Developing My Theater Skills During the Summer

During this past summer, I went to a village in Pakistan, Mansehra, to teach at a rural small school for underprivileged children living in poverty. There was a focus on teaching orphans and girls, both of whom are statistically very uneducated throughout Pakistan. But instead of teaching these children, I had the privilege of leading a Spoken English workshop for the TEACHERS of the school, a small group of 10-15. The teachers all had a bachelor’s degree of higher in English, and were from the ages of 20-30: I huge challenge for me was overcoming my fear of being the leader of such a large and experienced group of teachers: were they going to like me? Would they respect me as a teacher when I was a decade younger and still a high school student?

There was also the issue of the language barrier: Although I can speak Urdu, I’m not as fluent as I would be if it were my first language. I also cannot read and write Urdu at all. This is where my theater skills came in: I decided the most effective way to teach these ladies

was through fun and interactive theater-style activities in which spoken English also came into practice. I believe theater and Spoken English go hand in hand, as you need to develop one skill to be better in the other. Spoken English helps a student with their communication and public speaking skills, while theater provides different situations for these skills to be used along with the use of creative skills.

My interactive method of teaching was quite unorthodox to the usual traditional methods of teaching in Pakistan, and especially in this rural school. As I began my first class, I placed the class into two groups and allowed them to create skits about specific assigned topics, such as “Days of the Week” or “Types of Students.” Although at first the teachers were hesitant to express themselves: some teachers even refused from being part of the skits in fear of being judged. This was definitely a big challenge for me, as I had never been a teacher before and I didn’t know how I could make the teachers more comfortable with me and with each other.

As I’ve learned from last year in IB Theater and the spring production “Into the Light” I was in, trust is a HUGE aspect of working together in theater. If there is no trust with an ensemble, the production cannot be successful because the actors are not comfortable with one another and that means they are holding back their potential, even as a group.

So my second day of teaching, I decided to do some icebreaker activities I have learned in IB Theater: for example, we played zip zap zop, along with simply improvising skits in Urdu. This allowed the group to become comfortable with one another, and with me. We continued to do many activities related to theater throughout my one month long workshop, whether skits, telling stories, improvisation games such as my very own favorite “Freeze,” and much more.

I think the biggest thing I learned from this experience was the importance of English in Theater and vice versa: I realized that as a theater student, it is important that I continuously practice my public speaking, debating, and conversational skills because communication skills are vital in theater: the ability to speak effectively helps me express my emotions in theater.

Furthermore, through this experience I was able to overcome my fear of being placed out of my comfort zone by working with people (specifically, adults!!) I’ve never talked to before. Being able to work outside of one’s comfort zone is also an important skill in theater: for example, we will be covering theater of cruelty later this year, a genre that is focused on placing performers out of their comfort zones – essentially being “cruel” to not just the audience through disturbing imagery, but also to the performers.

This experience allowed me to practice working outside of my comfort zone, along with working collaboratively with a group of teachers – also prepping for the collaborative skills I need in theater such as for the Collaborative Project that we will be working on during the second semester of Year 2 IB Theater. Additionally, improvising with my students allowed me to practice my creative and acting skills throughout the summer.

By the end of the workshop, my students told me how much these theater activities had aided in their ability to speak English, and were already asking about what activities I will be sharing with them next summer after my second and final year of IB Theater HL. I am just as excited as them to see what this year holds in store!