Learning to Speak: Acting and the History of Acting for Children

This class will include the basics of acting for children. This is to help children recognize and learn the specific details of how to go through the audition process of a live stage production. Your student(s) will learn how to work through stage fright, how to pronounce their words, and how to participate in a "cold read." Each class will hold a single topic like: Diction and pronunciation or Stage Fright and working through the jitters. I am a very outgoing teacher and We will learn through the main "types" of learning which are for: visual learners, hands-on learners, and auditory learners. We will all interact a number of times through the lesson. Students are encouraged to participate. I am very excited to begin classes with you soon! Remember, it is so important to maintain a world with little performers! 

This class will include the basics of acting for children. This is to help children recognize and learn the specific details of how to go through the audition process of a live stage production. Your student(s) will learn how to work through stage fright, how to pronounce their words, and how to participate in a "cold read." Each class will hold a single topic like: Diction and pronunciation or Stage Fright and working through the jitters. I am very excited to begin classes with you soon! Remember, it is so important to maintain a world with little performers! 

The first lesson will concentrate specifically on understanding what Theatre is and how it is seen in culture. They will learn about the definitions of: acting, performing, audience, performance space, stage, role and character. There are comparisons of similar words and ideas like the differences between performance space and stage. The similarities between character and role. This lesson will finish by learning a short poem to perform for the class. 

The second lesson will concentrate of the script and words that may be seen or used in a script. They will learn words like: cue, curtain call, stage directions, strike, backstage, and blocking. We will learn the differences between a set prop and a stage prop as well as the use of stage directions such as: stage left, stage right, center stage, downstage, upstage. We will finish this class with the basics of technical and method acting. This class is introduced to a short scene and we will read through it in pairs. 

The third class will concentrate on the history of Theatre. They will learn words like: in the round, the old globe, and we will touch on Shakespearean theatre as well as Broadway now and then. We will discuss the difference in spelling the word: theatre vs. theater. We will learn and discuss how performances have changed through both straight plays and musicals. We will learn the differences in these words as well. We will finish class reading some of the fairy dialogue in A Midsummer Nights Dream. This will only be done so the students can see how different and how strange the speaking and dialogue is in that era. 

The fourth class will concentrate specifically on Broadway. During our previous class, We touched on the idea but this lesson will be 100% dedicated to musicals. We will learn about the original Broadway and New York City. We will discuss how the original Theatre's were built and constructed as well as the new Theatre's. We will learn the following words associated with musical scripts: libretto, duet, solo, music notes, lyrics, costumes and the difference between loud singing (forte) and soft singing (pianissimo). We will finish class by singing a short song together using the new words and applying them to the document on the power point. 

The fifth class will concentrate on Acting and bring back our key terms: method acting and technical acting. This class will mainly consist of scripts loaded on a power point for the students to read-through with Teacher and their classmates. This class we will review all of our previous songs and dialogue. This will be compacted into a small performance for our last lesson together. This lesson we will rehearse and discuss what will be expected during our final class. The student will be required to wear a black t-shirt to class for our sixth class. The performance class. 

The sixth and final class will include our introductions which is what we learned to do during our first lesson. Hello, I am _____. I am __ years old. I like the color _____, and my favorite hobby is _____. It will include our previous lessons scripts and songs. This is what we will "Perform" for each other during the lesson. I like to give out small awards with titles like: Most improved. Best vocals.etc. These will be given out in class and sent via e-mail to the parents.