Performing Arts/Drama Workshop Programme

Day 1

After introductions, the students were led through a series of warm up exercises.

Pierce explains why it is important to do warm up exercises:

"I do these because of health and safety reasons, really. People have to be relaxed and their muscles relaxed so there are no injuries later."

The students then took part in trust exercises. This involved one person keeping their eyes shut and being led around by someone else.

See why Pierce thinks it is important to do trust exercises:

"It’s important we go through these exercises as the candidates have to learn about trust, how to trust each other, so that when they work with each other, the trust is there."

The next task was to mimic another person who was telling a story through gestures, then to relay the story to the rest of the group.

The students were then given random words out of a box that they had to use to develop a story.

They then concentrated on telling a story, themed around a death.

See the performances here:

story 1:

story 2:

story 3:

We asked Pierce why he got the students to do the storytelling tasks:

"I had to show exactly what acting means – it’s telling a story. So if you can get them to relate a story, to tell a story themselves, then they become better actors."

Day 2

Day 2 was devoted to the students developing a character. They were first of all given an animal to imitate. Pierce directed by giving out numbers on a scale of 1 to 10. One was to act more human, and 10 to act more like the animal. The group then develop a character, based on their given animal, but in pair work and telling a story.

See why Pierce guided the students in developing a character:

"I want them to learn how to develop their character because obviously it has a huge impact on their acting skills and how effective they are as an actor."