Herzlich willkommen

On Friday, September 5th, some of the 13th grade English classes participated in a workshop taught by British actor Julius D’Silva, who is known for his roles in The Crown, Highlander, and Bridgerton. During this workshop, D’Silva helped us improve our acting skills, while also teaching us interesting facts about Shakespeare’s plays.

His lesson began with a variety of short warm-ups and games, which we all really enjoyed as they involved lots of movement. Julius D’Silva taught us some facts about Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which we are currently working with in English class. The actor split us into two groups and asked us to potray characters from the plays. This was a lot of fun, not only because some of the students he chose perfectly fit their roles, but also because it helped us to remember the plot of the plays more easily. In addition, he instructed us on the specific rhyme schemes and rhythms used in Shakespeare’s plays. We learned that the poet’s rhymes and rythms are thought to precisely match the beat of the human heart.

The actor handed everyone a monologue from the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which Egeus expresses his anger at his daughter Hermia for refusing to marry Demetrius. Julius D’Silva asked some of us to sit back to back with him while reading out Egeus’s monologue. Then, he asked the students in the middle to repeat certain words and raise their voices, which really helped us to better understand this role and its emotion. We then practiced in pairs.

Afterwards, he handed out a dialogue from the same play, which we also had to act out with our partner. It was a very enjoyable task, as we connected with our role and our scene partner in a special way. We were all fascinated by how much information you can find out about a role, simply by looking at other characters. We learned this during another task, in which Julius D’Silva gave us small slips of paper that had lines written on them that other characters from Romeo and Juliet say about Juliet.

Here is what some of the participants had to say about the workshop:

“I thought it was a great experience, I liked the actor. I thought he had an energy surrounding him that was unmatched.”
(Jan 13EN)

“I also very much enjoyed it. I think he was very good at explaining everything and also explaining why it was important to do a particular step.”
(Emily 13EN)

“I also just wanted to add, that I liked the fact that he did everything so quickly that we could not do anything but open up and I just go along with it and I liked that.”
(Hannah 13EN)

“I would agree. I really enjoyed it as well.
I was worried before he did it that it was going to be a little awkward, because I’ve heard some stories of the DS classes that it would sometimes be a bit weird, but I thought he had a great energy and he kind of just dragged everyone along.”
(Marlene 13EN)

After the workshop, I even got to ask the British actor a few questions:

“Okay, I’m curious. What is your favorite Shakespeare play?”

“There are so many that I like for different reasons, but I think I like Richard III. Eventhough he’s a royal, he’s disadvantaged because he’s deformed. He eventually becomes a tyrant, but starts off as a very brave young man. But because of the way others treat him, he becomes evil and tyrannical. The audience are on his side and they get sucked in to being on his side. And when they start realizing that he’s doing evil things, it’s too late - they’ve already decided to sort of be loyal to him. So it’s a little lesson in the nature of tyranny really.“

“And what do you enjoy most about teaching students?”

“I like introducing people to Shakespeare because I like it when the lightbulb goes on in their mind and you can see that they understand it and suddenly it becomes easy and fun. And I like the practical approach, I like the theatre approach to teaching Shakespeare, rather than the classroom approach to teaching. And I think as actors we have a much quicker understanding because of the exercises and games that we play in the theatre than if you read it in a classroom situation. And that's what I enjoy most of all.“

Solveig (13EN)

Mehr dazu auch in der Schülerzeitung unserer Schule auf Instagram.