Complete with temper tantrums, an expensive pair of binoculars, and a good moral lesson at the end, six sensationally creative children inspired their audience to laugh and applaud with delight on Sunday July 24th. The children took to the stage playing wonderful characters such as a king, a queen, a princess, a prince, a clerk, and a friend in “The Royal Binocular Debacle”, a play written and performed by our program’s inaugural theatre arts class.
Prior to their stellar performance the students proudly and enthusiastically welcomed the audience by providing tickets at the box office, issuing programs, and ushering the audience to the best seats in the house.
To achieve such a grand success our six students, ages 6 to 9, demonstrated their creative genius in an accepting and welcoming environment that focused on building their self-confidence, increasing their self-esteem, and developing positive relationships with each other and with caring, qualified teachers. Over the course of the six-weeks theatre arts summer session, the students engaged in activities such as
- Voice and body warm-up exercises
- Pantomime practice including object transformation
- Creating masks and assigning a character to the mask
- Alien Interview
- Theatre vocabulary words such as monologue, dialogue, theatre, and stage
- Voice projection activities in the style of a superhero
- Staging directions such as center stage, stage right, stage left
- Understanding roles in a play and practicing acting
- Building a story as a class
- Prop creating
- Set design
- Costuming
- Dress rehearsal
- Working the box office, program attendants, and ushering
- Performance!
The magic that was made to make the theatre arts summer session at Joshua’s Stage a huge success was without a doubt attributed to our fabulous teacher Ms. Maggie. Ms. Maggie quickly developed rapport with our marvelous students and she fabulously planned for and conducted meaningful, fun and engaging activities where each student shined. Supporting Maggie and our students were our amazing assistants Ms. Chelsea, Ms. Myrna, Ms. Sara, and Ms. Lucinda.
The families of the students who shared their children in this awesome program were instrumental in helping launch this endeavor. Thank you, all!
Thank you to our Board members Alicia Garnes, Pat Otto, and John Traphagan for observing classes and providing tremendous insight to keep the program heading right along. Thank you to Amanda Zhu, our wonderful graduate student, for observing classes, asking important questions, participating, and offering everyone strong encouragement.
A special thank you to my wife Lori, and our kids Shayna and Noah for supporting the endeavor.
Joshua’s Stage is the premiere performance center for children ages 3 to 18 with a wide range of special needs; featuring classes in theatre arts, dance, digital photography, and filmmaking.
To learn more about Joshua’s Stage, contact Joshua Levy, Executive Director, at joshua.levy@joshuasstage.org or 512-825-2744, and check out our website at www.joshuasstage.org for upcoming sessions starting in August.
Do you have a desire to enrich the lives of children with special needs? We would love for you to join us! Check out our Volunteer page to sign-up today.
Joshua’s Stage is a 501(c)(3) organization. Contact Joshua Levy at joshua.levy@joshuasstage.org or 512-825-2744 if you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution.
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