On 27 February, a theatre company called The Handlebards visited our school and delivered an animated performance of the famous Shakespearean comedy: The Tempest. The Tempest tells the story of Prospero, the Duke of Milan (Italy), who was wrongly exiled by his brother to an island with his daughter, where they live with the mischievous spirit Ariel, and a monstrous creature- Caliban. It covers themes of love, betrayal and forgiveness.
Their rendition of the play included lively music, brilliant acting, comical costumes and lots of audience participation — our own teachers and students were invited on stage. It was the character Ariel who stood out to me the most because of his magical abilities and the way the actors tried to portray them with their props. The play ended with a question and answer session, where we learned about the background of the company, as well as what the process of putting together a show is like; how the characters are assigned and how long it takes to memorise lines.
One of the most fascinating things about this company is, when they tour in the UK, they do so entirely by bicycle! This is where the name of the company comes from: it is a pun – instead of handlebars (of a bicycle) it is handlebards (Shakespeare is known as the ‘Bard of Avon’ or often just simply- The Bard. Bard is a title bestowed upon someone who’s considered a great or masterful poet.
After the engaging performance, some of us were lucky enough to participate in a drama workshop with the cast. Their workshop taught us a lot about how much detail goes into every aspect of acting. The warmups we did were very expressive and involved the whole body — even the vocal warmups. Once we were loose, we were directed into the proper natural stance, which includes slightly bent knees, squared shoulders and a lifted chin. After that, we were split into two groups to enact a scene from the play – an exchange between the characters Miranda and Ferdinand. We had to recite our lines using different voices, quiet and loud, which taught us the impact of volume on the presentation of a character. Exercises where we partnered up then trained us to empathise with the characters and decipher how much power they have in every line.
Overall, it was a very entertaining and memorable experience. We are really lucky we had the opportunity to learn so much about acting through professionals. I hope we get to see them again in the future.