Katie Locke studies the art of acting in Dublin, Ireland

Halla Emmons, Staff Writer–

Ireland, home of historic castles and rolling hills, is where junior theatre major Katie Locke had settled for her semester abroad this past fall.  

She studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin from Sept. 1 to Dec. 14, 2024. 

“I wanted to try the conservatory experience for a semester abroad, and then the fact that it was in Dublin is just a huge plus,” Locke said. She had considered going to college at a conservatory before landing at Skidmore College her freshman year and eventually transferring to Denison.

The study abroad students arrived in September, but the conservatory did not open until October. So, the students had their own three-week program where they wrote their own monologues and scenes and then had a showcase at the end.

During this time, she wrote a monologue about a man who would never trim bushes into the shape of cats because they were his wife’s favorite animal. Once he finally did, he discovered his wife had breast cancer. 

“I think that was my best one,” she said.

Locke shares that she chose to study abroad in Dublin because of the program at Gaiety School of Acting, which followed a packed schedule. “It was Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.,” Locke said.

Occasionally, but not often, the days could be longer if there were meetings and once a week the students would go see a performance. “We started everyday with a little session called ‘Bua,’” Locke said, and it would serve as their warm up for the day.

Depending on which teacher was leading, “Bua” could be yoga or working with a technique called, “Laban’s Movements” or “Laban’s Efforts.” “Laban’s Movements” are different types of movements dedicated to moving different parts of the body. 

From there, all of the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES) members would join first-year Gaiety students in their class schedules which, including “Bua,” is five classes a day. 

On Mondays, Locke studied improv, stage combat classes called, “Acting for the Camera,” and “Mask”. 

“Mask is where…where you actually put on a mask,” Locke said through giggles, “you just work with a lot of physical movements because the audience can’t see your face.” She loved learning stage combat and the class, “Acting for the Camera,” but the improv class was another story. “I was really terrified of improv before going into this,” Locke said, “and then the improv classes there and the teacher really boosted my confidence,” as they were supportive of her work.

Tuesdays consisted of “Voice and Body,” dance, “Voice and Text,” and “Manifesto,” a class where students created their own pieces. The main project the students had over the course of the semester was creating a piece off of a picture. “My picture was this guy–he kind of looked angry and he was standing outside of a bakery, I think, and there was this woman on the inside looking kind of concerned,” Locke said. She interpreted the picture as “reactions post-argument” and created a piece on cycles of abuse that she presented to her audience of classmates.

The pieces were usually short, weren’t required to have much text, and could loosely follow the picture presented to them. “A lot of it was very abstract,” Locke said. 

Wednesdays mostly consisted of acting and stagecraft, where students were “playing around with more technical elements,” according to Locke.

Then, Thursdays were all acting and ended with singing. Locke explains how there was a winter concert at the end of the year where all the IES students sang “Good Riddance,” by Green Day. “I was like crying while singing it–my favorite part about the program was the friends that I met there,” she said. On Fridays they again met for “Manifesto,” followed by a theatre history class, and a miming class. “Believe it or not, the ‘box,’” she said while miming the walls around her, “was ‘too advanced’ for us.” 

On the weekends, when she was not exhausted, she was able to travel. She toured Delft, saw shows on the West End, and visited Galway. “A bunch of stuff I could never picture myself doing, and now I have pictures of myself doing,” Locke said. She views her time in Ireland fondly, “I think I grew in more ways than I realized and I’m still noting today how, ‘Oh! I did that,’” said Locke.