While adults complain about the heat the summer season brings, children ages 6-16 are happily doing the things they love to do. Summer vacation offers a variety of activities for kids to engage in, and theater workshops have grown in popularity, alongside the reliable staples of piano, ballet and sports.
Parents are beginning to recognize the broad scope of lessons that performing live in theater can teach. I asked our students at Theater Down South’s “Class Act” workshop why they thought their parents wanted them to get into theater. One girl’s mother said it would boost her confidence, while our youngest boy needed to learn stillness. Children may either be timid and shy or full of energy, and being in a theater workshop dexterously manages both types.
On the first day of class, children are immediately taught to focus on their bodies, their breathing, vocal projection and the ability to focus. The timid ones learn to speak up, be clear, make eye contact and be direct. The hyperactive ones learn to control and direct their energy with a purpose.
A lot of the games in a theater workshop have to do with passing energy between people, focusing on tasks assigned and picking up vocal cues from others. To win the games, 100 percent concentration and clarity of direction and intent are required. All these are taught under the guise of “basic acting tools,” but in reality, they’re being handed out a skill set that will be vital for a lifetime!
After the workshop, kids usually return to school better at listening to instructions, multitasking, focusing on a role, speaking up, identifying goals, being part of a class and at sustaining their individuality.
What’s instructive to see in young ones is that their collective instinct to work as a team comes much more naturally than with adults. They dive into the challenges and assist each other. In live theater, the principle is to “always accept” what exists around you and work with whatever you have.
Useful skills
All those useful skills learned, and we haven’t even touched on creativity! Or sincerity.
Another principle taught in theater is to “be in the moment.” Students are encouraged to think fast, improvise, play with speech and movement and ideas, all with the requirement of responding naturally and logically to any given situation.
They are taught to retell, react, reenact, recreate and reinvent. They are taught to work with both make-believe and truth, and to manage logic and creativity, hand in hand.
“No acting, please” is the name of the game, and once the little actors have mastered it, they can act their way through the rest of their childhood with heightened interest, logic, zest, courage, resilience, imagination and focus!