Children's Theatre 'Class'...Comments GREATLY Appreciated!

[nanny1]

Hi,

Perhaps a bit long, but please bear with me!

I'm in the early stages of setting up a children's theatre company....At least, that's the long-term aim. To start with, I'm planning to run a weekly 'class' for children to sign up to. Each session would be 45mins-1hr long I'm looking at running one for younger children and one for older children. Hopefully, in time, it'll develop, and the full-blown company will form (HOPEFULLY!).

I've started to plan the content of each of these classes, but could do to find out what parents would appreciate from such things!

I had initially considered that the groups would run as activity sesions, in which the children do some drama exercises, plus act out little scenes/short stories, plus some dramatherapy techniques would be explored (specifically aimed at aiding social skills, confidence building etc). BUT, might parents prefer a series of classes which lead up to a larger-scale play being performed at the end of the term?...so, essentially, the classes would act as rehearsal time for this 'grand finale'.

It'd be great to hear opinions on this!

I'd also love to know...

1)whether it sounds like something that any of you would sign your child up for (am I barking up the right tree, basically!),

2)how old your child is (so that I know what age group this might appeal to most)

3. how much you would consider paying for an hour's session (I'm thinking of running them in 10 week terms)

ANY help, comments would be really appreciated... call it 'market research' !!

Thank you so much!!! I hope I haven't bored anyone tooooo much...

In my experience, we went to drama with younger child when he was three and one of the teachers was brilliant:

• the session had music and songs and clapping and dancing around
• the session had props for the stories - puppets, a large dice, a toy or doll, some animals
• each activity was short and simple
• there was not too much talking and explaining.

Then the teacher left and was replaced by someone who tought it would be interesting to completely improvise the session (you need to be prepared) and have activities such as pretending to paint a house and have very wako ideas as to what would go on inside the house. 3 year old don't think like that. They need props and visual aids.

If you do a story you need props and words/sounds/songs that the kids can participate to.

My oldest child who is 5 is starting with a drama class in mid Jan and it's 2 hour session, and it's 10 pounds for two hours. It's from a good local theatre centre.

Also, another point, it's important to keep some consistency during the sessions. Always have the same welcome song and the same goodbye song. Keep some activities running week after week and add a bit to them. Does that make sense?

My son's nursery have a 'theatre' visit every week and it is one of the highlights of his week. We don't pay extra so I would guess the 'customer' is the nursery here.

The format is

Opening Welcome

Opening Dance

Main activity (could be a story or around an instrument)

Puppets

Closing dance

The class is 1.5 - 2.5 yrs old.

Thank you SO much!!! Honestly, you don't know how helpful your comments are.

Blueberry - I think you're absolutely right about needing to be prepared and have a structure... And also about visual or sensory aids. In my experience, 'improv' doesn't work with this sort of thing!

Thank you for the thought of maintaining something consistent between each session!

clean - That's great, thank you!...and a real help in light of what blueberry has said. Reckon I'll start by figuring out my general structure, before going about planning the activities.

Thank you so much, again! I've been a professional nanny for the past 7 years, after doing my degree and MA in childhood development... looking to spread my wings a bit, and follow this little ambition I've had brewing... Scary but exciting!

Drama and theatre facilitation is a sophisticated skill.

DramaTherapy uses thechniques designed to address and heal acknowledged problems within the particpant - I think it is unethical to venture into dramatherapy without telling participants that that is what is happening and without being trained in dramatherapy.
Of course well run drama workshops will increase confidence, expression etc.

I would not pay to send a child to a drama or theater activity unless it was run by an experienced drama / theatre practitioner.

Hi Blu! Thank you so much for your comments! I'm sorry I haven't expressed already... I have also trained in dramatherapy and theatre in education, and currently work with a youth theatre group at weekends (my scedule is somewhat hectic!). I whole heartedly agree...I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this myself unless I were sure that I have all the necessary experience and qualifications.

I hope that puts your mind at ease!

i have just tried to sign up for a debutots class in my area for my 9 month old DD but am unable to as they are only doing classes through nurseries at the moment.

We do a music class once a week which she enjoys but i really liked the idea of a drama class. Stories, puppets and music are right up her alley.

i mentioned it to a few other mums with babies the same age as DD and they thought it was a good idea too and would have signed up too.

Good luck, Nanny1! I didn't mean to be negative, just realistic and honest. Anyway as a seasoned practitioner, you will understand my thinking.

Have you heard of pyjamadrama - might be useful 'market research' to see if they do it near you and what they offer. It's very popular here and I'm planning to take my ds.

And looking on the website you can franchise if you wanted to do that rather than go it alone.

Hi all!

Blu - absolutely no worry...you didn't sound negative at all...it's exactly as you say; you were being realistic! Nice to know you're a practitioner too!

pirate - that's great, thank you! yes, I've been looking at a few franchise options too. Blimey...this is something I've been wanting to do for years, but kept putting off, as a 'pipe dream'. Now I'm actually biting the bullet, it's all feeling rather scary! I first thought I had too many specifics of my own for franchising to seem 'enough' for me (control freak? me? ...perhaps...!) But looking at some, they do seem pretty much what I'm trying to achieve, and with a good degree of management on offer... Thanks for the head's up!

Hi

Debutots is a FANTASTIC program for little ones. I think they've got it just right in terms of the balance between structure and freedom for individuality.

A friend of a friend has become a franchisee and is loving it.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

DD goes to a drama class outside of schoola nd loves it. We deliberately avoided the big stagecoach type places and went for a small privately run group who do a lot of work with charities, etc. DD's is a theatre company, not just a drama class. They do lot of other work across the city and branching out to work abroad too. The company owner and the teacher are both trained theatre people (don't know techie names as not a drama person myself) and the others in the company appear to be too.

At DD's class she does various activities an learns an awful lot about the whole process, not just acting. They produce their own little scenes, do character work, develop scripts, etc. DD also has some individual singing and voice work with the class teacher for 10 minutes or so at the end as this is what she particulalry enjoys, and the teacher is encouraging.

They don't have any special songs or activitie that they do all the time, but do start each session sat in a circle, doing voice exercises and discussing stuff - not sure what as I don't hang around.

They don't do full shows. At the end of term they do a review of the term. At Christmas and Easter this is small scale, during their class time. They show us some of the things they have worked on. In the summer it is a bigger event as they do it on a stage with some other groups from the company's other work - the work with schools and colleges, disaffected teens, teens doing arts awards, etc.

Your questions:

1. Yes, it is DD's favourite activity

2. DD is 8y, she'll be 9y in April (Y4). She started at 6y.

3. We pay £3.50 for an hour, plus the indidivual singing which we don't have to pay for. I know this is pretty low for this kind of course though. I think it is because of the areas they have chosen to work in. They also offer special rates for those on low incomes, etc. TBH I would pay more than that though as DD enjoys it so much.

DD does it as part of her school curriculum and loves it. She is 9.8 and for the first term, the whole class improvised a zeppelin crash on an island. At the very beginning they were given parts to play for the whole term. Major roles (captain of the airship, leader of a rebel group who found the survivors) etc were voted on and the children expanded their roles as the term went on. There were very few props but they were the same every week. She loves it.