Improvisation Key To Drama Workshop

By Tanjua Damon

Have you ever had a party where the people who showed up were not familiar to you? Middle school students experienced just that over the last two weeks, playing theatre games and learning about the theatre process.

Almost 15 students took part in the two-week Young Adult Drama Workshop at C.H. Booth Library under the direction of playwright Cynthia Haym-Wagnerman. The workshop consisted of theatre games that gave the students an opportunity to see what acting is like and how the theater works. The drama workshop was held from July 30 to August 10, from 2 to 4 pm daily.

Participants learned about acting techniques, played theatre games, acted out scenes from plays, and worked with a published playwright.

Ms Haym-Wagnerman wanted the students to learn about concentration and focusing on the task at hand. She wanted them to understand how the two are important in the production of a play.

The middle school students learned about the importance of improvisation and becoming a character. One of the theatre games required them to be a party host and have guests show up that they did not know. The host had to figure out what type of person each guest was by actions and statements the guests made. The guests had to work on becoming the characters they were assigned without much preparation.

Will Jacob enjoys acting and has learned from the theatre games throughout the drama workshop.

“I really like acting. I did drama club in the winter and fall,” Will said. “We play games that have to do with acting to teach us different things in a play.”

Although Keilly McQuail likes to act, she admits that there was not much on her schedule this summer and thought the workshop would be a good way to fill her time.

“They said they were playing games. I attended a camp where we did improv games the summer before,” Keilly said. “Plus it was free. It’s all games and I had nothing else to do. I want to be an actress.”

Sarah McSweeney is doing one of her favorite things – acting.

“It’s all theater and improv games and that’s one of my favorite things to do,” Sarah said. “You feel more comfortable acting in front of people [playing the games].”

Singing is something Katie Crevier knows something about, but acting is something she wanted to learn more about.

“I wanted to get into drama club next year. I do singing but I don’t act much,” Katie said. “You really have to be the character. You can’t pretend. Improv-ing helps.”

Being on stage is uncomfortable and that is just fine, according to Ms Haym-Wagnerman. Having a fear helps the students focus on their character and what is happening around them on stage.

The two-week program gave the middle school students time to add to their characters before the school year begins on Tuesday, August 28.