And They Act, Sing and Dance, too!

Last week I shared pictures from our acting workshops - a new summer program feature. The workshops provide an 'acting' introduction to our summer theatre camps. In one week 25+ students work together to perform full-length dramatic or musical productions.

We keep numbers pretty low so each student gets a speaking/singing role and a specific task during production.

Our camps promote team work, responsibility and self accountability (okay, and a lot of fun, too!). Every child has a job, from character role to strike duties. Team work gets the job done!

You won't find fancy costumes or sets at Creative Arts. That's not our style. We feel it's more important for kids to experience the entire production by making props, sets and costumes. When the show ends, kids are extremely proud of what they accomplished, and parents enjoy the life lessons we teach!

Acting requires confidence. We feel creating actors means building a child's self confidence. That's why each student has other responsibilities in addition to character roles. Plus it's more fun, too! It is a challenge, yes, but we feel they can handle it - and they always do!

Art & Theatre Workshop Week

Scenes (get it?) from our workshop week.

In Acting Through Games students practiced acting skills by playing games!
What skills are learned and practiced by playing games? Plenty!
Pantomime, teamwork, vocalization, eye contact, improvising, imagination, creativity...oh, the list goes on and on or until you lose interest and move on to viewing pictures.
Why deliver these great skills using games? Games are fun! It's okay to laugh when something is silly and to learn through play. After all, fun is contagious!

Every time I checked in with the class and instructors, everyone was smiling, laughing and learning. I had to capture it on film! For the most part, this was challenging because kids - especially theatre kids - love to ham-it-up when a camera is present...but I caught some candid shots!

After each game, everyone would gather 'round and discuss what happened!

Great group of kids = great, fun week!

Sizzling Summer Solace!

Creative Arts has run summer programs since the mid-1980's. Each summer is different with constant changes in programs, teachers and students. For instance, this summer we added art and theatre workshops (so students can mix-and-match) and a chamber music program in addition to our usual camps and music lessons. It's good to change, to mix things up and try new stuff! From workshop enrollment, it seems our families like change, too!

The next series of posts will feature photos from our summer programs!

This photo montage depicts one project from the sculpture workshops. Students painted landscapes then folded their paintings to create diorama backgrounds. They sculpted characters from plasticine (the same clay used in stop-motion animation) relating to their background and placed them in the foreground.

Dioramas are fantastic learning tools! Students must create a 3D subject, think about environment, develop a back story (after all, they are capturing a moment in time), paint a backdrop from researching different habitats all while keeping perspective in mind. Ahhhh, learning cleverly disguised as fun!