“Drama and play are essential activities for humans and animals in that they rehearse possibilities that may come up in real situations and they reveal to us the exhilaration of being alive, creative and free”.

The Skills

The actor has to be clear on the meaning of the text, so that it will come across to the audience. They have to use their voices with enough volume and colour to ensure the audience will listen and also behave in a way that supports their words, as well as having the self-confidence to face the audience and be able to improvise – to think and act quickly under pressure – if something unexpected happens.

All these ‘actor’ skills  are also required by business people, and, indeed, anyone who is required to address an audience. The audience may be one person, a group meeting, or a large corporate gathering

Storytelling is also an essential aspect of the work. Everyone has stories which are gathered from their life experiences.  The connection between one person and another, between a presenter and the audience, is firmly established by the telling of a personal story.  Once the connection is made, people will listen to the information the speaker wishes to give. If the initial ‘connection’ is by-passed it is much more difficult for the speaker to gain and maintain their audiences’ attention.

The activities in a workshop range from active, high energy group exercises, to calm dialogues and reflective listening. The work is a mix of group work, partner work and individual work.  Once an exercise has been completed, a discussion takes place as to how benefits of any given exercise can be applied, on an immediately practical level, to the workplace and/or daily life.

The nature of the work is, in itself, team-building. Often we get stuck in the perception we have of work colleague, or locked in a historical moment that took place between us, which acts against the cooperation of the work group. Once we go a little deeper, we discover that our perceptions need reviewing!  Often, after a dialogue with a colleague, we discover we have much more in common than we at first thought and the record is set straight.

The course sets the frame whereby these dialogues can take place.