STAGE OF DREAMS: An Introduction to Acting in a Multi-day Summer Camp for Kids & Teens
(These classes are 20$. They go 1 hour for teens (13-18) and 45 minutes for kids (6-12). They have up to four students.)
Want to break out of your shell, become confident and learn to speak with conviction? Want to get better at acting, whether you have no experience or a lot?
You have come to the right place! I teach in an encouraging and growth-oriented manner so that students are always driven to take the next step, no matter how small, and to get excited about this subject. We always start class with 2 acting games so that students warm-up their bodies and their voices and are mentally and physically prepared for a fun immersion into their own creativity. And as students grow in their love of performance, I will encourage them to explore opportunities in their own communities to make new friends and try their skills!
No previous acting experience or theatre knowledge is required, but any experience students come with is a benefit. Students will grow in confidence and experience learning what it is like to do acting, so no matter what their eventual career path is, they will have a richer life and have a much more well-rounded education.
Our schedule, though dependent on what students want to learn, would be similar to the following:
Week One: Emotional Truth
Acting requires that we express how we really feel, not how we think we should feel. If you are spending all your emotional energy to smoosh how you really feel and project the “right” emotion, you will do so much work and still not produce something real. This class introduces exercises to open yourself up and start down the path of discovering how we really feel, which is the only way to get to how the character feels.
Week Two: Textual Exploration
In most artistic works, the text is very important and needs to be studied closely. This will often give you clues as to how the author imagines the character will be. This week focuses on searching for information on who we are playing and how what they say and do can tell you who they are.
Week Three: All the Colors of You
Actors are chosen for roles for the unique and amazing personality traits they possess, so what are yours? And how can you bring these traits to your performance work? What in your own life can you draw on to create a realistic character? This week puts a mirror up to ourselves and compares our lives to those of our characters.
Week Four: Make your choice: Hero, or Villain?
Characters play different roles in a play based on its structure and how big the role is. Are you the lead, driving the story forward, or are you the small part standing in the leads way? Am I the villain, or the love interest, or something else? Knowing who you are from the perspective of the play is crucial to performing your role properly and excellently.
These are the kinds of class topics we will cover and there are many others that may come up based on the progress and interests of the class. The structure of the lesson may also change based on learners' needs.