by Gregory Schmidt
Last month's message was about introducing your students, and yourself, to the theatrical aspects of creativity. After touching on the initial concepts of developing a weekly home skit to better understand Drama and English Composition, I felt the desire to expand on that and bring you and your youngster(s) further into the world of Theater.
When I ran a children's theater program and a professional summer theater series in my own tourist town, I found that the daily warm up exercises of getting the voice up to speed and the stage posture comfortable is what most benefitted my students and pro actors for all-around confidence and poise.
If you want your student(s) to be adept at public speaking and skilled with group leadership, the basic elements of training for the theater are the foundations for building that person. One of my favorites is to take a sentence of dialogue from a script or text book, and then having your student(s) read aloud the line as many times as it takes to 'emphasize' each word. For example, "They believe in you" can be read (and performed) four different ways: THEY believe in you. They BELIEVE in you. They Believe IN you. They believe in YOU. This actor's technique is one of the most tried ways to ensure that you are breaking down the meaning of the dialogue and expressing for the sake of your character role the best way to deliver the line.
If you want your student(s) to be able to move about a room with strength and balance, the basic element of stage posture helps develop that graceful body. A technique that youngsters can try for themselves is moving - as if in a dance - around the furniture of a room while continually keeping the face and body turned toward the fourth wall (the audience). There are many different ways to walk or sit, and this teaches them to "choreograph" their own movements. *It's best to start all play rehearsals with simple physical exercises to loosen up and to abandon the personal inhibitions (such as doing stretches on the floor and even rolling around on the floor).
Now, that the "actors" have their voices and bodies ready, they need the literary material - the play or section of a script. Don't have them resort to a standard book of plays just yet. To get on with the play, I suggest you allow your older student(s) the freedom of expression to write a short (one-act) playlet about their experiences.
For example, your teen-agers have much to express and few ways to do it as they bury themselves, more and more, into tele tech communications. Tell them it's time to write an actual scene that is particular to their life. Yes, a one-act play about themselves or one of their friends. From there you can work together on the blocking (movement on stage) and the line delivery, but let them feel as if they are the author at hand (the over-seeing playwright).
Then, expand your own world by getting together with other home-school families and stage an informal One-Act Play Festival. That's right - on with the play.
Gregory Schmidt is heading up the national movement called Plant Your Parking, encouraging people to do "front lawn gardening" and provide more produce for themselves, neighbors and food banks. He is also the writer-producer of the Christian children's movie series with the Bueno Gang kids. www.buenogang.com. Ordering copies of these DVDs is easy by contacting info@buenogang.com.
Last month's message was about introducing your students, and yourself, to the theatrical aspects of creativity. After touching on the initial concepts of developing a weekly home skit to better understand Drama and English Composition, I felt the desire to expand on that and bring you and your youngster(s) further into the world of Theater.
When I ran a children's theater program and a professional summer theater series in my own tourist town, I found that the daily warm up exercises of getting the voice up to speed and the stage posture comfortable is what most benefitted my students and pro actors for all-around confidence and poise.
If you want your student(s) to be adept at public speaking and skilled with group leadership, the basic elements of training for the theater are the foundations for building that person. One of my favorites is to take a sentence of dialogue from a script or text book, and then having your student(s) read aloud the line as many times as it takes to 'emphasize' each word. For example, "They believe in you" can be read (and performed) four different ways: THEY believe in you. They BELIEVE in you. They Believe IN you. They believe in YOU. This actor's technique is one of the most tried ways to ensure that you are breaking down the meaning of the dialogue and expressing for the sake of your character role the best way to deliver the line.
If you want your student(s) to be able to move about a room with strength and balance, the basic element of stage posture helps develop that graceful body. A technique that youngsters can try for themselves is moving - as if in a dance - around the furniture of a room while continually keeping the face and body turned toward the fourth wall (the audience). There are many different ways to walk or sit, and this teaches them to "choreograph" their own movements. *It's best to start all play rehearsals with simple physical exercises to loosen up and to abandon the personal inhibitions (such as doing stretches on the floor and even rolling around on the floor).
Now, that the "actors" have their voices and bodies ready, they need the literary material - the play or section of a script. Don't have them resort to a standard book of plays just yet. To get on with the play, I suggest you allow your older student(s) the freedom of expression to write a short (one-act) playlet about their experiences.
For example, your teen-agers have much to express and few ways to do it as they bury themselves, more and more, into tele tech communications. Tell them it's time to write an actual scene that is particular to their life. Yes, a one-act play about themselves or one of their friends. From there you can work together on the blocking (movement on stage) and the line delivery, but let them feel as if they are the author at hand (the over-seeing playwright).
Then, expand your own world by getting together with other home-school families and stage an informal One-Act Play Festival. That's right - on with the play.
Gregory Schmidt is heading up the national movement called Plant Your Parking, encouraging people to do "front lawn gardening" and provide more produce for themselves, neighbors and food banks. He is also the writer-producer of the Christian children's movie series with the Bueno Gang kids. www.buenogang.com. Ordering copies of these DVDs is easy by contacting info@buenogang.com.
