Welcome to this special episode of our Classics podcast.
In 2021, the Faculty of Classics, in partnership with the archive of performances of Greek and Roman drama,
invited young people aged 11 to 18 from across the UK to perform a piece of ancient drama or deliver a spoken word composition.
A judging panel of academics and performing arts professionals.
We're delighted to watch nearly 100 short films.
The quality of performance was consistently high.
It was a very difficult task indeed to whittle down the entries to our winners,
and I'm delighted that in this podcast I will be talking to these winners.
First up, I'd like to introduce Sydney.
Man Sydney, can you tell me how old you are, what college or school you go to, and where in the country you're based?
Please. Hi. So I'm 17, I'm from south east London and I'm currently taking A-levels at Hearts Academy in Greenwich.
Sorry, Sydney. One more question. Can you tell me which category of the competition you entered and won?
I entered in the spoken word element of the competition.
Fantastic. Thank you. And if we move on now to Yankee China, can you tell us, Bianca?
How old are you? Which school or college do you go to and where are you based?
Hello, my name is Bianca Cannon. I'm 12 years old and I go to St Helens School in north west London.
And I decided to enter this competition because I've always had a passion for acting and drama and I just really enjoy literature and Greek.
Great. Thanks. And can you tell us which of the categories did you enter?
So I entered solo translation. That's brilliant.
Thank you. So if we come on to our final category now, can we move on to our group?
Can you introduce yourselves, please, and tell us which school or college you go to?
And where are you based? We go to a programme, a school for girls, and we're in the north west of England.
The well, I'm. I hope I'm 15. I'm not Grayson.
I'm 15. So you're a great of entrance fee.
Tell us a little bit about your category.
Well, we were given a piece of a course piece from Greek Theatre, and we had to perform it as a group like us, like a chorus.
And we had to like act and do as a group.
And like in some by ourselves, some simultaneously, like different lines.
We just had to put together like a little performance from that. Fantastic.
Thank you so much. So I'm going to stick with the group here and ask you what made you want to enter this Asian drama competition?
We did Ancient Greek theatre in year three.
I think we found it was very interesting learning about the different methods and like the overexaggeration of it.
And then we had a competition through our teacher, Mr. Wasik, and we thought it might be interesting to become judge,
I guess found it like really interesting with different ways to perform.
So, so I think we did like the group one because we wanted to do it like with our friends,
you know, because we knew that we were all interested in it. So there were obviously like three different sections.
So we chose the group in hopes that we'd be able to like do it together.
It's really fun process as walk through it, like with friends and stuff they're interested in.
Yeah. And it was good together and like it was just fun as well.
This is great to hear. It's great to hear that you found that positive experience, both because you enjoyed drama,
but also because you enjoy spending time together as friends. Sounds like this was a win win experience and you guys ended up as the winners.
So you know, when, when, when. So Mr. Beswick is joining us on the podcast.
So I wonder if we can maybe ask sir a question now how did you find out about the competition?
I found out through the competition, through the Instagram ad, because we as the girls said, we do studying ancient Greek theatre in year eight.
And in our A-level we looked at the play on ticketing AD.
So I was really passionate about finding opportunities in which we could celebrate the history of theatre, the origins of theatre.
And the girls are fascinated by the mythology, the source, recurrent characters as well as the plotlines.
I think they really like the tragic plotlines and all the chaos that surrounds that as well.
So it's really came to to really give them an opportunity and a platform to share that passion and to perform and work together to create a nice,
creative piece of drama.
So well done, sir, for finding out about the competition on Instagram and well done our group translation for submitting such a compelling short film.
So I'd like to move back now to Bianca and to ask Bianca, why did you choose to submit your entry to this competition?
So I chose to submit my entry because I really enjoy drama and literature and Greek.
I just find it really interesting and I really also love monologues.
I've done a few both and I really like performed them.
Fantastic. Thank you. I'm going to Sydney. The same question.
Sydney, what made you want to enter this forward university competition in a very ancient drama I've always had a liking for.
Obviously, as everyone else has said, I'm for acting. I've never really had an opportunity to display this life outside of my school.
So I've been very enclosed throughout my life.
So I thought when I went and kind of I had this opportunity, so I take it and submit something to my taste.
And when I was younger and I perform, I would always perform with another person onstage because I have a little bit of stage fright,
which I think everyone else might agree with me. I'm it was a confidence boost for me to be able to produce something to a high standard
of my liking and it coming out as a positive getting younger coming first place.
Yeah, because you, you've done this solo spoken word category, so you were absolutely performing alone for that one.
So it sounds like you've mastered that stage fright and have managed to perform alone to a really high standard.
So well done. And I wonder if you can tell us a little bit, Sydney, about the piece that you perform.
So I performed a poem called Icarus by Kate Tempest, and I'm sure.
Viewers will know about the story of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun.
But when he fell. When I heard about this competition, I had absolutely no idea what to pick.
So my best idea was go to my English teacher because they know everything and whatever.
But for some reason, the first person that I ended up walking into was my science teacher,
and I was like, Oh, Mr. Speaker, once you're like Icarus by K10 Pass.
And I was like, I have never heard of them, but I'll look up.
And I really fell in love with the poem, so I'm to be safe.
I went to all the teachers to ask them about that poem, really stuck with me.
So that really stuck with me when I performed it. So I felt like I was able to get passion behind it because it was so inspiring towards me.
Fantastic. Thank you. And I'm going to ask Bianca the same question.
Can you tell us a little bit about the performance that you chose?
So I also went to my Latin teacher to ask him a bit about what I should do about the competition.
And he he gave me a book about Greek poems, and I found the book really helpful.
But my favourite poem that was there was a poem called The Grouch by Menander, who was a Greek pay writer for comedy.
And I just found the poem. It was really interesting to perform, and I really enjoyed performing.
Brilliant. And did you find it funny, Bianca? Yes, I found it really funny as well.
Great. And I found maybe one night to beg for it.
Can you tell me a little bit about the piece that you chose for your great performance?
What was it? Which is the extract from Antigone.
Got a strong female lead card. And so it was interesting.
I think we looked at other stuff like with Medea, but we thought like the group chorus was taking him to his best.
We found we the extract that we were looking at quite interesting, the thought of blackmail,
like the group that we were sort of like the atmosphere we were trying to create and the group and everything.
So for those people who may not have seen your wedding film, can you tell us which section of Antigone's you chose to perform?
So they the girls looked at the troll up.
They called out after the prologue. Sorry, where it's the chorus celebrating the end of the war in vapes and but also sort of recounting the tragedy
that's happened at the loss of the two brothers and introducing Korea as the new leader of Thebes.
And that's what the girls were trying to capture, that sort of preparing the ground of the rest of the play.
And how did you prepare for the performance?
Obviously, the competition is likely to run again next year.
And so there might be some people who are looking for your top tips.
So when we follow the abstract. But and then because it was just like a block of text, instead of giving outlines, lines,
we sat down and we we read through it and then we decided where we would split up, like what we'd say, stuck together, and we'd have it separately.
And then once we figured that out, we started, like, looking at it and like practising it, like the different when it's done and stuff like that.
Yeah. So once we sort of like once we sort of say it out and knew what we were going to do,
we started running through it and making it more fluid and like then we started
like going away from our classes and like at home learning the tech so that
we could obviously focus more on the fluidity and everything because we wouldn't have to like look at a sheet with both of our hands and all of that.
So yeah, so it was just more sort of like step by step where we just got through it.
So like we, we decided what to do, like physically depending on the line to make it so we could have more meaning.
Yeah, that's something that you definitely really enjoyed.
Was like critically analysing the text, deciding which bits you would do in unison and and to phone all.
And it makes this canon work you really got to grips with. I thought that was really tremendous.
What's your process? Yeah, it's like I mean, when we were then we'd have to like look at it and just go over and try it,
cut things out or if we felt like we had to add more.
And so we filmed it for like an outside perspective.
So we put it somewhere in the room and like fill in the performance so that we could watch it back and be like, Right.
Doesn't really look like we're going to change that. Yeah. Because it can be hard to analyse when you, when you're performing it.
But I think when you can watch or read afterwards depends because well like towards the end of
the process because I think everyone thank you so much for these rich insights to your process.
I know that the judges are going to find this so interesting because obviously we only saw the final episodes,
but actually nice hearing everything that went into making the final epic.
The compelling film that it is is so interesting.
And I know also that my future interests are going to be so appreciative of hearing how you the winners got to that gold standard performance.
I've got one more question for you. What Top Tips do you have for learning lines?
I think it's a thing that you will either like you either find really easy to struggle with.
And if you struggle with them. You probably need more strategies in everything but me personally, I find it quite not easy,
but they stick with me, especially if I feel so much towards them.
So it's like I read over them and I get the gist of them, even if I still can't write it off by heart.
And then I just sort of reread them and go through it, and then I say it and skip outlines that I don't know,
look at those lines, what's that going back over it and all of that.
So it just sort of like gets into your brain and then even I find once you've learnt it, don't let it go.
So you learn it and then you just even in bed doing whatever you want it.
Like whatever you do it, you just go over it in your head or out loud at any point you can.
I think understanding the text is crucial because it's got to be more than just listening and you've got to understand what you're saying.
So even if you don't remember every so what it says, if you remember like the plot, the thing we did was very short,
but if we remember, like the basic ideas of it, we could just go over it again when we did the physical things.
I find it easier to remember because we have like same actions that went with certain violence, but like that be kind of what's going on in my head.
Fantastic. Okay. So I'm going to come on now to Sydney and ask you, Sydney, how did you prepare for your performance?
What tips do you have to offer? Like the Greek was saying.
I think not only lighting the lines obviously important,
but lighting the emotion and the passion behind when you're speaking is also really important.
So obviously, I love the lines.
That was the basic level of it, but I read it from a different point of view because I knew I wasn't reading it from the perspective of reference.
I was reading it from a perspective of an onlooker. So I was wondering how would this person feel when he's reading it?
Would he be happy? Would he be sad? Would he get frustrated?
So when I performed it, I started off I'm quite neutral, quite neutral tone.
Like I'm not going to write the words.
But as the performance went on, he started getting frustrated because how could it be so vain and go up to the sun, like just stay in your lane?
And then towards the end, it was almost as if he was grieving this character.
Because you're grieving the loss of a person, because if you just listen to his father, he wouldn't have gone into this position.
So I think lining the emotions was a really key aspect to me because unlike the great performance, I did have physical aspects behind it.
So for me, the emotion and then setting the scene for me in the performance, that was a bright light shining into my face.
And when I was performing, I envisioned it as the sun.
So I was looking and I was in, I was getting stills from it and it was lighting me from the inside.
That is absolutely fascinating. Sydney, thank you so much.
And Bianca, what about you? How do you prepare for your performance?
So you're in this sober translation category? What tips do you have for entrants next year?
So I practise after school a lot as well with my older sister.
And it was really comforting to have someone around you when you're practising this and giving you tips on how to improve,
like your speech or your emotions, or like just how to make it sound a lot nicer.
Okay. That's great. Thank you.
So as you may or may not be aware at the moment, creative and performing arts aren't really prioritised in curriculum policy.
So for example, they don't count on the ebacc. I wonder what you think each drama brings to the curriculum.
I'm going to start with Mr. Beswick. I am passionate about job creation and we're really looking to go once a week
at a key stage three and up to the GCSE and A-level drama brings creativity,
innovation, critical thinking skills and that collaboration where the girls and pupils are working together for a design day,
but also allowing them to develop their skills and empathy to be able to stand in someone else's shoes and look at different opinions and viewpoints,
but also a historical aspect.
So exploring and examining the wide range of how theatre and jazz developed over the centuries and how the texts from age,
like for example, by ancient Greek texts, are still relevant to today's modern society.
And that's something that we find really rewarding in lessons,
is having those rich discussions surrounding how things have changed or how things haven't changed.
And what we love about ancient Greek theatre is, as I was saying before,
as the powerful sorts of female role models that are prevalent within the texts,
and yet the society in which they were performed to have obviously the polar opposite views to women and
how the audience would perceive that it's a really exciting and enriching opportunity for discussions.
And yeah, it brings real value to the girls and to their wellbeing.
And what about Mr. Beswick students? Do you have anything to add on that?
I think I think we've really enjoyed our drama lessons, like just being away from the desk and about using different,
highly arranged and very helpful, like communicating and just like expressing ourselves properly.
I think. I think that's really helped us. Yeah. In the step up from primary to secondary school, it's like very different.
Like suddenly you get all these tests and you're really stressed and everything and I
feel like drama gives you sort of like a break from it while still benefiting you.
So you're not just relaxing but not getting anything done at all.
So you're relaxing and having fun, but while also like benefiting from it.
And I think that's really rewarding mentally. Yeah, it's like an outlook.
It's getting out of like everything that you just like a lot of yoga lessons.
It's just, it's not like nothing else we do in school. It's just it is special.
I think it's it's really essential, especially for like seven, eight and nine where, you know, school is meant to be fun as well.
I found I think I find that job opens with lots of confidence and like it leads you to like
different things and different experiences that you might not experience anywhere else.
And if I'm able to. Bianca, what would you say about the value of drama?
I think that drama is really helpful and it's really important because a lot of people say
that they find it really hard to act in front of others because they get stage fright.
But if the more you practise and get over that stage fright,
you understand it better and you can step outside your comfort zone and it's really useful skill to learn as well.
Cydney, do you agree? I completely agree because I think being able to express yourself is so important and I don't
understand how the curriculum would be without drama or any other creative arts aspect in the school.
I think it's quite therapeutic also because if you struggle to outlet your emotions going to John McLaughlin,
my drama teacher made me cry once, but it was a good thing. It was a good thing.
Drama is so important and I think it creates like minded individuals who are able to go out in the world and express themselves and
encourage other people who might not have done drama to be able to be free and just let themselves express themselves however they want.
So, yeah, I completely agree. Brilliant.
Well, I think we have got a ringing endorsement from the winners on the podcast for the value of drama on the curriculum.
And I've got a question for you nine, which is a little bit more specific, and that is about ancient drama.
So often as a classicist, when I tell people that I study the ancient world and when I tell people that I'm interested in ancient drama,
they say, Oh, but that's irrelevant.
That has no value for contemporary life in the 21st century.
Thinking about your experience in this ancient drama competition at the University of Oxford.
What would you say to those people who think the ancient drama is irrelevant in today's world, but to start with, said.
I think their opinions are a little bit irrelevant, to be honest.
I think it's just as important as any other piece of history in our lifetime, because history shapes where we get to today.
Wars, everything is really important. And I think ancient drama is just as important as it's created.
And I think they need to check before they speak, to be honest.
Excellent. Thank you, Sydney. And what about you, Bianca? What would you say to these people who say the Asian drama is irrelevant?
So ancient drama is really interesting and it's got a lot of things where you can be curious about.
They've got a lot of plays, they've got comedies and tragedies.
I find them really interesting and it's just as important as other subjects.
Okay, great. And if we move on to the great, what would you say to these people who say that ancient drama is irrelevant?
I think that with ancient drama, especially with our text,
but it shows like how women were perceived in society and that could be like compared to how women are perceived society today.
And you can get the comparisons. Yeah, I think I think it's just like it's really prevalent.
I think and I think especially if you look at modern drama now, it's hard to not look at ancient drama because that's where I started.
You have the full understanding of if you don't look backwards roots.
So it's kind of like it's irrelevant, especially when I think there are really like similar themes and plots in modern dramas are ancient dramas.
Yeah, it's like that, like ancient dramas, the based to modern drama.
And I think you can't properly understand the modern drama without the history behind it, which is why we love history, everybody,
because we understand why things are where they are and how they've changed and why they've changed and all the background.
I find it more interesting actually.
I find ancient drama like more interested in their journeys, more like the themes of like the more and more interesting to me.
And I think you can just you can tell a lot about the time period from the drama because you can you can look at the text of this,
how you and then you can also, like, look back and look at the context and it makes it really interesting.
So if we think about those people who might be unsure about whether to submit an entry for upcoming ancient drama competitions,
they could invest time in submitting to the.
So the translation, the spoken word is a good translation.
Or they could spend that time doing something else. What would you say to them?
Let's start with Eco Grace and Isla. Well, I think my answer to that would just be like, just go for it.
Like just sort of do it because you're no worse off if you do do that and you don't get anything out of it,
you know, I mean, you still get that experience, especially for me, it was like it was with my friends.
I really enjoyed getting to this point and I really enjoyed working with them like on the rehearsals we had.
So I think like I've benefited from the experience.
So it's a bit like if I hadn't won anything I wouldn't have, I would have lost anything and I probably would have gained the experience.
So it would have been worth it either way.
Yeah, I think I mean,
you should just give it a go because it's open to like I think since I've been are more interested in ancient drama than I was if I hadn't done it.
And I think there are misconceptions, especially if you like, you know, like ancient Greek, it sounds like, you know, it's old, it's it's boring.
It's just it wasn't and it was really accessible for us as well, like just approaching it, like we would normally with a different text and,
and we, we just like we still spend time together and it was just a really fun experience.
And like Greece and even if we hadn't won anything,
we wouldn't have missed out on your friend that even if like in China wasn't like someone's like in terms of like the things that
like from there in a carnival to bring it to with more drama lessons and just general generally it's been learnt a lot and gave up.
Can I ask Mr. Beswick the same question?
What would you say to those teachers who may be on the fence about whether or not to share this competition with their students,
get them in at lunchtime? And this is what these girls did.
They they did as an extracurricular sort of opportunity and they just completely sold or that I had little minimal input really,
because the futures took total ownership. They were passionate.
They would drive in it and it was just so rewarding for me as a teacher to see that passion grow and develop and then to be really successful as well.
It was just no great asset to the school and to the sales and especially to the department.
Brilliant. Thank you so much. Okay.
So if we go to Sydney now, Sydney, what would you say to best potential entrant who's thinking maybe I'll enter, maybe I would.
I say, what's the worst that can happen?
Because if you want to put yourself out there, put yourself out there, find the website, click on the entries, see the requirements,
and then seise the moment and do it because you don't even have to be a drama
student if you have a liking for reading or if you have a liking for literature,
which is actually the same thing. Now, I think about it, just go for it.
Because if you don't read like they were saying,
just it's such a good feeling of putting yourself out there and take the opportunity and thrill of it is absolutely amazing.
So I say just take the opportunity. Fantastic.
Thank you. And Bianca, the last word was to you.
So I'd say it's all about the experience and it doesn't really matter what comes in the end result, whether you get it or not.
I feel like the main thing is that you tried your best and you had a lot of fun doing it.
You learnt the lines, you learnt about all of the plays and ancient drama, and I think it's a really good experience for people to try.
Excellent. Okay, well, well done, everybody. Again, we're super proud of you.
The guys were definitely the the winners of your categories.
So you should feel very proud of yourselves. And we are so delighted that you were able to take part in this podcast.