by all the varied situations proposed by all the groups. I must say I didn’t really learn new things but I really had a good time.
To conclude, I’d say that it was a really good experience, I really like to do theater, it changes from the usual classes, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to join the European section, to sometimes do more “lively” activities. So I’d like to thank Dario Costa for this, it was a very good morning !
Maïa de Favitski, 2°2

With Dario Costa who is an Australian actor from the company Drama Ties we did many exercises in the theater of the school .Before starting the drama session I was already excited about doing this because I really like drama, and doing this in English with a professional was a new experience for me. First we did a couple of exercises which were very interesting, I remember when we were in a circle and we had to walk through the circle miming something, an old man or an animal.
My favorite part of this drama session was when we had to improvise a scene where we were in the desert with no food and no water and without camels, it was really funny and with this kind of exercise I was able to learn how to work in a group in a different way. However the exercise I did not like was the one of the staging of the poem, because I didn’t perform well and it was pretty challenging.
Dario proposed many other exercises, we had to pass on an imaginary object which was hot or cold or heavy and then we had to invent an object (I invented a golf club). After that some students improvised a scene with their own objects, which was also really funny to see. I remember also when we walked through the stage and Dario told us to stop or to clap into our hands and then we had to do the contrary of his orders.
To finish I enjoyed doing this drama session with Dario, he is a great actor and because of him I can feel more at ease and more expressive. All the exercises were very original and interesting .
Kevin Banor, 2°2

On January the 11th, my European classmates and I were lucky enough to do a workshop session with Dario Costa, an Australian actor. Several days before the workshop, we worked about Australia in class and we learned the starter poem of Dario’s play.
It was the first time that I had been doing doing something like that, I wasn’t expecting anything in particular, I was just very curious. And the fact that the workshop was in English made me even more curious about it. Plus, we had the visit of an Australian student, Jan who did the workshop with us.
Dario proposed many different activities. We first warmed-up by doing little exercises in which, for example, we had to move our legs, arms and shoulders energetically. Then we introduced ourselves : we were in circle and we had to step forward and say our names. We also did mime and improvisation exercises.
We staged the poem we had learnt. Dario gave us advice and helped us to find ideas. He was very nice with us. Sometimes it was a bit difficult to be on stage and to talk in front of everyone but Dario made us feel comfortable so it was ok.
I think all the exercises were interesting but my favorite was the final one. We were in groups of 3, 4 or 5 and we had to imagine that we were a group of explorers lost in the desert. We had to stage what could happen next to these explorers and it was really funny to see all the different ways of interpreting the future of the same original situation.
I really enjoyed the workshop, it was sometimes challenging but also funny at the same time. I learned that the job of and actor is not that simple and that it requires a lot of patience and work. It was a great experience.
Anouk Dubout 2°1

On Wednesday we all took part in a workshop which took place in the theatre of our school and it was organized by our teacher and Dario Costa, an Australian actor living in France. We started by doing a warm-up such as forming a circle and stepping forward to present ourselves. After that we started improvising, we had to invent an imaginary object and pass it on, then Dario selected two students to make a quick play with their objects, it was very amusing !
The easiest exercise was the one where we had to run around the stage if we were wearing a certain colour or an accessory, we had to react quickly but I found it fun and easy whereas the most challenging exercise was when Dario played a part of his play and we had to imitate him afterwards, it was complicated because we had to memorize his actions and his lines in a short period of time, therefore I found it very interesting. The funniest exercise was the last one we did, we had to play a scene in a desert where our camel dies, it was funny to me because even though we had a few minutes to prepare before presenting our play, we improvised and it didn’t make sense.
Through this workshop I learned that you should have a lot of confidence and you need to step out your comfort zone, I will remember when Pauline and I staged the poem about Australia, we improved our performance and made an original play even though we were only two actresses.
Roshika Warnakulasuriya, 2°2

Improvising a scene

Two weeks ago, on the 11th of January, I had a workshop with my English class.
It was like a little drama class, led by Dario Costa who is an Australian actor who wrote, staged and performed a play called “Journey to Australia” that we were going to see the week after the workshop.
When my teacher first told us that we would have a workshop, I was terrified because I have social anxiety and it’s very hard for me to talk in front of an audience, so performing something was almost impossible.
The night before the workshop, I couldn’t sleep. I was terribly anxious.
So, on Wednesday we finally went to the theatre to do the workshop. The first thing we did was the warming-up.
We did a lot of different little activities to warm up. For example, we were in a circle and we had to take a step and say our names one by one first, and then we did it again but this time, the others had to mime what the person did. I thought it was pretty funny.
Dario then gave us numbers and we had to do lots of different things depending on the numbers, for example all the number ones had to pretend they were dogs and change places, then all the number twos had to pretend they were monkeys and change places… I was surprised I wasn’t really anxious while doing the warm-up and it made me really happy !
Then we had to do a series of different improvisations, for example we had to create an object and then to improvise a scene with the different objects that we had created.
To me the improvisation work was the most challenging work because of my anxiety. As I said earlier, it’s really hard for me to talk in front of people, so improvising various scenes was very challenging.
We also had to learn a poem that was part of the play and try to stage it in groups of two to five students, I think that this was my favorite exercise of the workshop. I thought it was really funny because we were in groups and we could really make our imagination work.
To conclude, I really liked the workshop even though it was challenging for me, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot of things about theatre. If we had to do something like that again, I think I would do it. I would also be less apprehensive it because it wasn’t as bad and horrible as I thought it would be. It was pretty much the opposite.
Estelle LIM,2°2

Improvising a scene 2

Last Wednesday, we took part in a drama workshop, which was led by Dario Costa, an Australian actor. It took place in the school’s theater and we were on stage from the beginning to the end. The aim of this workshop was to introduce us to the actor’s job and to help us to better understand Dario’s show, called “Journey to Australia”
We began by presenting ourselves. We were standing in a circle, one of us had to step forward, say his or her name and get back into the circle. Then, we did some concentration exercises to learn how to be focused. For example, Dario said “slow” and we had to walk slowly.
After that, we tried to improvise, by doing role play exercises. In one of them, we created an object as if we had magical hands. We all tried to express our creativity. As for me, I created a gun ! In another one, we invented a scene with two objects as a starting point. What was challenging was to find a link between the two objects, even if they didn’t have clear links.
Then, we staged Dario’s poem. We performed the scene as if we were interrogating convicts. It was funny ! After that, we embodied some characters of Dario’s show like Mad Dan who is a truck driver, or an explorer. Finally, we invented a scene where we were lost in the desert and one of us suffered from heat exhaustion.
This drama workshop enabled us to understand the actor’s job, by improvising, being on stage and performing a scene. We learnt to develop our imagination and to gain self-confidence. We discovered some characters of Dario’s show : Matt Dan, an explorer, some convicts, a botanist … I liked this drama workshop. I was impressed by Dario and his miming skills. I enjoyed being on stage with my friends and it was great to be able to improvise and to stage Dario’s poem.
Logan Renaud, 2°3

Voir en ligne : Projet "A journey to Australia"