“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players”
These words from Shakespeare’s As You Like It rang true literally for forty young participants who attended a two-day workshop, from 19-20 June 2010, organised by Perak Society of Performing Arts (PSPA) Junior Associate Conference at Taman Budaya, Ipoh. The participants were introduced to the theatre and the world of stage production in a number of workshop sessions with ‘Exploring Stage and Theatre’ as the main theme. These young people whose ages range from 12-18 and were from schools around Ipoh, were given the opportunity to draw on their creativity and inherent talent in order to realise their potential as stage actors and actresses.
On hand to guide them were facilitators with vast experience in the performing arts. Rosalina Ooi, Jeya Jeyaratnam, Chantelle-Shakila Tiagi, Jeffrey Chew, SylviaWong, Jacqueline Thong, Gerald Goh and Xavier Fong, in their respective sessions, took the participants through their paces, demonstrating how action, movement, voice, song etc. were fundamental to acting and could take one to great heights as a stage performer.
The conference, overseen by the president of PSPA, Datin Rosalina and the organising chairperson, Doreen Kam, began with an introduction to the theatre by Datin Rosalina. Immediately after that was a ‘Laughter’ session conducted by Jeya who believed that the ‘feel-good effects of laughter’ would help raise energy levels. Through her activities, she taught the participants to laugh at themselves and shed their inhibitions, thus preparing them for what was to come next. Before the session was over, everyone was psyched up and raring to go.
Jeffrey then carried out a session on ‘Exploring with Song’, highlighting how music and song could be an integral aspect of stage performances. The participants clearly enjoyed this session. Chantelle explored ‘Action’ and got the youngsters to understand the significance of movement and action. Sylvia meanwhile got the participants to exercise their vocal cords, with hilarious results. Xavier had ‘stage tips’ for the soon-to-be stage performers, drawing together aspects of imagination, body language and voice projection and demonstrating how these can be exploited for a successful and memorable stage performance.
The intensive two-day workshop culminated in stage presentations by the different age groups who used dance, voice, song and movement to communicate their perception of what ‘Happiness is...’. With merely a couple of hours of rehearsal, it was the moment of truth for the participants when they proved that they were indeed capable of staging fast-paced, highly-charged and enthralling performances. The internal audience of mainly parents were entertained by the riveting presentations.
It was an exciting 2-days for the participants, as evidenced by the laughter and spontaneity during the workshop sessions. Alexander Joseph (13 years) and his brother Adrian (12 years) felt the workshop was fun and enjoyed the new experiences, while Isabelle Leong (17 years) and her friends from MGS were seen giving their all in the activities. Perhaps the question that could be uppermost in everybody’s mind after the workshop is “To be, or not to be (an actor): that is the question:” (Hamlet).
Written by Sandra Rajoo
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