By BRYAN TERNG
alltherage@thestar.com.my
IT’S no easy task to be cast in the public eye and refrain from being a shrinking violet. Not many people treat such a situation as a walk in the park, but there are certainly ways to tackle it.
Dramatic Confidence 101 (a workshop which builds confidence through the art of drama), conducted by Dennis Yeap, aspires to imbue confidence in those who lack it.
Yeap is the director of Showcase, a theatre play in collaboration with Dramatic Confidence 101 and Taylor’s Society of Performing Arts (SPART), which kicks off on Friday night at Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus.
The 25-year-old, who studied film production in Los Angeles, California in the United States, is directing the students of Dramatic Confidence 101, who will be performing scenes derived from three films, including Silver Linings Playbook, Thelma And Louise, and A Single Man.
“Acting is not pretending. It’s actually empathising and connecting with your role, so you can become the character,”said director Dennis Yeap.
In between the three scenes enacted by the students, segments of “Improv Comedy” will be performed by the students from SPART.
And to make things more fun and interactive, audience members will be given the chance to participate in some of the acting and improv games.
Yeap will be directing the performers live, critically appraising each performance and re-running segments from the scenes in front of the audience.
“The main point of this is to clue the audience in on what goes on behind the scenes of a play, especially for those who aren’t familiar with the performing arts industry,” he said.
The lack of rehearsals – which started only two weeks ago – is to challenge his students to use what they were taught and act out their roles independently.
He explained, “If you rehearse too much, then you’ll be in your comfort zone, which makes the acting duller.”
According to Yeap, the two most important tools in acting are imagination and empathy.
“Acting is not pretending,” he said. “It’s actually empathising and connecting with your role, so you can become the character.”
One of his students, Sheryl Ho, explained that Yeap uses sense memory as tool to help them get into character.
Sense memory is an acting technique actors use to put themselves into the mind-set of their characters through their five senses.
“I’ve learned that negative things actually push you forward,” Ho said. This prompted her to accept her flaws and be less afraid of making mistakes.
Lee Lyn Sheng, who’s a full-time classical music student, said that Dramatic Confidence 101 has helped her be a little more expressive, because she used to be reserved.
“I was challenged to get out of my comfort zone,” Lee said. “I had to explore different sides of my personality, which is something I’m not really used to.”
Fellow Dramatic Confidence 101 student Chrisy Wu echoed her sentiment. “Drama taught me to be comfortable in my own skin, which helped boost my self-confidence,” she said.
If you wanna see the results of their training, email showcase.dramacon@gmail.com for tickets to Showcase, which will be staged on Nov 7, 12
and 13.
Tell us what you think!