My Most Memorable ISTA Experiences

ISTA Taps was more than I ever could have imagined. I learned so many things, met so many people, and had so much fun. I don't even think I can pick one thing that stood out as "most memorable" because so much of it was enjoyable and memorable for me. I had the absolute best instructor. Her name was Sam, and she was so smart and knowledgeable about not only IB Theatre, but also just about theatre and acting itself. Sam was very enthusiastic and engaging with all the kids in the room, but also was very comforting and uplifting when it came to our group work and experimenting with new theories, methods, and ideas that didn't even know about. We played a lot of good warm-up games that got our brains and bodies thinking, and they were also very funny. She taught us about a lot of different theatre theorists and their ideas, such as Comedia del Arte, Artaud, Tectonic Theatre, and Beijing Opera. My personal favorite was the last subject we learned about, which was Artaud and his methods. To give us some practice, Sam gave each group, which consisted of about 6 or 7 kids, a notecard with a "way of dying" on it. My group got assigned a heart-attack. I also had the benefit of being placed in an ensemble where every single person in the room was focused and super into theatre and what we were learning about. Everyone was there for the right reasons, which made for really great performances. For my Artaud group, we did some really cool work playing with breathing and pace from the "7 levels" that Sam had taught us, and it was honestly one of the coolest pieces of theatre I had been apart of. Doing ISTA Taps also opened my mind to what our bodies can do to really symbolize emotions and how we can create abstract movements that are even more powerful than script. This was one of my key takeaways, was that movement, lighting, and staging are what resonates with the audience, not necessarily the script and what you are saying. We did an activity pretty early on in the workshops where we were again put into small groups, and we had to pick an emotion/theme prevalent to today's society. My group chose to portray "being an outcast". Sam had us start by using only 13 distinctly different movements with our bodies to portray this theme. Once we had this basic sequence of movements down, we then added repetition and variation, as well as script to these movements to create a final product. What this taught me was how abstract our movements can be, how they can have multiple and different deeper meanings than we may think they do, and that simple movement can send a big message to the audience. Lastly, Sam introduced us to some IB Theatre terms that are good to use in our projects, as well as the names of the projects, what they are, and tips on how to go about doing them. She told us about the collaborative project and how even though the maximum number of people you can have is 6, you really should make it easier on yourself by doing 3-4 people instead. She said since the maximum number of pages on the directors notebook is 20 pages, you should really make as close to 20 pages as possible. She gave us all this information and even more tips. Overall, this trip really expanded my mind in terms of how I go about performing and act, and I found it to be one of the most informational and fun experiences that not a lot of people get to have.