As part of our Creative Stars participant development, we took the group to an acting workshop at Contact. Here’s Liz’s post about it all.
Our Creative Stars trip to Contact was an unforgettable experience, and one of the highlights of my summer.
I was really unsure of what to expect, as I had never been to Contact. However, it is an amazing place with an important mission: to showcase young talent, and educate and motivate people about the arts and the media.
The first thing that surprised and impressed me about Contact was the striking architecture of the building. I had never seen anything quite like it. Inside the building I was touched by the friendly, relaxed atmosphere.
First we were given a tour of Contact by a lovely lady named Suzie, who showed us the different performance environments that Contact has to offer: a large theatre space; a smaller, more intimate performance space; and a big studio for rehearsing. The layout of the building is unusual and I like it; it has quite a futuristic feel to it.
We then met Banji and Seda; two young Contact facilitators who gave us an acting workshop. I hadn’t known what to expect, but it turned out to be a series of activities to help us develop useful acting skills such as listening to each other, paying attention, reading body language, playing a part and trying to act in the shoes of other people.
The games I personally enjoyed most were the, “Log Game,” which was kind of like Simon Says but a lot more complicated, and which made us really listen closely to instructions; and the, “Mafia Game,” which was about trying to look innocent when you’re really part of an imaginary mafia. It makes you so aware of your body language, and little things in your normal behaviour that you don’t usually notice, but which you now try frantically to recall, so that you can act as normally as possible and not attract suspicion. It was a mind-boggling game, but a really enjoyable one.
We also did activities that involved us becoming sculptures and telling stories, and I really enjoyed the whole workshop and will certainly take care to remember some of the games so that I can play them with my friends some time – and maybe one day I will be an actress!
Overall, it was a really enjoyable day, and I am very glad that I was given this opportunity. Thank you Boran and Seda, thank you Contact and thank you Creative Stars!
Written by Creative Star, Liz Gibson (August 2011)