Let the wild rumpus start!
Raaaar!
And so it did, on a Saturday morning a couple of weeks back when both Noey and I got to attend a drama workshop at Act 3 Drama Academy. Yes, you read that right. I rocked up with Noey on a Saturday morning expecting to be watching him have fun but instead found myself taken to a separate room with the other parents and given a short 30-minute session to allow us to experience first hand a taster of what a drama worship at Act 3 Drama Academy entails.
Frankly, I wasn’t prepared do be participating in a drama workshop of my own — it’s been more than 20 years since I participated in an Act 3 workshop of my own! — but I quickly warmed up to the idea as our instructor for the morning quickly put us at ease. We were put through a series of activities which the children would themselves be experiencing in their own group.
First, some Warm-Up Exercises to get us thinking, moving and using our voices.
Then we were encouraged to move around to develop our Spatial Awareness, not just of ourselves but also in relation to the use of space in the room. This saw us moving around creatively, alternately being led by different parts of our bodies like our noses, or our left leg!
Next, we were introduced to the concept of Tableau, where one uses one’s body to create a still picture to represent a scene. First by ourselves, then in groups, we moved to music and froze in positions to represent a story. It was fun and funny too!
Lastly we were given a taste of Improv, and yours truly was roped in to play an annoyed mother. Not something I’m unfamiliar with, thankfully! Together with Edmund (Edunloaded) as the Dad and Mark (Parenting with Purpose) as the rebellious teenage son, the scene involved us parents lecturing our son and we were free to come up with whatever we pleased. This was the trickiest segment since what do in your role is heavily dependent on your co-actors — what they say and what they do.
I certainly learnt a lot from that short session!
Our improv scene.
(Thanks @olimomok for the pic!)
After we rounded up our session, we went to join the children in theirs. From the moment I walked in, I could tell that Noey had had a great time. They had been exploring the same elements of drama as we had, re-enacting Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. We watched the children in some scenes and joined in for some others, and I could see that Noey was really in his element, eagerly volunteering for roles, contributing his ideas, and roaring his heart out. I loved watching how uninhibited he was and how much he got into it.
I also loved how engaging and animated the instructors were, and how there were no right or wrong answers, or right or wrong ways to doing things. We were all free to express ourselves and boy, did we have a lot of fun doing that!
Max sending the wild things away.
Noey here is Max, waving goodbye to the wild things as he sails for home.
Let the wild rumpus start!
The instructor later told me that she found Noey really creative and that she really enjoyed having him in the class. I think I’d overlooked how much of a creative spirit my little man is till it came rushing out at me that morning. Perhaps that ability of his to turn on the tears at will would come in useful for something after all! I think drama is something we would be exploring more of in time to come.
If you’re interested to in exploring drama with your kids too, Act 3 Drama Academy has a series of exciting Holiday Workshops this November and December for children from ages 2 years (with accompanying parent) right up to 15 years. These workshops are based on water-inspired classics such as The Snail and The Whale by Julia Donaldson (for 3 to 4 year olds), How The Whale Got His Throat by Rudyard Kipling (for 5 to 7 year olds). Promising to be highly interactive, these workshops seeks to encourage children to think creatively, verbalise their thoughts as well as discover and develop their sensory skills, as well as broaden their imagination. Do check out the following links for more details:
- Whale Of A Time! (for 2 to 7 year olds)
- Love Ooka (for 8 to 10 year olds)
- Moby Dick (for 11 to 15 year olds)
Act 3 Drama Academy
126 Cairnhill Road
ONE-TWO-SIX Cairnhill Arts Centre
Tel: +65 6735 9986
Web: www.act3international.com.sg
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