Most are currently taking second-year German. Some students have been in plays in high school, but most are not drama majors and most have no experience in theater. In fact, the type of performance we do grows out of a tradition of Brechtian theater which is different from the type of theater you have seen, so you learn as a member of the ensemble by doing.
Participants come from all backgrounds from psychology to biology, from architecture to music.
In some ways, it may be easier for them to learn lines in German than in English since they tend to learn lines exactly as they are and not make up lines. Students learn their lines at rehearsals, not sitting at home staring at the text. They also work with tapes, the director and other students. How long does Dt. Next, students do scene work, with several people rotating through roles to see various ways of presenting them.