Children develop skills in theatre through imagination, creativity, and exploration while using communication and collaboration abilities.
All children play. Play is a basic, vital human disposition. Play allows humans to realize their highest aspirations and ideals. Through play, children learn the skills necessary to effectively participate in their world. Using techniques from storytelling, music, dance, and theatre, we harness the child's natural ability to play, moving in a progressive manner from Free Play to Guided Play (Creative Dramatics) to Formal Play.
In Creative Drama, we develop our skills used in formal theatre. This includes activities in collaboration, focus, empathy, and creativity. We also explore the roles of actors, designers, and creative problem solvers. We value the individual and the community of learners, resulting in an open class on the last day demonstrating the activities used during the course. Creative Drama is based in elements of formal theatre. Our classes are centered around the students experiences and learning, rather than the goal of a final theatrical production. We use theatre as a tool to explore the world around us. Our classes are often based around a central character building theme or topic, and we will spend each Saturday exploring that topic using theatre, dance, music, and art.
In Creative Drama, we will use our imagination, senses, concentration, voice, and body to improvise from appropriate stories, poems, legends, and world events.