Consultants Learn From The Bard

Last week four intrepid MPS staffers – Zully Barrientos, Ira Casteel, Davin Hattaway, and Sarah Miles – took part in an unusual class at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. “Acting for Business Professionals,” taught by Dan Crane, the Resident Teaching Artist, is designed to help participants articulate and deliver their message with maximum effectiveness.

Pauses, gestures, eye contact, physical presence in the room, intonation, and word choice are just some of the elements they dissected and practiced. Ira’s big takeaway was the presentation preparation. “Breaking up the text in logical beats and practicing out loud while walking around the room will be my new go-to method. Each punctuation mark warrants a physical turn, which forces you to slow down and truly notice pauses in your text.” For Davin, it was the realization that consultants and actors are essentially striving for the same thing. “Both professions need to faithfully represent complex information in a way that’s meaningful and impactful. The tools they provided will give me a new perspective as I consider my own presentations.”

MPS has been a proud sponsor of the Shakespeare Theatre Company since 2009.