Vernissage – A Bizarre Work Exhibition

Last month, Institut Montana Zugerberg held its first ever DraMONTANActing, a play on words of dramatic acting and Montana. The cast included: Julia Stone, Natan Blank and Murat Abdullin from our bilingual secondary school (SEK I). Saskia Hicks, Ieva Krasnokutska, Marven Sefzig, Elektra Antoniou and Andreas Antoniou from our Swiss high school. And last but not least, Linda Huai, Louis-Pascall Schmidt and Norman Rehlis from our international school. The premise is simple, the drama supervisor, Salvatore Greco, teaches students different ways of acting in order to improve their acting skills. This year, he decided to take it one step further by introducing DraMONTANActing where students split into groups of two to create a scene as part of an entire performance. 

“DraMONTANActing is a place where you can express your feelings in the role you’re given. Mr. Greco paired us with a partner and we rehearsed for two months before presenting it to the audience,” details Louis-Pascall. “I’ve been acting since first grade and was a part of the winter and summer musicals that we have on campus for our bilingual elementary school. I have a lot of fun with Mr. Greco’s teaching style, he teaches us all about expression. I like that you can show different sides of yourself in various roles (to jump in different roles) and that it changes each time. For instance, I was once in a musical where I was a squirrel and I had to give him some characteristics – so he ended up being an athletic squirrel with a strange accent.” 

Linda too enjoyed her time on stage, despite her stage fright. “When people perform on stage, they tend to get nervous and laugh and that happens to me too, but I just bite my tongue to try to hold myself back from laughing. If you do feel stage fright, just know that when you’re on stage, no one will laugh at you. If they do, it’s because the scene is funny, so you just have to always try, be yourself and do your best. It was really fun for me and I can’t wait to do it again in June. The important thing to remember is to never get too much into character otherwise you might lose yourself. I also like the fact that when I am feeling stressed, acting can help me relax.”  

Louis-Pascall played the role of a pizza delivery man who was taking the order of a doctor who suffers from high blood pressure and cholesterol and ironically, was trying to order a meat pizza and Coca-Cola. Linda played the role of a woman who was betrayed by her best friend who cheated with her boyfriend. It later came to light that her best friend never liked her to begin with and so the drama unfolds. When asked if they could see acting in their future plans, they had this to say: 

“When I grow up, I want to be a teacher,” proclaimed Louis-Pascall. “I wanted to be an actor but then realised that it’s very demanding - but being a teacher allows you to teach kids and young souls. Often times, when students have problems, the teacher would point out various options of how we can handle a situation and give the best advice. That’s something I want to do and something that acting helps with – seeing other people’s emotions and knowing how to best act upon them.”  

Linda instead dreams of being a psychologist. “Acting allows you to play the role of various characters and you can better understand their emotions. Let’s say that I have to play the role of a psycho who rips up their homework. Someone might assume that they are just crazy but maybe there is a back story to their behaviour and they were mad about something and simply reacted in a crazy way. Acting will help me understand my patients because I will have lived their emotions with one character or another and be able to better understand them. You’re able to learn about emotions and understand emotions better, which will help you better understand people, especially my patients.” 

For aspiring actors, Louis-Pascall breaks down the tips with four steps: 

• Practices your lines
• Memorize your lines 
• Express yourself on stage and
• Visualize your role  

“I have a lot of fun doing drama at Institut Montana Zugerberg,” says Linda for her final remarks. “Mr. Greco is really nice and acting is a great way to enjoy life and learn more about yourself. I also met so many different people and personalities and their different feelings and characters and made a lot of friends here. You might not like acting or want to be on stage – but you should definitely at least try it.”