Class Descriptions:
Each general class is offered to multiple different age groups.
Acting
They call it a Play for a reason! Participants are exposed to theater games and exercises designed to free their imaginations, build self-confidence in front of an audience, and encourage collaborative play with peers. Additionally, students will create characters and dive into scenes! Through the exploration of a variety of character development and scene study and construction methods, participants begin to build an actor’s “Toolbox” in this class.
Musical Theater
Participants will learn songs from American musicals (solos, duets, group numbers), talk about the function of the words and music in the show, and then develop our own scenarios surrounding the songs. We will then build the scenes and stage the songs. We will sing, act and move/dance as the Broadway stars do.
Improv Comedy
This class is all about FUN! In our class, we will be exploring our “INNER SILLY” through the magic of Improv. What is Improv? Well, it’s creating something on stage using nothing more than an idea or suggestion, and your very own imagination. Building scenes and /or stories with other players, on the spot, right off the tops of your heads! Sound scary? Think it’s impossible? Guess what? You improvise every day! When you have a conversation with someone, it’s not scripted. You may have an idea of what you would like to talk about, but you never know exactly what you’re going to say or how the other person will respond. THAT”S IMPROV!
Movement for Theater
Aside from the lines, where does your character come from? How do they sit, walk, and talk? Movement is what breathes life into each character you will play on stage. In this class, we will explore many different ways of getting out your inner child, animal, and diva! Learning through movement will better help you understand your character and why they act and say what they say. In this class, we will work on walking, sounds, and, yes, even just standing still to better understand what our characters are trying to tell us.
Playwriting
The thought of writing a play can be scary. How do you start? What do you do once you have an idea? We wish we could say that there is some secret formula to writing a play, but things aren’t that easy. There are, however, techniques that can start you on your way to discovering what it means to create a play. We will use character development as a starting point, and basic “want, conflict, change” structure to learn through experience the process of writing a play. Over the course of 8 weeks, each student will develop many beginnings, and ultimately one ending in a short play. Students will learn to give and receive constructive feedback, support each other, and reflect on their own work. At the end of the day, the only real way to learn how to write a play is to write one (or two, or ten). And that’s what we’ll do here. The culmination is an evening of readings of the students' plays performed by Theater O faculty and other professional actors.
Much like Improv, when you write Sketch, you take an average everyday experience and heighten it. You take a normal situation and find the absurd in it, all the while playing it seriously. If you believe it...so will your audience. Sketch comedy is also about learning to write for and about other people. Creating dialogue and relationships while keeping a beginning, middle and end to your story. It's about making sure everyone has a voice in the scene...even if a character has no lines at all! I'm so excited to share this with your kids! Let's make a scene!
Directing
Directing is more than just telling people where to go on stage. It is creating pictures that tell a story, guiding an audience, and bring out a play's meaning. It is exploring possibilities. Directing is an art. You'll learn that here.
Design for Theater
A play's lights, sound, set, costumes and other design elements can tell as much a story as the script and the actors. Design for theater Workshop will give students the chance to look at how to develop a play from this vital perspective. Students will have the opportunity to design an element of a short play and participate in a "design meeting" where they will present (and maybe fight for) their artistic visions.
Puppetry
Chances are when you think of puppets you think of Sesame Street and The Muppets. These foam puppets and the manipulation undoubtedly works of art, but they are also the tip of the iceberg. In Puppetry Workshop students will work with traditional puppets as well as found objects to create characters that interact in worlds created by the students. Basic manipulation techniques will be explored as students work to complete a finished theater piece.
Age Specific Class Offerings:
Fairy Tale Theater
Little guys play in the fairy tale world. With the help of costume pieces and props, participants spend 1 hour completely immersed in imaginary worlds. We will pretend to be fairies, princesses, witches, knights, and more. With the help of the magic fairy tale box, we will construct stories, and play in the world that these little guys love.
High School Theater Experience
The High school theater program meets on Sundays for two hours. Each week one hour is devoted to an acting class. The second hour will rotate between improv, movement, playwrighting, sketch comedy, voice over acting, and more
For information on our Learning Social Skills Through Theater Program, click here.
