Center Stage Youth Theatre

Posts Tagged ‘Acting Skills’

Every week in my Advanced Methods class we take turns reading and creatiing an abstract for an article that coordinates with what we are studying that week.  Ths week the article was on a technique called Playback Theatre – the link to the article is here,

http://astralsite.com/Drama/playback1.html

and my response to it follows.

Elissa thank you, I thought this was a great subject.

Agree with Jen – this is what I truly love about what we do – the chance we have been given to affect change on our students for the better in so many more ways than just the simple (ok, maybe not simple!) enhancing of their acting skills.  And of course, and you are probably all getting bored with hearing my stories of the place I worked last year but as the entire population of the school was made up of high risk students this article brought back of the old frustrations I experienced in trying to reach our guys.  I have always felt like I did not do the students justice in teaching them.  Every one of them is a child who needs so much help academically and socially -it was as if I stood on the edge of a mountain looking up at all the ways they needed help and could not for the life of me figure out a way to get up there and reach them.

This was one of the main reasons I came to USC and our program.  I KNOW that we can help these students with theatre arts, but unlocking the key as to how to do that with students at the level of learning differences  we were dealing with at our school was something I really felt I needed a great deal more information about and guided experience with in order to  do them justice.

Here’s what Center Stage is offering from now until the end of the summer!

Acting Class:

Scene Study for Grades 3-8
March 28 – May 5
Mondays and Thursdays
4:00 – 5:30
Fee – $75.00
Limit 15 students

Students will have the opportunity to study purposeful listening, characterization and intent among other fun and relevant acting skills as they enjoy choosing, rehearsing and finally presenting a fully staged, age appropriate scene with their partner in performance on the last day of class.

Auditions and performances

Auditions for Annie – Saturday March 13 – Girls ages 5-14 from 1:00 – 3:00
All others from  3:00 – 5:00
Sunday March 14 – Girls ages 5-14 from 1:00 – 3:00
All others from 1:00 – 3:00
Rehearsals Monday and Thursday evenings, weekend afternoons

Rehearsals become more frequent during the last two weeks

Performances – Friday May 13 at 7:00
Sunday May 15 at 3:00
Sunday May 15 at 7:00

Auditions for A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Monday June 20 – 7:00 – 9:00
Tuesday June 21 – 7:00 – 9:00

Rehearsals Monday and Thursday evenings, weekend afternoons
Rehearsals become more frequent during the last two weeks

Performances – Friday August 12 at 7:30
Sunday August 14 at 3:00
Sunday August 14 at 7:30

Summer Camps –

Coyote Steals the Summer
Monday, June 20 – Friday, July 1 for grades K-2
Session 1- 9:00 – 11:30
Session 2 – 12:30 – 3:00
Fees – $150.00
Once it was winter all of the time…Summer was trapped in a bag inside a tipi at the snow’s edge (a very, very long long way from here). This Native American tale tells how Coyote brings summer to the world and earns his famous gift of trickery as a reward. Our fifteen minute musical version of this delightful story from the Crow Nation is designed especially for K-third grade.

A Year With Frog and Toad
Tuesday, July5th through Friday, July 15 for grades 3-6
Session 1 – 9:00 – 11:30
Session 2 – 12:30 – 3:00
Fee – 150.00
Arnold Lobel’s well loved characters hop from page to stage in this musical adaptation, which remains true to the sprit of the original books as it  follows the great friends, the cheerful and popular frog and the rather grumpy frog, through four fun filled seasons!

Acting Camp for Middle and High Schoolers!
Fables and Folk Tales
Monday July 18 – Friday July 29
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Limit 15
Fee – $300.00

This summer come and spend two weeks with Center Stage and work with us creating a production of Fables and Folk Tales from around the world.  Students will choose their favorite scripts from American and International traditional tales, and then design and create scenery, costumes and props, as we turn our studio classroom into a fully functional studio theatre, with the entire production rehearsed, designed, and finally performed on the last day of camp by our students for the public.  For more information or to register either call Center Stage Director Susan Scaccia at 803-206-4924 or email her at rssb1228@yahoo.com.

Welcome to the portion of my life where it begins to imitate art.  As we move along in the production of TBCPE I find myself feeling more and more like Grace Bradley as we move from blocking and repeated attempts to keep everybody quiet backstage to actual acting skills, set construction, props gathering and…well,  more repeated attempts to ask for quiet backstage.

My world begins to revolve now around these 28 shiny young faces in a very real way, as they begin to get a clue about the magic that lies in wait for them on December 17th.  My job now goes beyond teaching them and encouraging them and costuming them and reassuring parents and begging for help from the same parents to actually beginning to let the kids themselves take control over the show with the very important backstage guidance of the stage manager.

It never fails, and while we have our work cut out for us:  new space, new program, no budget, almost no contacts, almost no lights, and a cast of exuberant, dedicated but largely inexperienced young actors – it doesn’t matter.  Because what really matters is the way they will all feel when the curtain goes up and they realize that they are ready.  And the way they will feel when it is over and success has been had by all.

There is nothing like it.  And I love being part of this process with them.