Musings from My Drama Adventure
I volunteered at my church to coach the middle school drama team to prepare them for Fine Arts Festival. Our church hasn’t participated much in Fine Arts over the years and really, I don’t know why. The church is loaded with talented kids. Over the years, I’ve coached a few times, mostly when my kids were participating or when there was a group who wanted coaching. I haven’t always been asked and if the focus isn’t there, then I haven’t felt the need to insist. Besides, I do have plenty to do. Every year, however, I usually coach someone, and end up as a Fine Arts judge in drama, writing and sometimes music.
Last week, I did a Drama Bootcamp for about 30 teens who wanted to learn basic drama skills. We started with body language, facial expressions, stage space, imaginary props, then moved on to speaking skills with a partner, drama solo, brainstorming ideas for skits and then an intro to human video. The kids from my church did not attend.
Yesterday, I met them all for the first time. I had never met any of them before and didn’t recognize their last names. There were nine of them from age 11-14, six girls and three boys. They all volunteered so I’m assuming they wanted to learn something. After brief introductions, I started with a warm-up of “Freeze” – a very popular game to help people loosen up a little and get them used to being in front of others and doing funny antics. They got right into it but were surprisingly unimaginative and stiff at first until I jumped in and started doing ridiculous and over-the-top things. Then they seemed to understand that they were also supposed to follow suit. They informed me, “This is fun!” Phew–I managed to do something right.
Next I had them work on some of the exercises from the Drama Bootcamp. Pantomime making a salad with three ingredients and make it so the audience can see what your invisible props are by using your hands, face and body. They took five minutes to prepare–much quicker than I imagined. I think I need a couple of “coaches” to help.
We played another game then I told them that next week we would begin working on scripts. They boys informed me that they wanted their own script because the girls had cooties. I laughed to myself and thought, “In two or three years, you won’t be thinking that.” For now, I think I may get better results if they are separate.
We played another round of “Freeze” to end the session and they were much more animated and engaged for the most part. The boys and girls were exchanging insults a little more freely than I remembered and using words I would never use in church. A couple of the girls were almost withdrawn.
It was a rather interesting experience. When I went upstairs to find Vic, the students came by and weren’t ashamed to acknowledge that they knew me, so I take that as a plus. Thus, I begin another adventure with kids.
Author Profile: Kathy Varis is a speaker, writer, personal coach and mentor, musician, youth drama guru, educator, a codirecting member of the FOCUS Leadership Team at Portland State University, and a long-time campus minister with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries. Kathy served 12 years as a lead instructor at Mt Hood Community College directing the Rockwood Lifelong Learning Center, helping establish the Mt Hood Literacy Coalition. She has lived with her husband and family in the Hawthorne district of southeast Portland since 1992. Read more from this author
