Drama & Antics: Integrating Theater Elements with Teaching

Good morning! I'm just doing some last minute preparations for my students' show tomorrow. You see, I run drama afterschool activities for 3-6 year old children. It's something that I came up with while I was working for an edutainment company... I needed a creative outlet to break the monotony of office life and so, Drama & Antics was born! It's 45 minute class held once a week. My aspiring actors and I begin the class with warm ups and a story, from which the next theater games are linked. For instance, when I read "Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina, I was holding the book and acting it out with the children. Voila! A fun and easy lesson on mime! How they loved being the cheeky monkeys ;)

More or less every session goes that way and I use a different story every time. Last term, we had 11 sessions and more time to practice, but this term, we only had time for 7 sessions. Luckily, my drama students from last term joined again and this time they are really more confident and comfortable on stage. And YES I always strive to produce a final showcase at the end of each term so that the children can apply what they have learned and they can get used to performing in front of an audience.

This term's showcase will feature two original stories by myself, my fellow teacher Julie, and the children. "The Frog Prince" is an adaptation of the well-loved Grimm's fairytale about a prince who was turned into a frog by a witch. He was later on turned back into his human form with the help of my 5 little princesses. My actors are 3-4 year old nursery students, one of them doesn't speak English very well but managed to memorize and deliver his lines in perfect English! I used the songs "Galumph Went the Little Frog", "Shine" from Barbie's 12 Dancing Princesses, and "Who Let the Frogs Out" by Crazy Frog to liven up the show. It is amazing how my 3 year olds can remember their lines and cues (although they still get a little bit lost when their names come off the stage).

"The Adventures of Princess Graziella" is all original - conceptualized by my 5 year old KG drama students and written by another teacher. This group did Drama & Antics in the first term so when their parents expressed their desire for another term, I came up with Drama & Antics 2 which focuses more on improvisation. Every session, we do a Story Circle: one child starts the story by naming a character and setting. The next child adds a plot or another character and this goes on until everyone in the circle gets to contribute. We came up with a story about a crocodile, dinosaurs, but the best and most cohesive one was this one. Julie, my co-teacher, then put the story together using the children's own words and characters to make the script. And since the aim was to encourage and practice improvisation, I literally just did the blocking (told them where they can stand on stage) and they acted out their characters and lines themselves. To help with the entrances and exits, I used different classical and instrumental music and sound effects to signal their grand entrances. It really is so cool to watch them bring the story to life.

And so the big day is tomorrow and I have to print out the certificates, show programs, and posters. Thanks for reading this entry... 'til next time!