I have loved "play acting" for as long as I can remember. My sister Genie and I used to drive my mom to distraction (probably) putting on shows and impromptu variety hours for her.
We grew up in Columbus, Ohio and lived in a very large trailer court on South High Street. Although we didn't have a lot of money Genie and I were never aware of it. Our mom always made sure we had books, crayons, toys, and help us use our imaginations to always have something to play.
In the summertime we played outside for hours and hours. We played with the neighbor kids without toys to supplement whatever we decided to play that day. We played cowboys without a gun, hat, or spur and also our newest craze World War II since one of the boys in the group was allowed to watch Combat on television. Again without props of any kind.
I can remember Combat with a lot of belly crawling, dialog, and saluting. It was grand.
In the winter as the snow circled us we had to stay inside for the most part when not going to school. It always seemed to be dark by the time we got home. Maybe not, but it seemed that way.
Genie and I kept busy with reading, coloring, paper dolls which were our big favorite until Mom bought us a little record player. It was so special. About the size of a record album the turntable was incased in an ivory vinyl case that locked. Just right for both singles and albums. That is when we became stars.
No dance or singing lessons we staged many a performance for Mom and Daddy. Thanks to the Mickey Mouse Club, a few children's records, and wearing my mom's clothes we graced the linoleum of our living room singing, dancing, and acting our hearts out.
Genie and I grew up to become creative and imaginative women. We both had children that are creative, imaginative, and idea full. Genie became a librarian and I grew through several jobs finally ending up my career for the last 12 years at a community college helping students enter college and also running the continuing education program for non-credit.
Now what does all this walking down memory lane have to do with teaching children theater in a classroom?
As part of my work in continuing education the college then had a summer camp in June called College for Kids. The program when I had it had been running over 20 years and featured all types of classes for kids first through eighth grades. Student could take two classes for the 8 days of the camp going each day to two for two hours each class. The younger ones divided that time between four classes in the four hours.
Although I ran the entire program and also wanted to teach a class in theater, but I wanted it to be different than what I had experienced in college theater and in community theater. I wanted it to be actually an experience for the students where they were the whole experience. I didn't want something that is put together only be adults and the students just shuffled around to act out a part.
I wanted the experience to have a foundation of inspiring the students to become aware of their creativity, use their imagination, build their self confidence, develop self control, and mostly---just have fun. All in eight classes--16 hours. And, it worked.
How? I hope you will follow me here as I begin to share with you how we accomplished this. How the students grew and how several students actually made so much progress in those short eight days they weren't the kids that began the class.
If you have questions please let me know. I hope we have fun with this and I hope that we can help your students become evolving thespians.
