Master Class 2019 with Fiona Shaw

Fiona Shaw is an award-winning actor and theatre and opera director, and she volunteered to conduct our very first Master Class at the British Council. All other expenses have been covered by the John Keells Foundation.

She is more recently well known for her roles in the Harry Potter movie series, True Blood, and the TV show Killing Eve.

Throughout the day, Fiona set the playwrights and actors some exercises, and gave them valuable insights.

Participants of the workshop were playwrights who have won, been shortlisted for, or judged the Grataien Prize, and they invited some of their actors to act out the scenes.

There are many layers to creating a scene - An exercise in which participants convey what’s in a painting to a blindfolded audience without using words

Fiona Shaw conducts an exercise that highlights how a powerful script combines words, emotions, and rhythms to draw in the audience. A good playwright can therefore write less to allow an actor to do more.

“Thanks for organising an excellent and useful masterclass. I'm very glad I was part of this first session and look forward to future sessions of this nature. This is exactly what we need to stimulate creativity and also shake up and break up those old notions of text, language and performance.” - Jehan Aloysius

Participants were last year’s Gratiaen Prize winner, Arun Wellendawe Prematilleke, along with Ruwanthie de Chickera, Sumathy Sivamohan, Nadee Kammellaweera, Ruhanie Perera, Jake Orloff, Seneke Abeyratne, Jehan Aloysius, Visakesa Chandrasekeram, and Delon Weerasinghe