Given the amount of planning, time and energy that goes into teaching a drama class, the last thing you tend to want to think about is how to drum up the numbers needed to fill all the spaces—let alone enough numbers to run the class at all. Luckily, there are plenty of strategies you can engage with when it comes to getting more students in your drama class—regardless of whether your students are killing time after school or honing their skills after ten years in the industry. Some of these strategies will be more suited to your situation than others, and some will be untenable with the kinds of skills/students you teach. As always, time and money are often determining factors. But each of these strategies are worth your consideration; even a modified version of just one of these could turn your weekly one-on-one with a loyal student into a sell-out educational experience.

Set Goals

Before you even step into a classroom, plan clear goals for the number of students you are hoping to teach. Calculate the bare minimum you need to cover expenses, and then think about what a healthy class size is for the kinds of things you’ll be teaching. For example: if you can afford to run a class at three students but your lesson plans requires at least six, you will likely need to modify your curriculum to compensate. Don’t be embarrassed by low numbers when you first start out—especially not in front of the students who have invested their money and confidence in you. Your class should be as engaging to the minimum number of students as it is to your class at its hypothetical capacity. And as your class continues to grow, those first few students will often be your cheer squad when it comes to selling the experience to potential newcomers and trial students.

Promise a Result

Your drama class should always build towards something concrete; clarifying this will attract more students as you are promising an actual result. Sometimes, this is something tangible like a showreel or a showcase: students know if they sign up, they’ll get themselves out there in the actual industry. Other results can be training in a particular skill such as auditioning, or stage fighting. Some classes sell themselves on training in a particular methodology such as Method or Suzuki. Spend some focused time on this: this is the equivalent of your class’s USP (unique selling point). If you can articulate what sets your drama class apart from all the others, you are guaranteed to attract more students than if you keep your sales pitch general and all-inclusive.

Plan a Curriculum

You’d be surprised how many drama teachers need to be told this. Plan your lessons ahead at least a term in advance: if students feel as though you’re making it up on the bus ride to class, they simply won’t stick around. If your classes feel as though they build on one another, it creates a greater sense of value, and helps sell the idea that students are progressing towards even greater knowledge and understanding. What does this have to do with people you haven’t even gotten in the door yet? Your greatest sales assets are your current students: you want them engaged, telling their family and friends to come along, showing off the skills they learn and feel they’re improving and, most importantly, coming back for the next class/the next term. 

Build a Community

Beyond the content of your classes, aim to foster a sense of community in your students; make them feel part of something special when they attend your classes, and they’ll want to bring others with them to experience the same. 

For young people, the ‘third space’ of extra-curricular activity equals freedom and agency that they don’t find at home or in school. If they have a good time, their friends will pile through your door faster than you thought possible. Their community also extends to their parents, who will provide excellent word-of-mouth advertising for you in their own social circles. For adult students, trained actors will look for that nurturing space to develop their skills further. First-timers will seek to engage with a world they’ve probably dreamed of entering their whole lives and have only now endeavoured to experience. 

While you might be teaching drama, you’re actually selling what it means to be a part of these communities. Nobody wants to miss out, so make sure everyone feels welcome. You can exhibit this sense of community externally by maintaining a social media presence. Post daily on Facebook and Instagram with what is happening in classes, and how somebody might become involved if this community looks inclusive and enticing to them.

Advertising

Targeted advertising on Facebook, or with Google Ads, can be an effective way of getting more traffic to your website. Consider a small-budget campaign at first that advertises one event: the first class of the term, a holiday workshop or perhaps a showcase you run with your students. Weekly advertising costs can be expensive, and also ineffective if you’re not actually selling something in particular. For getting your name out there in general, you’re better doing direct outreach in your community or on social media (see above). 

Of course, this only helps if you have a strong web presence. If you don’t, think about printing out some flyers and putting them in the area around where you run your classes. Fancier printed flyers can often be left in cafes or theatre foyers for great effect. If you teach out of a rented space, try placing a poster or sandwich board on/near the door outside: many people will walk past where you teach and wonder what’s going on inside. These people can often be converted into customers, providing that they are able to find you without wandering in. The trick with advertising is being ready to pursue leads—that’s the people that express interest by contacting you. Unless you follow up with these people and give them information, they will forget about you within 24 hours and the money you spent to grab them in the first place is wasted. Make yourself available and chase down every opportunity. Don’t forget: you’re paying for them.

Incentivise Returns

Whether your classes run weekly for a school term or exist as one-off workshop sessions, you’ll eventually need to start thinking about filling the next class you teach. Find incentives for your current students to come back. This is where your promised results and planned curriculum will pay off: students, happy with the experience of one of your classes, are more likely to return knowing their knowledge will continue to build. If you can afford to do so, offer discounts to legacy students. You may also like to offer discounts to students who refer friends that sign up—in the way of a voucher they can redeem at a subsequent lesson/term.

Expand!

Once you’re operating with a business plan, promising a result and delivering planned lessons to dedicated students, the next step is … exactly that: plan what you’re going to do next! As you build your community and gain new leads, you’ll start to notice that there are demands for classes in areas you are yet to fill. Think about trying a new class that speaks to that demand. What is the next thing to learn after your current curriculum ends? When your frequent flyer students—the ones there with you from the very beginning—feel they’ve grown all they can, what would you teach them next?

From here, careful planning and cultivating gives way to uncertainty. As with any business venture, there are risks involved; you’re not always going to make the right call. But as you push yourself to innovate and diversify, you will often find that such pressures lead to your most exciting ideas. Be bold, embrace the unknown! And know that the community you’ve been building will be there to rally around you. Drama classes have always been places of experimentation, encouragement and support. Enjoy the feeling of that support from a space you, yourself, helped create. Be a little bit proud of that.

The post How to Get More Students in Your Drama Class appeared first on StageMilk.

For this reason, it is vital that you have strategies in place to build confidence in your students. A nurturing, supportive classroom will always produce better results and help to demystify the creative process for students who might not take to certain aspects of acting as naturally as others. Above all else, you want to avoid discouraging talented individuals who may lack the self-assurance of their more outgoing peers.

Set Clear Rules

Your students will be more relaxed when they understand the boundaries you set for conduct in your class. One of the most damaging assumptions many new students will make is that “freedom of expression” equals “freedom from rules”—this can cause some students to act out, and others to retreat into themselves as they mourn the loss of structure giving guidance to behaviour.

When teaching younger students, consider writing (or, ideally, developing with them) a behaviour contract. It should explain all the positive attributes they should exhibit in class, as well as the kinds of behaviours that will not be tolerated. When students realise that a drama classroom, however different from school, is still built on the same foundations of hard work and respect, they tend to treat games and exercises more seriously and understand the more confronting parts of learning drama (acting, improvising, standing up and talking) as being par for the course. A behaviour contract can also contain a section about your role as a teacher: think of rules that establish the rights of students, and give them insight into the kinds of things you will and won’t be asking of them: “The teacher will respect your choices in a scene.” “The teacher will always provide fair and constructive feedback.” “The teacher will never force you to perform or participate if you wish to remain an engaged observer..”

The erroneous “freedom of rules”/”freedom of expression” concept is actually something you may encounter more in adults than young people. Often, lacking the comparative structure of a schooling system in their life, adult drama students can find it harder to take things ‘seriously’ in a class they have paid for and attend in their ‘free time’. In these situations, a discussion is best: be frank with them, talk about your expectations of their behaviour and work. They are guaranteed to not only find this kind of discussion helpful, but validating.

Challenge Constantly

Setting challenging tasks for your students is one of the best ways to indicate you trust them and take their work seriously. Let them know you are confident that they can achieve things beyond their comfort zones, and that your expectation is they keep pushing the limits of what they think they can do.

Constant challenges also work to helping your students track their own progress. What may have seemed daunting at the start of a term—learning lines, emotional memory, plotting actions—will always seem more manageable after a period of sustained learning and the chance to put these ideas into practice. The goal here is to make students realise that your challenging of them is indicative of their hard work and courage, not a punishment or your attempt to humiliate them. This is where a behaviour contract or discussion is doubly helpful: you can talk about your expectations of students in a class, and clarify why certain aspects of your curriculum might be designed to push them a little bit above and beyond.

Validate Contributions

Any time your students express themselves, acknowledge and voice your respect for their doing so.
Give even the worst impulses your expertise and time of day, and encourage warm receptions and constructive feedback from their peers. In younger classes, this is as simple as leading a big round of applause after each game or performance: let the person in front of the group have a bow and feel good about themselves. A drama class is a perfect place to build healthy structures around giving and receiving criticism; for teens and adults learning acting, think about implementing a feedback rubric that structures how performances are judged. This will normalise the process of putting yourself out there in front of the group, and hearing back on points both good and bad.

Validating contributions can also be an effective means of dealing with a student who fails to take an exercise seriously—whether it is out of insecurity, or a desire to make the class laugh. Rather than calling them out for, say, performing a monologue in a silly voice, try giving genuine feedback: you thought there were some excellent moments in what they presented, but their choice of vocalising in such a way hindered your own ability to be engaged. Deny them the satisfaction of seeing you frustrated, and counter with sincerity instead.

When you pay respect to the contributions of your students, you will send the message that they are being heard. Those who are doing so to seek attention will realise that they have that from you regardless of their choices; most will endeavour to make good ones in the future, as it will be clear you will take them seriously even if they don’t do so themselves.

Reward Risks

As an extension of the above: when somebody offers something risky or courageous, give it your full respect! For some, this could be a wild character choice—all flailing limbs and an outrageous accent. Others might risk themselves simply by putting up their hand and agreeing to participate. While every contribution from every student is different, train yourself to recognise the huge leaps of faith students make them: they will never feel more seen or supported than in those moments you make that connection.

Give Support

There will be times where your students find themselves falling short of expectations: yours, or their own, or even that of their peers. Be ready to provide support and understanding. Students who find themselves struggling with their limitations invariably work the hardest; it can be tough for them to understand why they can’t achieve something that others seem to breeze past. Remind them that each person’s progression is different, and at the end of the day theatre is about play and expression. Sometimes, these students will get past these feelings of self-doubt. Others won’t. Regardless of the outcome, you can still build confidence in that person by how you respect them and listen.

If you are working for a larger teaching institution, make yourself familiar with their policies concerned with the well-being of students. These do vary, but will usually be beholden to some kind of government standards, such as those concerning Child Safety. If something about a student’s well-being is concerning you, immediately notify your superiors or the correct government/law enforcement agency. Their welfare is always the highest priority, and it can be a comfort for students suffering from similar problems to know that you take such matters seriously—even to the point where the knowledge of this, alone, empowers them to talk to you and seek help.

Normalise Silliness…

Perhaps the most important strategy of all: acknowledge that things in drama classes get weird. Students may find themselves being trees, melting as giant ice-creams or wading through honey. When you think about it, it’s almost more worrying if they don’t find anything strange about such activities…

Address the silly elephant in the room and talk to them about how freeing it is not to have to be taken seriously: this is often where the best creative discoveries are made. If it helps, talk to them about the skills they’re undoubtedly picking up in the performance of whatever strange game or activity is at hand. Building confidence in the face of silliness is all about getting students out of their own heads: always remind them that if everybody’s being silly, then, by that reasoning, nobody is!

…But Take Yourself Seriously

Ultimately, at the centre of all these strategies is you. You will set the standard for your students—on how they respect themselves, how they respect their class and their peers. You may even be the first professional actor they have ever met. Teach with confidence and warmth: model this behaviour at every turn. Each time you step into a classroom, you have the chance to shape an industry that many can agree is difficult—if not, at times, wholly problematic. Take the incredible opportunity (and incredible responsibility) that is teaching to build your students up and imprint upon them the positives they will need to pursue their passions and flourish.

The post How to Build Confidence in Drama Students appeared first on StageMilk.

Thankfully, there are many effective strategies one can employ when teaching a drama class. This article details seven important concepts that will help you plan your lesson, set the tone of your room and maintain that all-important ‘fun’/’structure’ balance.

Plan Your Lesson Well…

You can not do enough preparation before you step into a drama class. Know exactly what the structure of your lesson will be and what you expect your students to get out of it. Then make a habit of writing out a lesson plan—listing all activities and the time they will take to perform. With older groups, this might be information you want to share with them directly at the start of each class: try telling them what you intend to cover so they know what to expect. This will make them feel a part of the larger plan and not as though they are simply taking orders from a teacher.

Students will always respond well to structure, and it will lend your voice an authority if they believe that the lesson isn’t just tumbling out of your head as you go. And if the students know your lessons well enough to request certain games or activities … don’t fall into the habit of taking requests. It might win you some points in the short-term, but students knowing they have control over the structure of your classes will eventually erode the legitimacy of what you plan each week. A good compromise is to promise a favourite game or exercise at the end of each class if all other work is completed: then requests can be taken, but it is at the behest of the students to complete your own set tasks first.

…But Be Prepared To Adapt

That said, there will be times when your careful lesson plans just won’t work. This can happen if you are teaching an unfamiliar group of students (which can make gauging their level of engagement more difficult), or if your students bring their day’s energy and mood—good or bad—into the room (as children always do). Have some alternative exercises ready in case something is clearly not holding their interest: for instance, you might want to swap out a meditation exercise for a more active game if they’re riding a high wave of energy and lacking focus.

Do remember that changing your lesson plan isn’t always a sign that a class is going poorly. Some groups may breeze through what you suspected could be a more difficult exercise, so it can be helpful to have a complimenting activity up your sleeve. You can also think of different variations or degrees of difficulty for a particular if you wish to make it more challenging.

Warm-Up

While your lessons will change from week to week, it is always helpful to start each session with an identical short warm-up routine. This gives your students a chance to ‘leave their day at the door’, decompress and find some focus for the lesson ahead.

Start with some high-energy physical warm-ups to get the blood pumping and bring their energy up in the room. After that, move into some slower breathing and vocal warm-ups that require more concentration—older groups may also benefit from a short guided meditation or a ‘stretch and share’, where each participant demonstrates a physical stretch and talks to the group on an agreed-upon topic. Finally, one last high-energy warm-up builds momentum and excitement for the first task of the lesson.

Much of your success in a drama class is about building the tone of the room: warm-ups can still be fun, but they do signify to students that the time to work and be engaged is upon them. This is also a great tactic for getting students to let go of a bad day or mood prior to starting class: this short window of low-stakes activity can allow students to put any baggage they may be carrying aside without asking them to jump straight into more demanding activities.

Keep Your Material Fresh, Keep Your Material Building

In short: learn the rules of some theatre games and then learn to run them really, really well. Unless you are preparing for an end of term/semester/year performance, the majority of your time in class will be spent running different games and activities, so keep track of which ones your class plays well, and try to introduce new ones every few weeks that build upon the same basic skills the previous helped develop. In addition to keeping your lessons fun and fresh, this is also the logical progression towards more ‘serious’ drama activities such as writing, devising or scene work: introduce the games that will teach the foundational skills required for such activities in the weeks leading up. This will help you avoid a clunky gear change from ‘play’ to ‘work’.

It is a good idea to keep a personal database of drama games and their learning outcomes as part of your own teaching resources. Look for new activities you can add to your repertoire in textbooks, on the internet, working with other practitioners, at developments or rehearsals and even from students that may wish to share a game they know from elsewhere with the class.

Treat Your Students Like Colleagues

The relationship between drama teacher and the student must always be founded on respect, and it is doubly important that this be on a mutual level. The class should feel valued for their contributions, not only as students but as artists with voices of their own. Think about the kind of dynamic you can share in an open, inclusive rehearsal room or workshop, and try to instil that same nurture and respect. Treating your students as valued colleagues in an artistic collaboration will make them feel as though they can—and they should—offer you their best.

Of course, this is not to say that you should be informal, or try to operate on the same level as students—trying to appeal to them as an equal is a surefire way to lose your authority in a class. But your students do need to know that if they speak to you as an artist, you’ll respond in kind. Even though you still maintain the position of power in the room.

Know What You’re Talking About

Speaking of respect: think back on your career to every oblique director’s note, every vague exercise at drama school, every rehearsal or short-film-shoot where you were called early and sat for hours. Remember how polite you were and how you kept your opinions to yourself? Your students will never spare you the same embarrassment. Be ready for questions about why certain activities are being performed. Be ready for questions as to why a different game isn’t being played. Be ready for questions on whether or not a student has to participate if they already know this, or find it too hard, or boring, or they’re tired. Be ready for a lot of questions.

Teaching requires you to have direct answers to the kinds of questions you’d never normally hear an artist (or, sometimes, a polite person) ask. And while that may sound confronting, it’s better to think of it as an opportunity to really consolidate your knowledge and opinions: students will appreciate the honesty and directness, even if you give them an answer they don’t like. The politeness of ‘foyer talk’ will simply not hold up in a drama class. And it won’t take long for you to find that extremely refreshing.

Nothing Is More Fun Than A Challenge

One final, all-important point: while fun is a vital ingredient in a great drama class, don’t forget that it doesn’t always translate to easy or simple. Fun can be found in the challenge of a new task or exercise, the responsibility of learning lines, the thrill of standing up in front of the class for the first time and speaking as a completely different person. For many students, this can provide the first real taste of what draws so many actors and creatives to their chosen craft—and what keeps us all coming back despite the sometimes challenging nature of the arts.

A great drama class is a safe, inclusive space that challenges participants, rewards their courage and lets their imaginations run wild. If you can provide this, your students will find their own fun along the way. It is never something you need to manufacture. So relax. Have fun with it.

The post How to Run a Great Drama Class appeared first on StageMilk.

Okay so let’s get down to brass tacks. Just like acting, we need a bit of who, what and how to get ourselves rolling here. Then it’s time to make a plan to get them comfortable and ready to work, and then to challenge them in that comfortable space. This may be a personal preference, but I dont think acting is easy. Quite the opposite I think it’s incredibly challenging and the classes should be challenging too, in the sense that the work should be challenging not the environment that you are working in. Actors need to feel that they can express themselves in all manner of ways in a safe, supportive environment but the work they do needs to encourage them to push themselves further than they thought they could go.

The balance for the teacher is finding out what that limit is, and creating an environment that people can safely head out and explore that on their own creative journey, facilitated by you!

Who?

Who are you teaching? Kids, teens or adults? Beginners, intermediate or working actors? Each one of these groups will require a slightly different approach. You need to tailor your material to the group you are working with. For example, I am not great working with little kids, I am not the most patient person and I want them to do what I want them to do – which isn’t always the best way to go. Moral of the story when I am teaching classes of kids I want to have a lot of preparation done in terms of games to play and things to do, as their attention span is short and we need to keep them constantly occupied so they don’t go causing trouble.

When it comes to teens, the big question is – do they WANT to be there? Did they choose to do it? Or is it being forced upon them? This seemingly tiny difference is everything in this age group. If they have chosen to be in an acting or drama class chances are they are going to be interested in the material and up for getting into some scenes and improvisations. If they have been forced to be there, you are going to have to work exceptionally hard to get them engaged and keep them interested. 

Similarly, your best option for dealing with teens who don’t want to be there is to over-prepare. Get backup plans for your backup plans, keep them on their feet for as much as possible. As soon as a game or scene starts to fail or result in disinterest, move on immediately – don’t give them time to think about it. Think like a shark and keep on moving forward.

Adults in my humble opinion are the easiest group to deal with because they are only going to be in a class if they desire to be there. Usually, they have paid for the pleasure. The question becomes one of experience. Absolute beginners are great because they are usually more than keen to jump straight into some wild situations. Make sure you get a gauge of their experience, the danger is teaching people how to suck eggs, if adults feel like they know all of this and you are wasting their time and money you are going to be in for a tough time. 

What?

Okay now, let’s talk about content. Once everyone is in the room, introduce yourself and jump straight into a warm-up.  The only exception here is if you are teaching beginner adults, for beginner adults they are going to be doing stuff which is really outside their comfort zone and they generally fare better with a bit more of an introductory chat before kicking into action. I tend to go around the room and get everyone to tell me their name, age, acting experience and what they hope to get out of the class. This gives me a clear idea of who these people are, the level that they are operating at and a scope to impart some knowledge. 

This can be useful for teens as well, especially if you are teaching in an after school, extracurricular drama program, where they might not all know each other. For school groups, I just want to get them in and get them moving. Don’t let them have time to think about all the wild stuff they are doing as drama exercises.

Warm-Up!

So I like to start with voice. We have heaps of guides to voice warm-ups here, here and here. Essentially your voice warm-up consists of four key elements: stretching, breath, sound and articulation. Now the exercises you chose to use for those are going to vary depending on the group you’re teaching. At an acting school, getting everyone on the ground to do leg raises and exhale on a ‘z’ sound is absolutely appropriate. Doing that with a group of 10-year-olds after school? Good luck. Pick the exercises that are an appropriate match for your age group and experience level. 

Once you have got those voices nice and warm, let’s get these humans alive in their bodies! A rigorous, fun, engaging physical warm-up. Again, if it exists and it’s about acting, StageMilk has an article on it, take a gander at a few great ideas here, here and here. Now, these exercises, they aren’t some kind of holy text, they aren’t Shakespeare folks, you can mess with them, change them up to suit your group! The space you’re working in! Don’t have access to yoga mats or squash balls? No worries, just take them out and see if you can adjust the exercise to achieve a similar outcome. You run this show! 

Ensemble exercises

Now you have got the group nice and warm, see if you can seamlessly transition into some exercises. Get people working on their craft without them releasing what the heck is going on. Following a physical warm-up I get my group to move around the room and play a simple game like the Opposites Game! Our Acting Games article is a real winner, it’s the most popular article on our site and with good reason, the exercises and games here are really fantastic and I totally recommend checking it out! Another classic is Thin As a Pin, where you get the group to walk around the space looking for the gaps between each other and consciously moving through them. Then you call out, ‘Thin as a pin’ and they stop, feet together and arms above their head, or ‘wide as a gate’ where they put their feet two shoulder-width apart and their arms out horizontally, or finally ‘small as a stone!’ where they get into a little ball on the floor, get them walking again and once they have learnt the three exercises, start eliminating people who don’t respond quickly enough or do the wrong one!

Either of these games can transition nicely into getting into groups and making tableaux. Which can transition nicely into the DVD Game you can see on that Acting Games link. Some other favourites for me on that list are, Threads, Word Association with Clicks, Build the Robot, Expert Double Figures and of course, the inevitable – Space Jump. 

Pick a few games to suit the age and experience level of your group! Usually by the time you have done all that it will be time for a short break. So get them outside to have a bite to eat and head to the bathrooms. 

Text

Now for me, I love a bit of text work in the back half of the lesson. Whether that is a script the group is working on or something simple like an A/B script to throw at them and see what they do with it. Here is an A/B script I wrote and feel free to use it in your lessons!

A: We’ve been here before haven’t we.

B: Have we?

A: Haven’t we?

B: I don’t think so.

A: I am sure we have.

(Beat)

A: So it’s going to be like that?

B: Like what?

A: You know what.

B: Don’t you start

A: I didn’t start anything

B: Yes you did!

A: No, no. It was you.

B: What was?

A: You know what!

(Beat)

B: Wait… I remember!

A: See

B: We have been here before!

A: Right!?

B: With the guy, and the thing?!

A: The thing?

B: The… thing.

A: Oh yeah…

B: Good times.

(Beat)

B: Hey, I’m sorry.

A: Dont worry about it.

B: No seriously.

A: It’s fine.

B: I don’t know what came over me.

A: It’s fine.

B: Sorry.

A: Yeah.

Again this may or may not be appropriate for your group but if it is – feel free to get them up in pairs and have a crack at this scene. You can use this as a basis to teach a range of acting techniques like objectives, image work, backstory and intention. It is a really useful jumping-off point! 

Assigning them to break off into smaller groups and work on something to present at the end of class can also be a really useful way to go, that way you can move between the groups, see what they are working on and help them out as needed. When there is half an hour or so to go at the end, get them to go up one group at a time and present their work, you can then give them feedback and that should do you for your first class!

Feedback

A quick note on giving feedback to actors. This can be really tricky, you want to be direct -and honest with people but there is no need to be mean, in fact quite the opposite, you want people to keep coming back and to want to get better, you don’t want anyone walking away feeling like a failure. I have found the best way to structure your feedback is Best Things – Ready For. Best things – what were the best aspects of this performance, what did we enjoy? What worked well? You can even throw this out to the group to feedback on the performance, be on your guard though, it must all be positive at this stage, if negative feedback comes through, interrupt it and ask them to give out something positive first.

Ready for – what is this performance ready for? What would we like to see more of from these performers? What aspects could do with a touch-up? Again try and keep the straight-up negative stuff out of the conversation. We need constructive ideas that can help the performers improve. Statements like ‘I didn’t like it’ are useless. Try and keep it focussed on the work and opportunities to improve it!

Conclusion

There you have it folks, a fully laid out lesson plan for how you can go about teaching your first acting class! As you can see StageMilk has a wealth of resources to help you do this! Once you get used to the group and have some good ideas of what they are looking to learn and what they enjoy you can start to tailor your lessons to suit them! Consider this a jumping-off point for you to find the confidence to be a great teacher! You will be fantastic, I just know it! Also if you want the full range of StageMilks resources including a play library and scene and monologue databases, sign up for the Scene Club below!

The post How to Prepare your First Acting Class appeared first on StageMilk.

If you’re going to decide on a monologue that the board of studies has seen time and time again for years, you better make sure that you can do it justice, and do it differently. But why add that pressure? Instead of turning to Black Rock and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll because you’ve studied them, your decision should be based on what suits you as an individual performer, but also something that excites you, and potentially challenges you as a performer – that is what the markers love to see.

Know Your Plays

Read. It’s a stressful time, you’ve probably got that mammoth PDHPE textbook to rote learn. Or if you’re a drama student, you probably don’t. But reading (many) plays is the first step. And read the whole play. Many students make the mistake of flipping through until they see blocks of text indicating a good ol’ monologue they can take straight out of the book with no context. Bad decision. Not only will this work against you for character development, but you’ll find that once you’re up and prepared, it will come back to bite you when someone asks – “So tell us how this scene differs for your character compared to the rest of the story?”.

Reading plays will not only help you find a solid monologue that’s right for you, but it will help inform your way to approach it. Reading, comparing and analysing different scripts is the best way to get into the mindset for your performance (and will also help to fill out that logbook).

More on why reading plays is so important…

Know Yourself

Dramatic performance is an interpersonal feat. The best monologues are those that you may have some sort of connection to, or at least an ability to understand and empathise with the character’s desires. This is what will make your performance unique, and the first step is choosing a monologue that fits. Think about what you, not just as a performer, but as a young person, want to say. It’s better to have belief in a performance on a personal level than a desire to recreate a performance done before.

What facets of your own personality can you see in your character? Do they have the same sense of humour? Do they get annoyed by the same things? And if they don’t, work with that. Try and understand what situation you would have to be in to have the same reaction as that character. Working with your own emotions and personality is a great place to start in deciding on a piece, an understanding of your own experiences can lend to the character.

Know Your Limits

Knowing yourself also means knowing what you can and can’t do. Regardless of whether you’re a good or bad actor, don’t assume that your interpretation of Othello is going to bowl everyone over just because you can play anything. Know what sort of pieces are going to allow you to play, rather than limit you in their scope. Age, for example, is an important factor to look at. Finding good monologues within the age range of sixteen – twenty can be tough, but they are out there, and choosing an age-range closer to you is only a good thing. That shouldn’t be a rule, and if you are ready to fully inhabit a forty year-old mother, or a two-month old baby, go for it, but this is about what will make your performance easier on you, and allow you to explore without hinderance.

This may also go for accents, musical ability and physicality. Drama students often make bold moves in choosing monologues. Bold is good, but so is knowing that you can pull it off.

Don’t forget you’ll be doing your IP at around the same time that your head is exploding from other exams. This is not the time to learn a new skill. If you are confident and assured in an accent, go ahead – but if you’re going to have to spend half your time looking up YouTube accent tutorials, you don’t have that time to spare. Get familiar with your boundaries and work towards making what you do well, the best you’ve ever done it!

Know Your Audience

Remember, this is an examination, and not a public performance. Your peers are not the ones you’re trying to win over. There’s a difference between choosing a comedy piece because you know your friends will cack themselves watching you do it, and knowing that you can actually do a Neil Simon piece justice. Your markers will be looking for an understanding of the play as a whole, and your character as a whole. Let’s presume that your markers will have read the play that your monologue is from.

“Nah – mine’s some obscure off-off-off-off-off-Broadway show”.

Doesn’t matter. Make that assumption, and understand that they will be looking at your performance through a lens that has the context of the whole play.
Remember as well that your markers have probably seen the same pieces over and over again for years. Again, there is no shame in choosing a popular piece, but it may work against you in terms of standing out. The last thing you want is your performance to be informed by other students who are doing the same monologue as you. Your choices need to be unique, and based on your own study of dramatic material.

Know Your Script

Log books are pretty annoying. A lot of the work that you’re doing on your piece, takes place in the moment and in your head – having to write it down seems arbitrary. But trust me, writing down your process will save you the absolute freak-out you’re going to have when it’s a day before your book is due and you’ve done nothing.

Cutting, re-arranging and shaping your monologue is the perfect way to start filling up your log-book, and a really good process to go through. Scoring the script, including adding beats and intentions is the kind of work that the markers are looking for in your logbook, not to mention what you should be doing with your monologue anyway.

The HSC is a stressful time for all students. If you’re passionate about performance and drama, your individual performance should be a process of enjoyment and excitement. The key is to decide on your monologue early on, and then get to work. Choosing a monologue with only a week to go will leave you with a bad mark, a stressful experience and will end up with you hating your own performance. Do your research, know what’s right for you, and know your limits.

For examples of monologues, see:

Monologues for Men 

Monologues for Women

The post Choosing the Right Monologue for your HSC Individual Performance appeared first on StageMilk.

In this article, I’ve got some great starters and resources for you to find and create some scene work for kids. This is intended for ages 8-12, but can definitely be adapted for older or younger kids. In this article, you’ll first see some suggestions of scenes and links on where to access them. At the bottom you’ll find some coaching tips!

Shakespeare for Everyone!

It might seem a little counter-intuitive, but Shakespeare is actually a great teaching tool for kids. It’s fantastic for all sorts of reasons; for getting kids to start analyzing text, working on pronunciation and clarity with their voices, and playing some really juicy and exciting characters! Depending on how much time you have, I would recommend starting by storytelling a brief plot of the play to them. You can even find some of these abridged versions with pictures, which is a great way to understand the general plot points of the play. Check out this great one called, “Tales from Shakespeare” by Charles and Mary Lamb.

Macbeth
This play is great because it’s incredibly dramatic and gory. It’s all about revenge, which is a really playful feeling. It’s also a great way to get them to look at villains from a different perspective; no one in the play is completely “good,” or “evil,” so how do we empathize with our characters who are doing some pretty rotten things? Here are some scenes I recommend:

Witches scene, Act 4 Scene 1:

Start by analyzing the text; talk about all the ingredients and figure out what the witches are trying to do. Full scene

Banquo’s Ghost, Act 3 Scene 4:

This is a great group scene, and a great way to introduce the idea of dramatic irony. Do you have someone play Banquo’s ghost? Or do you leave it blank? Do you want the audience to side with Macbeth or do you want them to also think he’s going crazy? Full scene

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

This play is great because it’s playful, imaginative, and funny. It’s also really easy to understand, despite all the spells and mix-ups. There isn’t a scene that I wouldn’t recommend but here is my favourite:

The Play, Act 5 Scene 1:

This is where the entire play culminates: the play within the play. This is a great group scene. You can also break the class into small groups and just present the play, or use everyone. Full Scene

The other nice thing about Shakespeare is that it is very easy to access online or in a library. Here is a great resource from MIT where you can access any Shakespeare play broken down into Acts and scenes: MIT Shakespeare Resource

Greek Mythology

Greek mythology has an endless supply of stories and is a gold mine for storytelling. There are also a ton of resources online and in libraries as well. It’s also great because it introduces some teaching points of talking about some of the world’s first performances and staged productions. You can use it as a central way of talking about Ancient Greece. You can start talking about Greek Mythology by doing a family tree of all the Gods and Goddesses. Then narrow in on which stories you want to focus on with your students. Here are some of my favourites:

Eros & Psyche

Aphrodite, Goddess of love, had a son named Eros (who we commonly know as Cupid!) She was jealous of mortal Psyche’s beauty and told Eros to make her fall in love with the ugliest creature on earth, but instead he falls in love with her.

Orpheus & Eurydice

Eurydice suffers from a snake bite and is summoned to the underworld with Hades and Persephone. Her husband, Orpheus, gets very sad so he pleads with Hades to let her come back to earth. Hades agrees, but on one condition: Orpheus must walk back to earth and Eurydice follows behind him and he is not to look back. Of course we all know how that goes (he looks back).

Comic Strips

Get the kids to cut out strips from the comics section of the newspaper, and have them stage these little scenes! They can even bring in their own comic books, graphic novels, or write their own.

Coaching Tips

Working on scenes can be really fun for kids; it’s the meatiest part of the class. They aren’t playing games anymore or doing quick activities. They can really get into what “acting” is, with character development and memorizing lines and staging. Here are some tips for coaching and working with kids on scenes.

● Get them to stage the scenes themselves. This allows for more working alongside each other instead of one at a time. Remember how boring it can get to be sitting there and watching other kids get to work with the teacher. Walk around and offer support while they begin to get the work on their feet.
● When they get to actual performances in front of the class, here’s a great time for technical reminders: speaking loudly and clearly, and opening their bodies up so that the audience can see them. I’m not a fan of parking & barking aka, step forward, say your line. If two characters are having a conversation, they can actually look at one another. Just watch that we aren’t turned away from the audience.
● Before they start, conduct a group physical and vocal warm up.
● Schedule your time so each group gets a chunk of time to work with the teacher in front of the class, Masterclass style.
● Let them perform the whole scene all the way through once without stops.
● Get constructive feedback from classmates. Ask for a few people to offer compliments, and depending on your class dynamic, constructive comments as well. Get them to offer any constructive comments in the form of questions. For example, “what did you think when Hades took Eurydice away?” instead of, “you didn’t have a reaction on your face.” This encourages a supportive environment for risk-taking.
● After they have performed it once, go again from the beginning with lots of stopping and starting. This will get your students used to what rehearsing means and emphasizes process over product, and play over polish.
● Get clear on “Moments,” (beats), and letting funny moments land. Kids tend to rush by some important moments, so make sure that these are clear.
● Once you’ve gone through some moments and worked with each group, get them to break off and work on it again. Option to team up groups to watch and offer coaching.
● Set a final performance date!
● Finally, and perhaps most importantly, if you are excited about the material, they will also be! Especially with things like Shakespeare; even just hearing that name can elicit moans and groans from your students. But if you go into it with enthusiasm and a passion for the material, so will they. I’ve listed some of my favourite scenes, but if these don’t do it for you, be sure to dig around and find something that you really love and they’ll love it, too!

The post Acting Scenes for Kids appeared first on StageMilk.

My students love these activities; we continually cycle back to what we’ve learned from them and they always ask to play these games.

To Start: Trust and Play

Never underestimate how intimidating it can feel for an unseasoned young performer to have to improvise, speak out, or make choices in front of their peers. If you have the chance to work with a group of teens for a long period of time, start by doing some trust exercises.

My main focus when I’m teaching is always “play.” Acting should feel like an adventure, and so laying some trust exercises down is helpful so that the group can feel safe to take risks, say something weird or silly, make “mistakes,” which we all know don’t actually exist. There’s only strong or weak choices, never right or wrong!

If you can, establish improv rules in a previous session so they are well-equipped to engage in long-form improvisational activities. Some great games I recommend for this include games like “Yes, Let’s!” or “Yes, And!” Here you can establish that these types of improv rules aren’t for improv sport comedy; “being funny,” is not the objective.

Brainstorm!

To start your status class, have a brain storm. What makes a character high or low status? Remind them that it is often little to do with socio-economic status; a person who is poor can be high status and someone who is wealthy can be low status. Gather a list of high and low status characters from popular movies, celebrities, books or plays! If you’ve done any commedia dell’arte, there’s lots you can pull from these archetypes as well!

Warm-Up: Fashion Show

Line up the class in 2 rows to create a runway. Put on some awesome music (I usually let them pick). Have them walk down the runway as both high and low status characters. Get them to cheer on each other, but really get them to focus on physicality. Once everyone has gone twice, debrief.

Talk about what physical traits they noticed that come along with each status. High status has little fidgeting, moves slower and smoother, less head movements, has steady energy, doesn’t have to try very hard and takes up lots of space.

Low status is the opposite: fidgety, awkward, frequent head movements, afraid to make eye-contact, moves quickly/doesn’t want to be seen, tries to take up little space, and more! See what else they come up with!

Improv: High and Low Status

● Before class, prepare a stack of Post-It notes lettered/ numbered like a deck of cards. 2s are low, Aces high.
● Set the scene: you’re all students at a high school library during exams. Discuss what each card represents. Aces are popular and well known amongst the students; they are the “everything” student who is president of student council, does band, drama, sports, gets good grades; teachers and peers love them. Remember, high status characters don’t try hard and aren’t very self-conscious, so they aren’t bullies! 2s are the quiet/shy freshmen. Face cards are maybe jocks or seniors.
● Another option: You’re at a Corporate Christmas party. Aces are the CEOs, 2s are the bus boys. Face cards are executives. Etc.
● Make sure everyone has a rough understanding of the pecking order before you start.
● If you have time, brainstorm how a K might be different than a Q or J or 10. What does it mean to be an 7-9? etc. It’s also fine to save these discussions for after the improv.
● Each person gets one of the Post-Its and sticks it to their forehead, but isn’t allowed to look at it.
● The point of the game is to enact a long-form improvised scene and treat each other like what it says on their card. By the end of the activity, they should have a bit of an idea of which card they are!
● Let the scene unfold and don’t interject with coaching moments. If you need to help, enter the scene in character as either the Librarian announcing that exams are coming up, or as the owner of the hotel where the Corporate party is at. Thank everyone for coming and give them something to do if they are stuck. For example, “Make sure you study hard for finals, and please remember to return the books to the shelves when you are finished.” Or, “Thank you so much for choosing us to host your party, we have some staff to bring you what you need, help yourself to the canapes and drinks! Let me know if you need anything and enjoy!”
● It can last from 10-30 minutes.

Debriefing

After the improv has finished, it’s time for a discussion. Here’s a list of things you can ask:

● What did it feel like to be your number?
● How did it feel as a low value card to be around a high value card and vice versa?
● What did you notice amongst the other cards around you?
● What personality traits came out with each card?
● How much anxiety did your card experience?

For further discussion, talk about what each card’s personal objectives might be. Maybe a 2 card wants to be invisible. Maybe an Ace wants everyone to be having a great time. 10 cards are usually the most desperate and interesting; they often want to distance themselves from the other number cards and try really hard to get the Face cards to notice them (often with little success!) 7-9s can take on a managerial role of the lower cards. They can also sometimes be protective of the lower cards and definitely know the pecking order pretty well.

If you are working on scenes or monologues, it can be incredibly useful to incorporate these teachings. Remind your students of the different cards and the physicalities and feelings associated with each card. If you need an actor to be more desperate, remind them of that 10 card! If someone is playing a high status character, remind them of the Ace! It’s always so exciting to see where this kind of work can go.

The post Teaching Status to Teens appeared first on StageMilk.

Preschool aged children are among some of my favourites to teach. At this age, they are just beginning to socialize and are chalk full of curiosity. Sure, they might not be putting on Hamlet any time soon, but a drama class can be a great way to explore concepts of storytelling while having lots of fun!

The most important skill you’re teaching this age is creativity. What’s the difference between this and playing in the sandbox? Well, to be honest, very little! The main thing is that you’re conducting it and we have an overall objective: tell a story.

Working With This Age

If you’re new to teaching preschoolers, you’ll quickly learn that patience is key. You are taking part in shaping the classroom experience for them, so lots of reminders to stay focused and following instructions are important. I like to take a very lighthearted and patient approach: remind yourself that you will have to get their attention many times in a session and they will get tired and cranky. Your job is to support them. If you are lucky enough to have an assistant to take care of a teary toddler or potty breaks, it is always useful and can take pressure off of you so that you can focus on facilitating the activities.

Starting Your Class

I always do something to get the blood moving so that they feel physical and ready for action! Songs like “head, shoulders, knees & toes,” are great, along with side stretches and touching your toes. Once we’ve finished our stretching I have them repeat after me, “Today I’m going to try my best!”

Movement Qualities

Freeze Dance is fun and loved by all. If you can get your hands on some scarves for them to use when they’re dancing around, even better! Play some music and have them dance around with the scarves. Get them to really move the scarves around. This will emphasize a smooth quality! Then pause the music and they have to freeze still like a statue! When they are closer to age 3 I don’t like to play with outs, but if they are older they might want to play with elimination. The freezing emphasizes a sharper quality of movement. Plus it’s super cute!

Story-Telling

It might be hard to get this age group to speak words out loud. That’s where this activity comes in handy. I recommend writing a simple story that you can cater towards your theme. In this example, I’m using a story about going to the Zoo. Other great ideas include: going to the Circus, or the Ocean. You can also go to your local library and find children’s books about these subjects if you prefer; there’s lots out there!

Tell them you are going to read them a story, but that they will be the pictures! I like to shape the story in the context of a day. Waking up, getting ready, exploring as different animals, and then saying good night and going to bed.

The Story

Music: Put on music without words. Circle of Life from Lion King is great for this one. Have this music on really low volume. Remind them that we all have to be lying down before the music can start and the show can begin!

Script:

It’s the morning and the sun is rising at the Zoo!
I’m so excited to see all the animals!
All the animals do a big yawn and a stretch.
There are monkeys
And Elephants
And Giraffes
And more!
The Giraffe eats leaves from the tall trees for breakfast
Look, the tigers are brushing their teeth!
The elephants spray a shower from their trunks!
Look at the monkeys being so silly
The swans are graceful, like ballerinas!
The turtles are sooooo slooowwwwwww!
Look how fast the Cheetahs go! Oh my!
Look at the flamingos standing on one leg!
The Lions let out a big roar! “ROAR!”
I just love it here at the Zoo! But oh no, the sun is going down!
We say goodnight to the Lions as they go to sleep
The monkeys settle down
The elephants let out a big yawn.
Goodnight Zoo! What an exciting day

Have them stand up and take a big bow and give them a cheer.

It can be helpful to ask prompting questions if they are confused. “Can you show me what a monkey does?” “What do elephants look like?”

When you’ve finished your class for the day, have them stand in a circle and take a bow and thank you and your assistant.

Try to keep any coaching to attention-focusing and not telling them how to do their moves. They might need help though, so have you and your assistant do the actions along with them. If you are doing this class as part of a series, this can be their final performance that they practise each week. Try and work on consistency and facial expressions, with lots of encouragement with an overall focus of having a blast. All in all, this is a pretty simple and straightforward class, but it can be extremely fun!

Happy Safari-ing!

The post Acting Classes for Young Kids appeared first on StageMilk.

Does the idea of doing another voice warm up make you yawn? Well today is your lucky day. It’s time to shake off your tension and get into your body. Here is Stagemilk’s quick and dirty physical warm up.

What you’ll need : Time, a yoga mat, some squash balls, stretch bands, and a foam roller.

Plan

Why are you doing a warm up? What is your goal? Once you have established this work out a plan that best suits your end goal. If you are simply trying to maintain your strength, flexibility and awareness, as most actors should, aim to do a short 10-15 minute warm up everyday. If you are warming up for a specific production, what are the key requirements of that production? Do you need to increase fitness, flexibility, or some other aspect of your movement work…

A gentle introduction

One of the biggest mistakes actors make when warming up, is to go too hard, too fast. Your body needs time to ignite. A great way to start your warm up is to gently roll your wrists and ankles. Once you feel connected to the small joints in your body, allow the movement to expand to your limbs and pelvis. Get everything moving with a gentle ease. If your energy levels are low, or you just prefer being on the floor, grab a yoga mat and get horizontal. Taking time for this initial stage of your warm up can seem like a waste of time, but it will keep you safe, healthy, and most importantly on stage.

Get grounded

One of the best exercises for grounding yourself is using a small, firm ball. You can use a squash balls, or we have a link to one below. Stand in a neutral position, with the weight of your body evenly over your feet. Begin rolling the ball under your left foot. Firstly roll the ball forward and back under your foot. Do it for around 10 rolls front to back and then side to side. Finally move the ball freely around the foot, as if you were trying to paint the bottom of your foot with the ball. Remove the ball and again stand in a neutral position. You should feel much more centred and planted on your left side. Repeat this with your right foot.

I find this exercise is the best way to quickly get more centred and well balanced. This is really important before starting more intense physical work.

Stretching

When I was studying acting our movement teacher wasn’t a proponent of stretching, instead encouraging Feldenkrais and other practices that naturally extend flexibility. I liked this approach but have since become a fan of stretching. It’s a great way to increase flexibility and reduce the risk of injury. If the idea of doing stretches for 30 minutes is horrifying, try a yoga class. This can be a more enjoyable way to stretch.

If you are stretching at home, stretch bands can be really useful for getting the most out of your session.

Get the blood and breath pumping

The breath is key to every great performance. We breathe to feed our brain and heart, preparing the body to think and feel. If your breath is held, your character’s emotional availability will be limited; and so will your performance. Some actors feel like they can rely on their awareness in the moment to take care of their breath. I think that’s crazy. Get you whole body ready for anything and everything before going on stage. Sure, you might not go the whole way tonight, but you want to be able to safely, if the impulse takes you there.

Jog around the room, shifting directions, changing levels, keeping your body ahead of your mind. Throw off the intellectual and embrace the physical. Your body wants to explore places that your mind would never think of. Run, jump, walk in slow motion, crawl. Do the things that you don’t think your character would do. You might find something new.

If you feel the need to add tension, make sure you release it with some yoga or spinal rolls. Before going onstage I always do a few star jumps, a few push ups, a few pull ups and then I roll the tension out of my back using a foam roller. They are great for releasing spinal holds and lumbar tension – highly recommend!

Make it fun

Whether you are doing a 5 minute warm up or an hour long movement class, make it fun. If you can enjoy what you are doing it will be something you come back to again and again. Like with all exercise it’s better to do something small everyday, then one big physical warm up every month.

The post Physical Warm Up appeared first on StageMilk.

1. Make it a relaxed environment.

Like with any teaching environment you want to make your classroom a relaxed and judgement-free space. Make your class fun and be silly yourself. You establish the culture of the room, so from the time the class starts give it your all. If you’re energised and having a good time, your students (of any age) will too.

2. Get your students warmed up

If it’s a new class start with a silly name game to break the ice. We have some great ones listed on our acting game page. If it’s an existing class just make sure everyone is in a good mind frame to work. Students should always try to leave everything at the door. If a student is having a bad day outside of class, encourage them to shake it off and be in the moment for the class. Make your acting class a welcoming and safe place. A physical warm up is often preferable as it gets the students physically free and motivated.

3. Encourage “Yes”

It’s the old improv adage: always say yes. And though sometimes it can be fun to go against an “offer”, for the most part saying “Yes” still the best philosophy. If someone suggests a location or an idea in a scene, say yes, and then add to it. Improv is all about development. A scene quickly tires when you get stuck in specifics and don’t move a scene forward. Feel confident to throw ideas into the mix when your students are working. Be a coach on the sidelines, constantly a part of the process.

4. Go further

Once your students are confident with basic improvisation see how far you can take it. Improv is often synonymous with improv comedy, but it doesn’t always have to be funny. Can a scene be heartbreaking, or inspiring? Taking your improv class in this direction is probably best for older teens and adults. I think this is the most exciting form of improvisation, and where students can gain the most. 

5. Reflect

At the end of your class reflect on what worked. Sometimes students can think because they got the most laughs they were the best, but being the class clown isn’t the objective of an improv class. Discuss why certain scenes or scenarios worked and why others didn’t.

These are some simple steps you can take to get the most out of your improv class. Remember teaching, like anything else, takes time to master. Don’t be disheartened if a certain acting game, exercise, or scene falls flat. Learn from your mistakes and move forward.

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