The theatre classes of 2025 are preparing an exciting performance of the play Afterlife, presented by students from this year’s pre-IB and IB1 groups, who have been working on the play during the Spring and Summer terms together with their teacher Sophie Howells.
In this article, our team interviewed Isabelle (Izzy), a pre-IB student playing one of the main characters in the play. With previous experience in school plays back in the US, she joined St. Clare’s in January and is happy to enjoy the opportunity to be part of the project!
Q: What do you feel is more important for an actor: talent, or training?
A: Definitely training, anyone can become a good actor by investing time in it!
Q: Have you ever taken part in a play before?
A: Yes! I really enjoyed participating in some plays is my school in the US. An exciting and challenging experience was playing a goose in Cats, where I had to improvise the entire show after some actors didn’t show up on the performance day.
Q: What is your favourite technique to memorise lines?
A: To memorise my lines the best technique for me is reading them and, as soon as I think I have them in my mind, close the script and say it out loud over and over again.
Q: In what ways does St Clare’s support your interest in theatre?
A: St Clare’s puts a lot of time into the arts, so every theatre lesson gives me a chance to improve. I chose to do theatre in PIB because I’ve always enjoyed both watching and taking part in theatre plays.
Q: What were your expectations for the auditions, and how were you feeling beforehand?
A: For the auditions, everyone had to present a monologue from the play. We started learning the speech in class before, so the first part went well. But I was very nervous about the second part because I had only learned it the day before. Thankfully, it went really well, and I got my role as Jill smart, a young girl in the play.
Q: Do you identify with your character?
A: I don’t really identify with her, but it’s quite interesting to dive into a character with a completely different personality from mine.
Q: Do you think about continuing Theatre in the future / as a career?
A: Not as a career because I plan to go into sciences, but in the next years I would definitely like to join other plays! It has been an amazing experience!
Q: What do you do when you forget your lines while you are performing on the stage?
A: Improvise! I just try to make something up that goes along with the conversation.
Q: What do you enjoy the most about acting?
A: Probably the end result. It is always extremely rewarding to see the audience enjoying what we have worked so hard on to create.
Written by Julia and Tilda – PIB25 students