In an ever-increasing digital world, where is your #VOICE?
This is the question we posed to our students this year. While brainstorming ideas for this year's focus, the theme of this question and the weight of the word "voice" kept coming back to us. While it is certainly a broad word in the sense of definition, that's precisely why it was so appealing to us! Obviously voice in the most basic meaning is crucial to drama. We stress projection every year! "Speak loud enough so your Grandma in the very last row can hear you!" Yet, if we dive deeper into the meaning of voice, we can find many other applications to our program. The voice of our characters, for example. What our characters have to say, why they are saying it, how they are saying it... these factors all aid us in creating three-dimensional and believable characters. However, the most significant focus of #VOICE this year is the voice of our students. How do they communicate themselves to peers, to people online, to the world itself? Drama Kids has always been a space for our students to express themselves freely, but this year we want to encourage our students to process their emotions, #VOICE their opinions, and express themselves like never before. Everyone's #VOICE can be heard... The beauty of Drama Kids is that every child can shine on our stage. We recognize that not all of our students are dramatic and boisterous outside of our classroom. They may not speak the loudest, but that doesn't mean what they have to say isn't important! It's not just projection that we're focusing on this year. Listening to your fellow peers and empathizing with what they have to say is equally important. That's what #VOICE is all about! We share the spotlight, encourage creative thought, and collaborate together so that everyone's #VOICE can be heard. Yes, even the quietest student finds a way to stand out at Drama Kids! So, how can our more extroverted students benefit from #VOICE? As we mentioned earlier, #VOICE isn't just about speaking the loudest and proudest. We're on a mission to challenge our students to think critically about what they have to say. Mindfulness is something that we often overlook in Drama Kids. In improvisations, we say "Don't think! Just do!" But this mantra doesn't apply to every form of acting - or life, for that matter! Some of our students may feel their most comfortable hiding behind big, boisterous stage energy - which we will never discourage. (It makes for great characters after all!) However, we're never shy about encouraging our students to step out of their comfort zones. This year we're asking our students to think critically about their emotions, why they are feeling them, and how they want to express their thoughts and feelings to the world. With these lessons, we're hoping our extroverts will discover a brand new way to stand out amongst the crowd! So, what exactly are we doing in class? As we previously stated, #VOICE can be applied fairly broadly... so how are we putting the philosophy of our theme into actual, tangible action each week? Well, our Lower Primary students are getting a crash course in emotions! Inspired by the film Inside Out, we are getting emotional. Not only are we teaching our students how to express a character's emotions believably, we are also stressing that it's totally okay to feel these emotions themselves as well! We all get angry or sad sometimes, and it's important to be able to process these feelings and give #VOICE to their emotions. Why do we feel angry? How is the anger affecting us? How should we express these feelings without hurting ourselves or others? Not only are these lessons great to remember when building a character, they are even more important offstage! It is our hope that our youngest Drama Kids will carry these lessons throughout their lives. Our Upper Primary students are diving deep into character development! They are learning to give voice to their characters through their own choices. One ambiguous line could be said a multitude of different ways, depending on the character's personality and state of mind. Our students get creative control to figure out what speaks the most to them, and how they want the audience to view the characters they are creating. For our Acting Academies, we come back to our original question... "In an ever-increasing digital-world... where is your #VOICE?" We are diving deep into the philosophy of #VOICE with our teens and tweens. While we are able to communicate with more people than ever before on a daily basis, do our Drama Kids feel that their voice is getting lost in this new age of information and connectivity? Is the persona we promote online our true selves, or are we following what is trending and what is viral at the time? We are tackling these questions head on, and learning the importance of our true #VOICE! Drama Kids is a creative space where our teens can detach from their phones, think critically, and speak freely. It's what #VOICE is all about! So, what do YOU think about this year's theme? #VOICE your opinions on Facebook! Share with us how much your Drama Kid is learning and growing, and stay tuned for even more information about this year's theme in the coming months!
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