Thirteen Class 8 and 9 students participated in Dyatmika’s first Drama and Culture trip to KL. We arrived at the hotel by shuttle bus and were able to catch a few sights of KL’s street art. For dinner, we visited a mall near KLCC and ate together at a food court- bubble tea and fried chicken were popular, but Pak Dika was more adventurous by trying a clay pot dish! The next morning we visited The Islamic Arts Museum which is filled with historical artefacts from all over the world including a Qu’ran from the 9th century; Mughal jewelry filled with diamonds, emeralds and rubies from India and 18th century Ottoman swords. That afternoon we visited the Alice Smith School to watch a thrilling and energetic drama performance by the UK theatre group Splendid. We had front row seats and there was lots of audience participation. The show consisted of only three actors, so they did an amazing job to play many different characters. It was a Greek Tragedy, so there were lots of violent deaths and revenge!
We had a quick stop off at Nu Sentral mall for dinner and shopping. Bear blankets were the most popular purchase! On our final day, we returned to the Alice Smith School for our private drama workshop with Splendid and a tour of the school. We did activities with each other to warm us up by making it look like we were using a weapon on people and describing it with sound effects. The climax of the workshop was to perform a section of the play in groups using all the techniques that we learned during the workshop. We had a lot of fun during the workshop and everyone became a lot more confident. I think our teachers were impressed with the final performance
Before we left for the flight home, we explored the school. They have a lot of technology and arts and facilities: a 50m swimming pool, three tennis courts and a running track around a massive football field. Some of the group were really impressed, but Ibu Nadine said she wouldn’t give up rice paddy views for these facilities! The purpose of the trip was to have a greater understanding of drama and learn the basic skills of drama. We all learnt these skills in the workshop we did with Splendid and collaborating together to create our own performance. We had an amazing experience and would definitely do it again. Thank you to all the teachers and staff that made this trip possible.
William and Alex, Class 9
Ibu Nadine, Head of English