Trestle Mask Workshops at WIS

Tuesday saw the exciting inclusion of the Trestle Mask Workshops as part of this year’s Drama enrichment, a range of students in Year 9 and 10 got the chance to work with a practitioner from the awarding winning Trestle Mask Theatre Company all the way from the UK.

Using Trestle’s own signature masks, students got to hands on experience the practical challenges and performance possibilities of working in and with Masks. Techniques such as clocking, breathing into the mask and honoring the mask where a challenge that the students had to overcome. In the end some magical moments of mask meaning ignited the audience with a real sense of character and emotion.

Zac Downey in Year 9 found it, “…inspiring you could find a lot out about yourself by putting on a Mask”.

Jasper Caldwell in Year 9 loved the fact that, “…you didn’t have to worry about your self-confidence as you could take on a new identity under the shelter and safety of the Mask”.

Alistair Collins in Year 9 realised that, “…sometimes it matters more when you use gestures rather than facial expression, we rely too much on words in life”.

Brie Chappell in Year 9 observed, “It was my first time using Mask in performance and I was really fascinated to discover all these new emotions that we have access to in performance”.

Sophie Widdowson in Year 9 explained, “How you can convey different emotions even if you are wearing the same facial expression, it felt like the mask actually changed at some points in performance”

It really was a truly inspiring and visually striking day. Lessons learnt by all involved.

Ms Rochester