Latest / Gabi’s Speech and Drama Podcast / Episode 1: Speech and Drama Festivals

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Episode 1: Speech and Drama Festivals · Gabi’s Speech and Drama Podcast

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Hello everybody and welcome to the very first Speech and Drama podcast.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: My name is Gabby Maddox and I will introduce myself in a moment,
0:12
SPEAKER_00: but I just wanted to explain what I'm doing here.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: I love podcasts.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: I've always got one on the go.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm always looking for the next big thing to get absorbed by.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: And I realised that there isn't a single podcast out there aimed at speech and drama teachers.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: So I think this is a first and I think it will be really helpful.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: It's just another way of us to connect with each other and find ways of helping each other out.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: So I'm planning,
0:46
SPEAKER_00: depending on how it goes,
0:47
SPEAKER_00: to release a new episode each month,
0:49
SPEAKER_00: primarily for paid subscribers to the Substack,
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Gabby's Speech and Drama Substack.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And each episode will focus on a single issue.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Some will be just me sharing my ideas like this one,
1:01
SPEAKER_00: and others will be conversations between me and other speech and drama teachers or
1:06
SPEAKER_00: people who are connected in some way to our world.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: More news on that soon.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: But let me just tell you who I am in case you don't know.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: So I am the founder and principal of a speech and drama education company called The Playing Space.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: I started...
1:25
SPEAKER_00: teaching speech and drama in 2001.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: I had trained as an actor and then gone travelling for a couple of years,
1:35
SPEAKER_00: came back ready to get my headshots done again and see if I could find myself an agent.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And for various reasons, the world of acting just seemed to have lost its shine.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: So I started studying at the Tavistock Clinic, doing an MA in...
1:52
SPEAKER_00: observational studies with a view to becoming a child psychotherapist and as part
1:57
SPEAKER_00: of that MA I needed to be working with children and given my acting training and my
2:03
SPEAKER_00: love of drama and the drama lessons that I had enjoyed so much as a child I decided
2:11
SPEAKER_00: that that was a really good way for me to be working with children I work for lots
2:16
SPEAKER_00: of big companies I'm sure you will have heard of a lot of them
2:20
SPEAKER_00: But I also started my own little Lambda classes.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: I approached a local primary school and a local stage school offering my services
2:28
SPEAKER_00: as a Lambda teacher and I started in 2001 with 10 students and I took them through
2:35
SPEAKER_00: their first exams at the end of that year.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: We now put hundreds of students through Lambda exams every year.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: We usually have about 200 students at our private centre each December and then
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Every month at the public centre in Barron's Court,
2:52
SPEAKER_00: we're putting students in through their Lambda exams.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: We teach all ages from introductory stage one,
3:01
SPEAKER_00: which is usually five years old,
3:03
SPEAKER_00: all the way up to grade eight,
3:06
SPEAKER_00: and occasionally beyond with the PCERT-LAM.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: We teach primarily acting, devising, first and pros, and programming.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: speaking in public, although we do occasionally delve into reading for performance and miming.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Some of my other teachers will also do musical theatre as well.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: We've done a few Shakespeare exams.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: We've done a few group exams.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: So a little bit of everything.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: But the big four are acting, devising, speaking in public and verse and prose.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not going to talk today about Lambda exams.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually going to talk about speech and drama festivals because that is
3:47
SPEAKER_00: something that is very much connected to what we do in the world of speech and drama.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: And I am skeptical about speech and drama festivals.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: It seems to me a strange way to celebrate the hard work and high standards of our
4:05
SPEAKER_00: students pitting young performers against each other in the hope of getting prizes
4:09
SPEAKER_00: and medals.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: And I haven't entered students for any speech and drama festivals for many years,
4:16
SPEAKER_00: but I did last weekend.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: I won't say which one because I've got mixed feelings about it.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And it's a very small festival.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: They're only in their second year.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: So obviously, I don't want to say anything negative about it.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: And our experience was largely positive overall.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: But I'm still I'm in two minds about whether I want to do it again next year.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: So I thought that by sharing my thoughts on here about speech and drama festivals
4:44
SPEAKER_00: and you can find out where your local festival is by looking.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a website called the Federation of Speech and Drama Festivals.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: which I will put in the show notes so you can find a local festival for you.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: So this one was very small, but only in their second year.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: And I was quite surprised,
5:03
SPEAKER_00: actually,
5:03
SPEAKER_00: that more than half of the participants came from the playing space,
5:08
SPEAKER_00: particularly the older students.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: From 10 years and up, I think all but one student was from the playing space.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: So it ended up being a little bit of a...
5:21
SPEAKER_00: playing space festival with all of my own students competing with each other for
5:27
SPEAKER_00: prizes the standard was as you would expect from my students incredibly high but
5:35
SPEAKER_00: that's partly because I only offered the opportunity to students who I really
5:40
SPEAKER_00: thought would be able to prepare work of a high standard that they were motivated
5:49
SPEAKER_00: enough that they could work largely on their own
5:51
SPEAKER_00: They chose Lambda pieces, most of them, chose Lambda pieces that they had performed back in December.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: So I gave them the challenge of relearning their lines and polishing them up over
6:04
SPEAKER_00: the Easter holidays so that we could then have a few rehearsals in small groups
6:12
SPEAKER_00: with me sort of putting the final touches to their work rather than starting from scratch.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: I know that most students who enter speech and drama festivals will have private
6:21
SPEAKER_00: classes or work in very small groups and they will probably have lessons every week
6:27
SPEAKER_00: on their pieces.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: So I knew that my students might be at a slight disadvantage because we aren't
6:34
SPEAKER_00: doing festival work generally in our lessons.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: And so I wanted to make sure that the students that did participate had a history
6:43
SPEAKER_00: of being very motivated to work at home on their own.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: and get support as well from parents and siblings and so on.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: So for that reason,
6:54
SPEAKER_00: and because of the time that we spent together over the last month or so,
6:58
SPEAKER_00: the standard of work was very high.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: And so what happened is you had a situation where it absolutely was not clear who
7:09
SPEAKER_00: the first place should go to and the second place and the third place.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: And I really do think that different adjudicators would have come up with
7:17
SPEAKER_00: completely different results because everyone did so well.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And the adjudicator we had yesterday was the head of acting from a top drama school,
7:27
SPEAKER_00: which I thought was really exciting because I thought they will really be looking
7:34
SPEAKER_00: out for the same things that I teach.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: So the illusion of spontaneity,
7:40
SPEAKER_00: the idea that a character doesn't have a script,
7:43
SPEAKER_00: that the words are being spoken for the first time,
7:48
SPEAKER_00: truthfulness in other words.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't quite have this experience.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: So the first sort of red flag I had was when I had a six-year-old who did a poem
8:07
SPEAKER_00: in the six and under category.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And also he performed a monologue in the six and under category.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: And in the poem, he was competing against one other child.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: These two little boys,
8:23
SPEAKER_00: both six or even,
8:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how old the other one was,
8:26
SPEAKER_00: maybe five years old,
8:28
SPEAKER_00: did a great job.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: My student did get first place and the other little boy got second place,
8:33
SPEAKER_00: which I think was right partly because
8:37
SPEAKER_00: the poem that my student chose was a bit more challenging.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: The other little boy did a stage one poem from the Lander Anthology.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: He did it brilliantly and it could have gone either way,
8:50
SPEAKER_00: but my student was delighted to get his gold medal.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Now he then had to do his acting piece and he was the only participant in the six and under category
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And they put him together with the seven to nine-year-old so that he wouldn't be
9:08
SPEAKER_00: all on his own and he'd have a bit of an audience.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: But it was clear that they were adjudicating separately.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: And he had said beforehand, oh, well, I'm definitely going to get first place then, aren't I?
9:23
SPEAKER_00: And I said to him,
9:24
SPEAKER_00: well,
9:24
SPEAKER_00: actually,
9:25
SPEAKER_00: no,
9:26
SPEAKER_00: I spotted in the rules they have to be awarded at least a merit,
9:31
SPEAKER_00: whatever that means,
9:32
SPEAKER_00: in the world of festivals in order to be eligible for awards.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted him to know that he still would have to do a really good job in order to get the first place.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Partly because I didn't want him to think that it was just in the bag and so he didn't have to try.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: And also because if he did get his first place,
9:51
SPEAKER_00: as I assumed he would,
9:52
SPEAKER_00: that he would feel that there was still a sense of achievement.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he did a brilliant job.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: He did a piece from James and the Giant Peach, the little old man telling James about the green worms.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: He learned quite a lengthy monologue off by heart.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: He performed it brilliantly for a six-year-old.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: He had lost his two front teeth a few days before the festival,
10:22
SPEAKER_00: so his diction wasn't as clear as it might have been.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: but he created the unseen character.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: He did everything that you would expect someone to do for an entry level Lambda exam,
10:33
SPEAKER_00: even though he's not going to be doing his entry level for another couple of years.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: So I was really pleased with him.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: The adjudicator came out and announced that he was being given a certificate of participation.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: The little boy didn't really know what this meant.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: So he went up and he took his certificate and he stood there patiently waiting for his gold medal.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: The gold medal did not come.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And the adjudicator actually said to him, OK, you can go and sit back down now.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And he came and sat back down with a slightly puzzled expression on his face.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: I went and spoke to the adjudicator afterwards.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: I said, you know that he was meant to be adjudicated separately from the 79 year olds.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: And he explained to me, yes, we felt he did his poem brilliantly and he got his first prize for the poem.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: But we just didn't think that his acting was quite at the same standard.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: And so I nodded and smiled and accepted this.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, he's six.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Give the kid a medal.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: He's worked really hard.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: He's paid his entry fee.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And I really do think that he was penalised for being the only participant.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: If they had had five or six other children his age performing scenes,
11:46
SPEAKER_00: then it would have been immediately obvious what the standard of performance at that age is.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: But because he was the only one and he was competing alongside older children,
11:59
SPEAKER_00: I just don't think they recognised that for a six-year-old,
12:05
SPEAKER_00: he did a great job,
12:06
SPEAKER_00: especially for a six-year-old without his two front teeth.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: So I spoke to mum afterwards.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, he was fine.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't upset or anything.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: I actually told a little white lie and said that they were really only supposed to
12:17
SPEAKER_00: give one first place to each student.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: And that's why they gave it to him for his poem rather than for his acting.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: But it seemed to me a very strange decision.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And the feedback I got from his mum is that the effort they put in to get him ready
12:39
SPEAKER_00: for the festival and the effort they've
12:43
SPEAKER_00: put in on the day meant that really it wasn't worth them doing it again.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: So the festival have lost a potential annual participant who is only six and could
12:54
SPEAKER_00: have been doing the festival for many years to come.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Now my second red flag,
12:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm slightly hesitant about sharing with you because I know that this is to do with
13:01
SPEAKER_00: personal taste.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Now this was a poetry class that I watched that I did not have any students participating in.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: but I just thought I would watch it out of interest while I was waiting for mine to arrive.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: It was an age 79 year old group and there were about five or six,
13:21
SPEAKER_00: I think they were all girls performing a variety of poems,
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SPEAKER_00: some funny,
13:26
SPEAKER_00: some more poignant,
13:27
SPEAKER_00: some from the lambda syllabus,
13:29
SPEAKER_00: but they all did a really good job.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: The last girl came out and
13:35
SPEAKER_00: She did everything that I hate about speech and drama festivals.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: It's not on her.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: She did exactly what was directed, I'm assuming, by her drama teacher.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: But it was contrived.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: It was ungrounded.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: There was lots of movement, sort of dance-like movement that was unconnected to the actual words.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: It was...
14:03
SPEAKER_00: one of those performances that would have been exactly the same every single time she did it.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm not criticizing the student.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: She had a big, strong voice.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: She had really clear diction.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: It was a very polished performance.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: But as I said,
14:18
SPEAKER_00: it's the opposite of what I'm aiming for with my students,
14:21
SPEAKER_00: which is that they go on the journey themselves.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: They find the meaning in the words, much more natural style of performance.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: So I was really surprised when she got first place.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: She was also a student of the organisation that were running the festival,
14:46
SPEAKER_00: as was obvious from her T-shirt that she was wearing.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: There was also someone from that organisation sitting next to the adjudicator.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, I really don't think that that had anything to do with it, but...
15:00
SPEAKER_00: from the point of view of parents who are in the room,
15:05
SPEAKER_00: seeing some children wearing the merchandise,
15:09
SPEAKER_00: the T-shirts from the company organising the festival,
15:12
SPEAKER_00: seeing someone from that company sitting next to the adjudicator and conferring
15:16
SPEAKER_00: with the adjudicator,
15:17
SPEAKER_00: and then seeing those children getting first place,
15:20
SPEAKER_00: it just doesn't sit right.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: And that would be a bit of feedback that I would give to this particular festival and to all
15:28
SPEAKER_00: speech and drama festivals.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: I know it's really hard getting volunteers.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And so it tends to be that if a particular organisation is involved in running the festival,
15:44
SPEAKER_00: that they will also be sitting next to the adjudicator.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: But I do think it's important for how things are perceived.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I...
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Then the next group were my 10 to 12-year-old actors.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: All six of them were from the playing space.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: All six of them did a brilliant job.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Three of them got first, second and third place.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Three of them didn't.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: I definitely think that a different adjudicator would have given different results.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Not because I disagreed with the adjudicator, but...
16:19
SPEAKER_00: I think there was possibly a bit of a leaning towards one or all three prizes went
16:25
SPEAKER_00: to quite funny,
16:28
SPEAKER_00: upbeat,
16:28
SPEAKER_00: lively pieces of work.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: And the three that didn't get placed were all quite poignant and sad that we had
16:36
SPEAKER_00: the little matchmaker from Melanda Anthology.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: We had the Aberfan Prophecy by Heather Stevens, which some of you might know, and Oliver Twist.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: I think it's by Ken Pickering.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: but a scene where Oliver Twist is in the mortician's room and is terrified by the coffins.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that those three that were all quite fearful or sad or
17:02
SPEAKER_00: poignant pieces,
17:03
SPEAKER_00: none of them got placed,
17:05
SPEAKER_00: even though they were performed very well.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: So it was fine.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Everyone was happy.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: But I have to say, I woke up at two o'clock the morning after and I suddenly thought,
17:17
SPEAKER_00: oh gosh, I hope those children don't think that they did a bad job.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And even though I had explained to them very clearly in advance that they're all winners,
17:32
SPEAKER_00: they're all winners just for being there,
17:34
SPEAKER_00: I called all the parents of those children who didn't get placed the next day just
17:39
SPEAKER_00: to make sure they were okay.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: And just to really reiterate what I said earlier about the fact that different
17:45
SPEAKER_00: adjudicators will give different results.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: And while I am delighted for the student who got the top prize,
17:54
SPEAKER_00: I think it's really important that they understand that.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: So should we do it again next year?
18:01
SPEAKER_00: I think I need to prepare students even more carefully for this idea that they will
18:07
SPEAKER_00: be sitting there after their performances,
18:10
SPEAKER_00: desperately hoping for a medal,
18:12
SPEAKER_00: but they do have to understand that largely it's arbitrary and meaningless.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: It's nice to get a prize, but it is not what life is all about.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: And actually,
18:21
SPEAKER_00: what's interesting is the feedback from the parents is that it was the work that we
18:28
SPEAKER_00: did in the run up to the festival that month where we had a weekly festival
18:34
SPEAKER_00: preparation session that was really the most interesting.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: rewarding element of the experience.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: So I think I'll be entering students again, maybe for that reason.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: I've got some highlights of the feedback I had from parents here.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: So this is from the student who did get the first place in the 10 to 12 acting category.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: So you would expect his parents to give good feedback.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: But it was really lovely.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: What they said was, we believe it has been one of the most beautiful experiences our son has had so far.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: In these past few months,
19:17
SPEAKER_00: he has learned how to build a character thanks to your wonderful and professional work.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: He attended an event where he could join a group of children who performed at an outstanding standard.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: And all of them received such a competent and accurate feedback from the adjudicator.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: So isn't that great?
19:35
SPEAKER_00: It's really meant something to him.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: I think his mum, I saw her face when she realised that he was going to get first prize.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: And I've never seen someone look so full of joy.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that is really an amazing experience.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: But of course,
19:49
SPEAKER_00: you have the other side of the coin,
19:51
SPEAKER_00: the little girl who actually she was quite upset because she thought she had come
19:55
SPEAKER_00: last because she got her certificate of participation first.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: And so she thought they were going in reverse order and she had come bottom first.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And so we had to really explain to her that that was not the case.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else said,
20:08
SPEAKER_00: thank you so much for everything you've done,
20:10
SPEAKER_00: giving us the opportunity to participate in the festival,
20:13
SPEAKER_00: running the extra classes,
20:14
SPEAKER_00: providing feedback,
20:15
SPEAKER_00: dealing with the admin,
20:16
SPEAKER_00: getting the props,
20:17
SPEAKER_00: being there today.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: So that was really nice.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: It showed an appreciation of the time I spent being there to support students.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: I do think as a speech and drama teacher, if you are going to put students in for these things,
20:29
SPEAKER_00: It's really important to be there on the day to support them rather than letting
20:36
SPEAKER_00: them just go with their parents and maybe feeling a bit lost.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: I think knowing that you're there to make sure they've got everything that they need,
20:42
SPEAKER_00: where they can ask any questions is really important.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: If you need to,
20:46
SPEAKER_00: you can build that into the price that you charge for the classes,
20:51
SPEAKER_00: for the festival preparation work,
20:53
SPEAKER_00: so that you know if you're going to be at the festival for five hours at the
20:57
SPEAKER_00: weekend that you add a bit
20:59
SPEAKER_00: extra to the lesson price.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: I know I am very keen on not working for free and I think that's really important.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: But there are ways of making sure that you're compensated.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else said,
21:16
SPEAKER_00: thank you so much for making all the arrangements for the kids to participate in
21:19
SPEAKER_00: this lovely event.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Our daughter really enjoyed herself and actually the fact that it was quite small
21:24
SPEAKER_00: scale and so friendly suited her well.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: as she'd never done anything like this before.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: And the final bit of feedback that I'll share today,
21:33
SPEAKER_00: thank you for all your lovely encouragement at the session today,
21:36
SPEAKER_00: for giving your weekend time up to be there,
21:38
SPEAKER_00: and also for the prior coaching sessions,
21:40
SPEAKER_00: which were a big help.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: So all in all, a positive experience with a few little quibbles.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: I think you do need to be careful about who you enter into these festivals,
21:56
SPEAKER_00: especially the big ones,
21:58
SPEAKER_00: because the last thing you want to do is have a student who's maybe a little bit
22:02
SPEAKER_00: sensitive or building their confidence suddenly think that they are not good at
22:08
SPEAKER_00: acting or poetry reading or public speaking because they didn't get placed at a festival.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: So you have to prepare them well for that side of things.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And to help them understand that,
22:20
SPEAKER_00: you know,
22:20
SPEAKER_00: when you're running a race,
22:22
SPEAKER_00: it's really clear who the winner is.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: First prize, second prize, third prize, it's obvious.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: But when you're performing at a drama festival, it's really not obvious at all.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: And different people will have different preferences, as I've spoken about today.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: So that brings me to the end of this very first podcast.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: I hope it's been interesting.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: There are more on the way.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to speak to someone who is a speech and drama teacher,
22:53
SPEAKER_00: but is also a professional actor about juggling those two careers and how they
22:59
SPEAKER_00: benefit each other and any problems that she has with that.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to speak to someone who's a specialist in working with very young students,
23:08
SPEAKER_00: the five,
23:09
SPEAKER_00: six,
23:09
SPEAKER_00: seven year olds on the introductory exams and her thoughts on Lambda exams at that
23:15
SPEAKER_00: age and how to
23:16
SPEAKER_00: make the classes fun and beneficial.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: I may also be speaking to someone about setting Lambda up in schools as opposed to
23:27
SPEAKER_00: working directly in your own studio or your home or traveling to other people's
23:32
SPEAKER_00: homes as a Lambda teacher.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: So lots of things in the pipeline.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: If you've got any ideas about what we can cover in these conversations or things
23:42
SPEAKER_00: you'd like me to talk about,
23:44
SPEAKER_00: do let me know.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you will continue to subscribe to Gabby's Speech and Drama sub stack.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: And that is where you will find the podcasts as well.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.