On Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th September, Embassy CES students performed ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ under Melinda Allan's direction. Rehearsals took about two months and the results were fantastic. Due to the great interest in being part of the play, each night boasted a different cast of students. Both plays were hugely visited by fellow students, teachers and even host families.
Melinda Allan, director of the play and an Embassy CES teacher, comments:
I've always had a love of drama, and I majored in Theatre at university. I believe drama is a very good way to learn a foreign language, as it helps people to greatly improve fluency and pronunciation, learn useful chunks of language, be expressive, gain confidence, and work towards the goal of performance on a stage. Students always comment on the close relationships they develop during the rehearsal process. Drama also gives students a chance to come out from behind a desk and explore language in a different way.
Why did you take part in the drama course?
Yoshi: I'd just finished TOEIC class in the afternoons and the teacher was Melinda. She suggested that I should take the drama class and I would have great fun. I didn't know the contents of the class, but I agreed with her suggestion. I’m glad I did.
Maria: Because I have always liked drama and when I saw the opportunity to do it in English I knew that it was going to be very interesting.
Did you have any experience with drama courses before?
Yoshi: I'd never performed a play before. I don’t think that this mattered though. Melinda said to us "enjoying the performance is more important." I think so too.
Maria: In my university in Colombia I was part of the Drama group and I did plays with them for 4 years.
What did you find most difficult (learning lines, movement around the stage, coordination with other people)?
Yoshi: I didn't find any difficulties. I enjoyed learning the lines, practicing the movements... everything. But if I had to say one thing, expressing my feelings with my face and movement was difficult. I thought my performance was natural in the play, but when I checked DVD later, it was unnatural and shaming!
Maria: For me the most difficult thing was the correct pronunciation of my lines. Every line had a special intonation according to the situation and that is really hard to express in another language.
Have you seen the play - The Importance of being Earnest - before? If yes, what was your impression of it? Have you felt influenced by that?
Yoshi: I'd never seen the play before. I saw the movie of it at the beginning of drama class. I thought that it would be impossible to act this and to memorise all the lines! Also, I didn't know that we were going to perform in front of so many people and I felt a little bit nervous.
Maria: I saw part of the movie and I was influenced a little bit because the movie gave me a general idea of the context.
Was it easy or difficult to learn lines in English as a foreign student?
Yoshi: Sometimes I felt it was difficult to learn lines. I only tried to learn my lines at first. It is actually more difficult this way. To try to learn other people’s lines as well, and to understand the flow of the play was very helpful to learn my lines. Also, it took me to a higher level in my performing.
Maria: For me as I said before learning lines is not so difficult even in another language, the really difficult part was the intonation of those lines.
