Drama Enrichment Workshop with Annie Eddington

Last Thursday, 22 June, we were lucky to have Annie Eddington join our Year 7 and 8 Drama enrichment students in School. As a Shakespeare expert, she held a workshop around As You Like It, sharing her skills and specialist knowledge, students were treated to exploration, exercises, advice and guidance on different elements of acting and performing. Two of our students shared their thoughts on the workshop in their reports.

Romilly, Year 8

In Thursday’s As You Like It workshop, I had a great time exploring the different themes of the play. One of the exercises that I enjoyed was when the boys tried to imitate how the girls walked and the girls imitated the boys.

It was really interesting to see the way that the actors in this play, especially those playing Rosalind who switched between acting as a girl and a boy, had to adjust every part of their movement.

Annie came up with many more clever ways to change the play, keeping the lines the same, through a character’s mindset.

I think that working with Annie, then and hopefully again in the future, was such a different experience to normal Drama lessons; Annie gave me a lot of ideas which will help me to not only be a successful drama student, but lead me to be a confident person in general.

Seth, Year 7

Working with Annie was incredibly fun and engrossing in this workshop. We looked at Shakespeare’s As You Like It with Annie, as she is a Shakespeare expert.

In the beginning we started with some games based on using movement and looking at how the opposite gender moved, then (attempting) to copy their walk. I particularly enjoyed it when the actions became opposite, as it made us think and really focus on what to do.

We learned many skills with her, she showed us how and what to focus on with our fellow actors.

It really showed how professional, experienced actors work and what they focus on when they have to perform Shakespeare work.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience and taught us all a lot and will make us better performers in the future.