Secondary schools acquire drama skills

National Schools Youth Drama Festivals (Nasfest) has started acquainting secondary school students with acting skills to heal lapses rampant in drama performances.

The organisation pooled 20 Central Region schools at Biwi Secondary School in Lilongwe.

According to Nasfest executive director James Kitchen, the initiative comes in reaction to dwindling standards of performance in schools. He lamented that most schools join drama competitions without knowing what the judges expect from them.

 “We have a lot of talent in the schools, but most schools are ignorant of the basics of stage performances. To achieve this, there is need for some training and what we have started will spread to all schools that participate in drama competitions,” he said.

The training is part of the preparations for this year’s Nasfest competition in September.  The target schools,  which also take part in Association of Teaching English in Malawi (Atem) drama contest, were drilled in stage arrangement, costume, language use, sound effects, acting skills, and script-writing.

It equipped teachers and drama patrons with requisite skills for monitoring and directing plays.

Kitchen advised the schools to concentrate on ideas that are relevant to Malawians.