Making Masks.
The Trestle Theatre Company visited St Augustine’s Priory on Monday 1st October to run workshops to enhance the girls’ experience and practice of Drama. Here Mrs Brown, Head of Drama, describes the day:
‘Professional practitioners from the Trestle Theatre Company, based in St Albans, came into school on Monday 1st October to teach some pupils from Lower IV to Upper VI how to create characters using Trestle’s signature half masks.
Pupils were introduced to the stock characters and their mantras, such as The Trickster with his catch-phrase “Bit of this, bit of that”, which captured the essence of the ‘Dell boy’ archetype. It was fascinating to see how quickly our talented girls transformed into these curious personas.
It was so satisfying to see the girls being be bold in their physicalities; empowered by the masks’ attitude. It was clear to see that this mask performance style would be very useful in their Drama studies. I know it has already been worked into a concept of Anouilh’s ‘Antigone’ at A Level, as a rehearsal tool to help an actor playing a guard to find his inner ‘cheeky chappy’.
Pupils commented that it was great fun and really fascinating to learn a new drama form. This workshop was just one part of the Drama Department’s mission to enable pupils to enjoy Drama to the full.’
