Pembroke MCR Practise Presentation Skills at the Young Vic

NEWS |

Valentina Ippolito (DPhil Candidate in Medieval and Modern Languages - Italian and Romanian Cinema of Migration) reflects on an experience kindly funded for MCR participants by a Pembroke alumnus.

'Pembroke MCR members recently took a Trinity Term break from labs and libraries to participate in a Presentation Workshop at the Young Vic Theatre in Waterloo, London. The focus of the session was on improving individual presentation skills relevant to all sorts of academic tasks and social roles, from interacting effectively with colleagues and students, to communicating our research aims to funding bodies, to sharing what we learn with the public.

Sandy McKay, Development Manager of the Young Vic, met us when we arrived at the theatre. We were early for our 10 am start time, but instead of leaving us to cool our heels, McKay plied us with fresh-brewed coffee and warm-from-the-oven pastries before leading us on a personal, exclusive tour through the theatre and its history.

The entire culture of the Young Vic is one of inclusiveness. McKay explained that the theatre got its start after World War II, producing classic plays for young audiences. From those early roots, the theatre’s mission to make theatre accessible continued to grow. McKay led our group into the middle of the main stage and invited us to look out over the audience and note that thanks to the theatre’s construction, no single seat had an obstructed view. That concept of openness was a useful metaphor for our group’s workshop experience also.

After our tour, McKay handed us off to Amy Franks and Al Nedjari, members of the Young Vic workshop staff, to begin our training. As a getting-to-know-you exercise we were instructed to shake hands with two people simultaneously, furling our group of ten into a knotted snake, and not to drop hands at all while we introduced ourselves. It became immediately apparent that amid the resulting confusion and cacophony, listening intently and feeling the physical and verbal rhythms of the simultaneous conversations was the only way to accomplish the task – one’s own contribution became an afterthought to this focus on one’s interlocutors.

Though we came from the same College and some of us had met at lectures or bar nights, the workshop really showed how much more we had to learn about each other. As we participated in a series of exercises, from exploring the importance of pace and intonation in speech (at one point we had entire conversations consisting solely of differently inflected ‘yesses’ and ‘noes’) to how to centre our bodies and use them to communicate across space, to a role-play exercise in which we improvised various modes of motivation for a boxer who had lost the will to get back in the ring, we learned the importance of voice and our physical bodies in communication.

The workshop culminated in the opportunity for each of us to deliver a one-minute presentation from our specialism or on any topic whatsoever, employing what we had learned. Drawing on the positive team dynamic we built across the morning, we gave constructive peer feedback to one another, and Amy and Al gave us targeted notes before inviting us to deliver our presentations again.

As a lecturer in film production technology, I went into the workshop hopeful that I would garner some titbits to improve engagement with my students in large-lecture settings. I did encounter these strategies – and have used them successfully since returning – but more importantly, along with our group I was able to focus on communication ‘basics’ relevant to every aspect of engagement with students, administrators, and the public. Having spoken to the other MCR participants, our group is collectively grateful to Pembroke and to the Young Vic Presentation Workshops for this extraordinary opportunity. We look forward to sharing what we have learned with the Pembroke community.'

 

- Text by Valentina Ippolito

- Photos by Dyedra Just