4th December, 2024
Again this morning our hosts went above and beyond, with a bean chilli and eggs for breakfast and again an array of pastries, fruit and yogurt, I felt spoilt for choice, truly on holiday!
We had a busy schedule for the day, 2 workshops at 2 different schools and then in the evening our first performance at Café Negru.
En route to the university we stopped for some food, and here in the street, Olivia Owens, our secondary tutor led us in a warmup to prepare us for the workshop. The warmup focused on physical and vocal elements, which were particularly useful considering the weather was cold and misty at roughly -3°C!
Towards the end of the warmup we were approached by a lady on who began animatedly talking to us in Romanian. As none of us spoke Romanian, we shared a few confused glances before I spoke up and asked her if she spoke French, which she did. It was potentially the most random and confusing use of my french skills ever, considering the lady had a thick Romanian accent and spoke with a different dialect. However we were able to have a fairly understandable conversation after several attempts, she was explaining how important it is for students to be passionate and be outgoing. I thoroughly agreed on this topic and so as a token of my gratitude for our conversation I invited her to our performance later that evening.
We made our way to Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, our first stop.
We were guided through the university, up a beautiful grand staircase, to a small tiled room on the first floor.
The walls were lined with books, and there was a white board at one end. Other than that, the room was fairly empty, as we piled in the students arrived one by one. There was a tentative energy to the room, but that soon melted away as introductions began and we started playing some games to warm up for the workshop.
Prior to the workshop I had had some concerns for how the main task would carry out and whether it would be successful. I found that as I lead it those concerns fell into, but not at a fault of my own leadership but due to the planning of the task. The task has been designed with the intention of being a vessel to discuss topics the students were passionate about, particularly topics concerning larger themes such as global warming, sexism, and American politics. The final scenes resulted in playful, silly scenarios that everyone enjoyed, which regardless was an outcome that still produced strong connections between all of the Romanian and British students.
However, I think that upon reflection I would alter the workshop plan to achieve our intented aim, I would do this by outlining the aims at the beginning of the workshop, reinforcing again them at the beginning of the task and also giving clear examples so that the students shaped their ideas accordingly. I think being able to have this experience has nonetheless aided my professional development, particularly in the area of leadership but it has given me insight to the importance of careful consideration during the planning process as well.
Next stop, Scoala Varlaam Mitropolitul. This workshop was lead by 3 of our students, while the rest of us took on smaller roles and worked directly with the students to create the work. The students ranged from 15 -18 years old, and most of them confidently spoke English as a second language.
I was grouped with 3 girls, who were all of about 16 years old, I sensed almost immediately a slight hesitancy to the work, particularly when we were tasked to develop small scenes and perform them. I took this opportunity to pull inspiration from my stand-up comedy classes during my first year at the Arden School of Theatre, the rule being: always be the fool, if you are the fool then this relieves the pressure from your observers.
So as we began to develop this scene, whenever I played a character I would be very silly and dramatic, which the students found very funny and thus relieving the pressure on them to perform as I would act as a distraction on the stage. One of the students was particularly nervous to perform, so together we edited the scene to feel less ‘silly’ as she described it. At the end of the workshop as we were leaving she came back to the room to thank me and to share social information so that we could stay in contact.
This moment felt incredibly validating for me, as I had made a bold choice picking a silly ‘character’, but it had clearly worked exactly as I had intended and I was glad that I had been able to help this particular student get the result she wanted from the workshop.
Workshop over, we headed back up to the hotel where we quickly got changed into our costumes and did our show makeup. Then a brisk walk down to Café Negru for our first performance! The show went very well, and it was both validating and pleasing for it to be so well received. From there we made our way to Lotus’ house where we had been invited to spend the evening having dinner with her and her son, Filip.
On arrival, I could hardly contain my excitement, each room of the house filled with new wonders, pictures of family members, stained glass lamps, large embroidered curtains; I felt as though I was uncovered history with every corner I turned.
We were served all sorts of lovely foods and meats, the main course was what they called ‘Omletă țărănească’ otherwise translated as ‘Romanian Peasant Omlette’. We drank and smoked all evening, as we were entertained with stories of Filip’s experiences fighting in Ukraine, the chaos of the elections that were occurring the following weekend, the story of how Filip became a politician, and all sorts of other fascinating tales and memories. We were all treated with such kindness and hospitality, we stayed late into the night and stumbled home, filled with the warmth good food and good company.
A week in Iași, Romania! 