Have you heard of Theatre Sports? Picture dramatic, competitive improvisation! Heathdale annually participates in the CSEN Theatre Sports Competition, and our team for 2023 is getting ready for when competition heats up in May.
On Wednesday 22nd February, our students in our extracurricular Theatre Sports Club participated in an incursion with Alan Dickson, who runs CSEN's Theatre Sports competitions and training. During the incursion, they learned and practiced different mini-games and techniques.
In last year’s CSEN competition, Heathdale competed in two divisions, winning one and finishing as runner-up in the other, so we have high hopes for this year!
A couple of students shared their experience with Theatre Sports:
“I joined Theatre Sports because I adore acting and I wanted and experience that could let me improve on my skill and have fun at the same time! I learned how to play a few different games like ‘Sit, Stand, Kneel and Lie’*, and ‘Subtitles’**. I believe the secret to improvisation is to have fun with it. Make your scene something that expresses you and who you are.” Haniel G. (Year 9)
“I joined Theatre Sports because I knew people who were in it and wanted to give it a go. Something new I learned was ‘Slow Motion Commentary’***. I enjoyed the value of mixing it up in the scene, having both physical and verbal offers. I think the secret to improvisation is knowing who you’re acting with and feeling comfortable with being overdramatic!” Leaza M. (Year 11)
The student team meets at lunchtime fortnightly to practice. We wish them all the best as they continue preparing for the interschool competition!
*Sit, Stand, Kneel and Lie: At all times throughout the scene, one student must be standing, one must be sitting, and one must be kneeling and one must be lying. When one student changes position, the other three must adjust accordingly. For example, if the sitting student stands up, the standing student must either kneel or sit. If they choose to kneel, then the kneeling student must also change to whatever the other two students aren’t doing. Players need to have several changes within the game.
**Subtitles: A foreign film title is given, and two players improvise using a foreign language, but it has to be gibberish sounding like that particular foreign language. For example, you might speak in ‘Spanish’, but you can’t actually speak in Spanish; it needs to be gibberish that sounds like Spanish. As the two players act out the scene, two other players will recite subtitles, acting as a translation to the gibberish.
***Slow Motion Commentary: A situation is given and one or more players improvise the activity in mimed slow motion. From offstage, the other players provide a clear, fast paced sports-style commentary of what is being acted out.