New York Film Academy workshop at Haileybury

Our young thespians had the chance to take part in an exciting improvisation workshop with representatives from the New York Film Academy recently.

Drama pupils from Fifths to Upper Sixth were guided through a series of activities by experts from the famous film and acting school.

These included ‘accepting and building on improvisation offers’ and a game called ‘Resident Expert’, which saw one actor speak gobbledegook while another pretended to ‘translate’ into English –completely spontaneously with no time for rehearsal or planning.

Mr Jacob Thomas, Haileybury’s Director of Dramatic Arts, said: “The session was excellently facilitated and very well-received with some outstanding emerging improvised scenarios. It was not just great actor training but also taught the pupils great skills for leadership, thinking on your feet and confidence building.”