ISTA-Scene June 08

movements and how to expand myknowledge of Commedia dell’Arte.I learned on this trip that you must takeyour shoes off while entering a room due torespect. I also learned that most of thedishes you can eat with your hands andthey wouldn’t find that disrespectful. Beforethis trip I was really shy when it came tostage performances and often had stagefright. However when I came to Thailandand worked with new people I became lessshy and now I am capable of performingwithout any hassles.A moment that I will always rememberis the small scene that the Commediadell’Arte teacher showed us. He pretendedto be really hungry and found a fly that hetried to catch and eat. This helped mygroup in school perform our Commediapiece - where we took his ideas and put inour own techniques.If I could describe ISTA in three words Iwould describe it as a fantastic, fun andtotally worth it experience. I will alwaysremember TAPS in Thailand and I reallywould like to thank all the teachers andeveryone who was there. I have learned somuch and will always have TAPS Thailandin my heart.Catalina MonteroI haven’t taken drama for very long sothe way I heard about TAPS was by mydrama teacher, who explained to us what itwas all about and how productive it wouldbe for our future learning. In drama wetalked about how important it is to learndifferent theatrical cultures and this was aperfect opportunity to do so. I have been toThailand before but never to Chiang Mai,so I pictured it very differently. I could see alot more culture and tradition than in theother more ‘touristy’ places that I beenbefore. At first I was very nervous andlooking back my classmates were too, Ithink the reason why I was nervous is thefact that I would be surrounded by peoplewho I had never met before. I also wasn’tsure what to expect and in a way I wasscared that I would know everything Ineeded to know for the classes. I felt verydifferent by the end of the first day, Irealized how everyone felt the same way,the first day made me realize how fun andexciting this experience was going to be. Iloved my ensemble leader, all the activitieshe made us do were fun and I learned somuch from them. I think what I learned themost from him was the different way anidentical idea can be presented. During thetrip I learned a huge amount of newtheatrical skills; such as in CommediaDel’Arte that was something I had justfinished researching in school. In one of themaster classes I actually understood andlearned how the characters moved andhow important it is for an actor to beconscious of his or her body while actingand not just facial expressions. One of thethings that most challenged me during thetrip was the last performance in one of theensemble classes. We had to pretend tobe a company and we had to come upwith a plan for this rich person to found it.We were only given 15 minutes andalthough we were a group of 5, we weresupposed to think of every detailconcerning the play. This was hardbecause of the amount of time we had butafter awhile each of us focused on oneaspect and we got through it. I think a lotof things that I learned at ISTA are going tostay with me, especially during the IBbecause it gave me tools that I can use tolearn in the future. It would be hard todescribe the ISTA experience in just a fewwords but for me it was magical,entertaining and useful.Students writing from Tanglin TrustSchool, Singapore – CHIANG MAI TAPSWill HughesI signed up for ISTA in Chiang Mai tofurther my knowledge of Thai theatre andculture as I travel to Thailand a lot but havehad little experience of traditional Thai artforms. It was also because I enjoyed thelast ISTA festival I attended in Hong Kong.My first impressions of the school wereamazing; Prem was very specious,environmentally conscious and had afriendly welcoming atmosphere. Thisproved to be a great environment forcreative workshops.The experience was slightly daunting butvery exciting, I was looking forward tomeeting different people from all over theworld and see how their ideas andexperiences had differed to mine. By the endof the first day I felt a lot more comfortablewith the people I was working with andlearning from. I found that because we werecreating and developing work together anelement of trust was built between us andwe became closer than we would if we werein a less creative environment.Our ensemble leader was able to keepthe energy up throughout and used the rightexercises to match and support the energywe had. They also seemed veryknowledgeable about what we were doingand had confidence in what we were capableof. Over the course of the weekend Ifurthered by understanding of physical theatreby exploring the seven states of tension asboth a warm-up and in performance. I alsohad a good experience of creating work in anew ensemble with limited time and stimuli.Using commedia masks helped me tounderstand the importance of physicallycharacterising the whole body rather than justthe hands or face.Thai culture is completely different tome now after my experiences at ISTA as Iseem to relate the artwork, architectureand most noticeably the people, to whatwe learned about Khon and Likay. I foundthe gestures of Khon to be unique yetuniversally identifiable and was enthralledby the improvisational structure of Likay.The highlight for me was staying inMakhampom, the Thai village of artists,practitioners and teachers and watchingKristen Van GinhovenDaniel SarstedtMoira ArthursMoira ArthursRob WarrenCardiff TAPSthe performance of ‘never say die’. Beingcompletely surrounded by traditional Thaiculture and then experiencing it first hand(through the master classes) meant that theperformance was much richer as I wasable to understand and appreciate it thatmuch more.The three words I would use todescribe ISTA are: Openness, Discoveryand MotivationalAlex SaloyedoffI myself was invited to come along toChiang Mai at the very VERY last minute,Scene | 2007-8 June Issue 4 | 9