I didn't really know anything about Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism until probably ten years ago when I had a very creative, and also slightly difficult child in my drama class. She wrote a play for me which was very good and she went into creative writing at a university when she got older. As the years have gone on, more and more kids seem to be diagnosed with this particular syndrome. Not being a doctor, I don't know the particulars of this condition but as a drama teacher I always see wonderful growth in these children when participating in acting classes.
Children with Asperger's Syndrome can use theatre as a way of developing their social ability, of learning the rules of communication. Since Asperger's kids are socially handicapped, being unable to read people's faces and being unable to have normal conversations, Improvisation and playing characters can help greatly in developing a child's ability to deal with other people.
Kids with Asperger's need to be comfortable with their surroundings. They need to know that they are not going to be forced into anything, They need to participate in their own time and at their own pace. As a matter of fact, when writing plays for kids in our acting classes, I often write monolgues for kids with Asperger's because they are usually very clear, very well-spoken and since they don't relate well, a monologue allows them to participate without forcing them into social situations which they are not equipped to handle.
It is an amazing metamorphosis to see kids with Asperger's become socially successful after being involved with theatre for a while. Theatre does not seem to work with low functioning autistic kids, but as Asperger's seems more prevalent than past years, there are often a few kids with autism taking acting classes. Sometimes Asperger's is associated with other conditions as well which makes the process more difficult. The ability to read people becomes less important when a child is playing a role because the script tells the child how to react. The ability to read people becomes less important if the situations are less threatening, less apt to cause anxiety, especially if everyone in the class is pursuing a common goal, like working together to create a play.
My favourite story is about a kid who came to take acting classes and he wouldn't participate. He wouldn't do anything. But he certainly enjoyed watching the other kids perform. In drama, you can't push kids. They have been pushed all their lives and usually for the benefit of someone else's sense of peace and quiet. Not only did this boy have Asperger's but he had Cerebral Palsy as well. So after about a year, his dad came up to me and said he wasn't participating, that maybe he should pull him from the class. The problem was, his child was really enjoying the classes, but he didn't seem to be learning anything. I said I know, but when he's comfortable, when he's ready, he will participate. He ended up doing a brilliant scene of the Odd Couple with another autistic child as well as being class valedictorian at his school, as well as developing a hilarious stand up routine, as well as getting into university for drama as well as joining a local wrestling circuit. And the great thing as with all kids with Asperger's, they are completely accepted in acting classes.
They can get anxious when their routines are altered, but when they find a place they can trust then some amazing things start happening. I am sure that whatever discipline accepts them the way they are, I am sure that discipline will do amazing things for children with Asberger's. Involved as I am with drama, I find that Asperger's kids exhibit a profound development when involved with acting classes and theatre.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Self Esteem through Acting Classes
Acting Classes are a great way to instill self confidence in you or your child.
One of the major flaws in education and the work environment is the way that they deal with failure. They don't.
Our society becomes so afraid of rejection and failure that they don't act. They don't act on anything if there is the chance of rejection and the chance of failure. In school, the kids with learning disabilities, organizational issues, bullying issues and those that have run afoul somehow of the curriculum have their self esteem robbed from them. Self esteem issues lead kids to act out, to act up, to become bored, disinterested and cynical. In the education system where style trumps substance, where penmanship trumps quality of content, it becomes difficult for kids with substance and kids with disabilities to succeed. How many parents have seen their happy pre-schooler become depressed or anxious at school. Perhaps the child is often in trouble. Boys of course bear the brunt.
How many boys have their emotions imprisoned by drugs such as Ritalin because they committed the crime of being a boy? The school system, at least at the elementary level is taught mostly by women who can't handle normal boys. Thus the self-esteem of boys takes a dive at school. If these boys are lucky enough to be good at sports then they have an outlet and a positive way of dealing with the self-esteem issues that the education system crushes,
If they are not good at sports, then they have to find some sort of extra-curricular activity that can develop their potential and promote the positive in them.
Many girls succeed by being people-pleasers. They tend to be liked by their teachers. But that is certainly a triumph of style over substance. Girls learn to avoid failure like the plague and they suppress the things that they might actually have an interest in. Any type of failure becomes a great source of anxiety.
For adults, weaned on the school system, they learn to embrace the middle of the road, the mediocre, because they don't want to stick their neck out and risk getting it cut off. Fear of failure and rejection stops people from going after the things that they really want, of avoiding the risk of embarrassment or failure.
In today's society failure is never an option.
But successful people have many failures, many rejections and many embarrassments. It just doesn't stop them. Most people would rather avoid failure than embrace success.
Acting Classes are great for developing the potential within adults and kids because it has safe built-in failure possibilities. When an improv game bombs, when an actor in class is learning disabled and struggles to learn their lines, when a child is rejected for a part, it becomes part of the learning process. The whole class is in it together, so the whole class learns the positive effects of failure at the same time. Being allowed to fail in a safe supportive environment allows one to succeed. Kids learn to walk in a supportive environment of family members thrilled with each failed attempt.
One of the most anxious times for kids is reading. From my experience it is a great source of anxiety. In acting classes, it doesn't matter. Dyslexic kids might take a lot longer to translate the word scrabble on the page but they do. And then nothing can stop them
Self esteem is achieved through actual achievement. Self esteem is accomplished through dealing with failure in a positive way. When everyone is working on a common goal, such as a play, and when every kid or adult gets the same-size part based on their particular strengths the group succeeds only as much as every individual in the group succeeds.
In acting classes, one learns that failure is only one possibility of many. You learn from it and you move on.
.
For more information about Acting Classes in Kingston go to
Bottle Tree Productions/Acting Classes
One of the major flaws in education and the work environment is the way that they deal with failure. They don't.
Our society becomes so afraid of rejection and failure that they don't act. They don't act on anything if there is the chance of rejection and the chance of failure. In school, the kids with learning disabilities, organizational issues, bullying issues and those that have run afoul somehow of the curriculum have their self esteem robbed from them. Self esteem issues lead kids to act out, to act up, to become bored, disinterested and cynical. In the education system where style trumps substance, where penmanship trumps quality of content, it becomes difficult for kids with substance and kids with disabilities to succeed. How many parents have seen their happy pre-schooler become depressed or anxious at school. Perhaps the child is often in trouble. Boys of course bear the brunt.
How many boys have their emotions imprisoned by drugs such as Ritalin because they committed the crime of being a boy? The school system, at least at the elementary level is taught mostly by women who can't handle normal boys. Thus the self-esteem of boys takes a dive at school. If these boys are lucky enough to be good at sports then they have an outlet and a positive way of dealing with the self-esteem issues that the education system crushes,
If they are not good at sports, then they have to find some sort of extra-curricular activity that can develop their potential and promote the positive in them.
Many girls succeed by being people-pleasers. They tend to be liked by their teachers. But that is certainly a triumph of style over substance. Girls learn to avoid failure like the plague and they suppress the things that they might actually have an interest in. Any type of failure becomes a great source of anxiety.
For adults, weaned on the school system, they learn to embrace the middle of the road, the mediocre, because they don't want to stick their neck out and risk getting it cut off. Fear of failure and rejection stops people from going after the things that they really want, of avoiding the risk of embarrassment or failure.
In today's society failure is never an option.
But successful people have many failures, many rejections and many embarrassments. It just doesn't stop them. Most people would rather avoid failure than embrace success.
Acting Classes are great for developing the potential within adults and kids because it has safe built-in failure possibilities. When an improv game bombs, when an actor in class is learning disabled and struggles to learn their lines, when a child is rejected for a part, it becomes part of the learning process. The whole class is in it together, so the whole class learns the positive effects of failure at the same time. Being allowed to fail in a safe supportive environment allows one to succeed. Kids learn to walk in a supportive environment of family members thrilled with each failed attempt.
One of the most anxious times for kids is reading. From my experience it is a great source of anxiety. In acting classes, it doesn't matter. Dyslexic kids might take a lot longer to translate the word scrabble on the page but they do. And then nothing can stop them
Self esteem is achieved through actual achievement. Self esteem is accomplished through dealing with failure in a positive way. When everyone is working on a common goal, such as a play, and when every kid or adult gets the same-size part based on their particular strengths the group succeeds only as much as every individual in the group succeeds.
In acting classes, one learns that failure is only one possibility of many. You learn from it and you move on.
.
For more information about Acting Classes in Kingston go to
Bottle Tree Productions/Acting Classes
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Sleeping Beauty in Kingston Ontario
At The Wellington Street Theatre Dec 15-18 Wed-Sat at 7 pm and Sunday matinee Dec 19 at 2 pm
Buckets of fun for the whole family! In the story of Jack's mistake or as the history books call it; Sleeping Beauty, a palace sweeper by the name of Jack relates the story of how he was demoted from King's Messenger to a lowly palace sweeper. It seems that all by himself, he managed to get the king's palace shut down for over one hundred years.
And the princess? Sleeping Beauty is a rebellious teen who doesn't like being kept shut up in the palace. The plot thickens when an evil fairy arrives in disguise with a spinning wheel.
Written by Charles Robertson with music and lyrics by Michael K Myers, this show has lots of music, magic and fun for the whole family.
Tickets are only ten dollars!
Purchase tickets here at Bottle Tree Productions
Buckets of fun for the whole family! In the story of Jack's mistake or as the history books call it; Sleeping Beauty, a palace sweeper by the name of Jack relates the story of how he was demoted from King's Messenger to a lowly palace sweeper. It seems that all by himself, he managed to get the king's palace shut down for over one hundred years.
And the princess? Sleeping Beauty is a rebellious teen who doesn't like being kept shut up in the palace. The plot thickens when an evil fairy arrives in disguise with a spinning wheel.
Written by Charles Robertson with music and lyrics by Michael K Myers, this show has lots of music, magic and fun for the whole family.
Tickets are only ten dollars!
Purchase tickets here at Bottle Tree Productions
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Acting 101-Don't upstage yourself
A Simple Way to Upstage Yourself
Often in community theatre, high school performances and university performances, actors will upstage themselves, neatly destroying any effect that they might have on the audience.
What is upstaging?
An actor is upstaged when he or she delivers his lines upstage away from the audience. Careful choreography is needed to map out the ebb and flow of dialogue and movement so that actors don't upstage themselves, or each other.
An actor can upstage another actor by moving further away from the audience and forcing the actor closest to the audience, the downstage actor, to turn away from the audience to deliver his or her lines to the upstage actor. I would suggest that an actor that is frequently being upstaged on purpose by another actor, simply turn away from the offending upstaging actor and face the audience to deliver their lines. Unfortunately in theatre, there are actors who will deliberately upstage other actors to garner more attention from the audience, to weaken another actor's performance.
Another way for two actors to upstage themselves simultaneously is for them to conduct their scene in profile, face to face. Theatre is a highly artificial medium and the audience usually sits behind the fourth wall, outside of the action. The actors need to engage the audience with what they are saying and feeling.
The audience needs to see their faces. While many theatre people mistake profile acting for chemistry, it does little for an audience. An easy and natural fix is to have the speaking actor cheat towards the audience and the other actor focus their attention on the speaking actor. When the other actor gets their turn to say something important, he or she can cheat towards the audience while the other actor focuses their attention on them. Acting is like a game of chess where moves have to be plotted out in order to gain the best advantage for the audience.
Another simple way for an actor to upstage themselves is to make a gesture with the downstage hand across the body. This effectively masks the actor from the audience and weakens his gesture. To correct this simple mistake an actor should use his upstage hand to unblock his body and let the audience see the actor.
An actor that opens up to an audience is far more effective and engaging than one that closes themselves off either physically or vocally.
Upstaging is a problem because it minimizes an actor in their role and the whole play suffers. The play becomes less than what it could be. It becomes small.
Often in community theatre, high school performances and university performances, actors will upstage themselves, neatly destroying any effect that they might have on the audience.
What is upstaging?
An actor is upstaged when he or she delivers his lines upstage away from the audience. Careful choreography is needed to map out the ebb and flow of dialogue and movement so that actors don't upstage themselves, or each other.
An actor can upstage another actor by moving further away from the audience and forcing the actor closest to the audience, the downstage actor, to turn away from the audience to deliver his or her lines to the upstage actor. I would suggest that an actor that is frequently being upstaged on purpose by another actor, simply turn away from the offending upstaging actor and face the audience to deliver their lines. Unfortunately in theatre, there are actors who will deliberately upstage other actors to garner more attention from the audience, to weaken another actor's performance.
Another way for two actors to upstage themselves simultaneously is for them to conduct their scene in profile, face to face. Theatre is a highly artificial medium and the audience usually sits behind the fourth wall, outside of the action. The actors need to engage the audience with what they are saying and feeling.
The audience needs to see their faces. While many theatre people mistake profile acting for chemistry, it does little for an audience. An easy and natural fix is to have the speaking actor cheat towards the audience and the other actor focus their attention on the speaking actor. When the other actor gets their turn to say something important, he or she can cheat towards the audience while the other actor focuses their attention on them. Acting is like a game of chess where moves have to be plotted out in order to gain the best advantage for the audience.
Another simple way for an actor to upstage themselves is to make a gesture with the downstage hand across the body. This effectively masks the actor from the audience and weakens his gesture. To correct this simple mistake an actor should use his upstage hand to unblock his body and let the audience see the actor.
An actor that opens up to an audience is far more effective and engaging than one that closes themselves off either physically or vocally.
Upstaging is a problem because it minimizes an actor in their role and the whole play suffers. The play becomes less than what it could be. It becomes small.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monologues for Teens
Preparing for an audition
To prepare for an audition, an actor needs a monologue of approximately two minutes in length. A monologue is a short speech by one character. It is a monologue and so there is no interruption by another character. That would be a dialogue. A monologue is a great opportunity for an actor to show off their acting skills. A well-rehearsed monologue will give the aspiring actor an excellent chance of landing a part. a poorly prepared monologue will sink an actor's ship in the director's eyes.
Often I have cast actors who gave bad auditions, but only in cases when I knew the actor and knew what they were capable of. If an actor is unknown to a director then the monologue will be the only chance an actor will have to show the director what he or she can do. So if an actor really wants a part they had better prepare. The monologue is an opportunity, as I have said before, to show off an actor's skills. The monologue should be rehearsed and understood.
The play that the monologue has been drawn from should be read a couple of times so that the context and the meaning of the monologue can become clearer to the actor. The actor should plan out moments of discovery for the character he is playing at the audition. The actor knows what the character is going to say next. The character doesn't. What is the character like physically and vocally? How will the actor make the director believe in his or her performance? An actor should use imagination, research and hard work to mine the gold that lies in the character they are portraying.
An actor should always give their audition their best shot, being as prepared as possible so that there can be no excuse for failure. Excuses are for unemployed actors.
For some great free monologues go to Bottle Tree Productions teen monologues
To prepare for an audition, an actor needs a monologue of approximately two minutes in length. A monologue is a short speech by one character. It is a monologue and so there is no interruption by another character. That would be a dialogue. A monologue is a great opportunity for an actor to show off their acting skills. A well-rehearsed monologue will give the aspiring actor an excellent chance of landing a part. a poorly prepared monologue will sink an actor's ship in the director's eyes.
Often I have cast actors who gave bad auditions, but only in cases when I knew the actor and knew what they were capable of. If an actor is unknown to a director then the monologue will be the only chance an actor will have to show the director what he or she can do. So if an actor really wants a part they had better prepare. The monologue is an opportunity, as I have said before, to show off an actor's skills. The monologue should be rehearsed and understood.
The play that the monologue has been drawn from should be read a couple of times so that the context and the meaning of the monologue can become clearer to the actor. The actor should plan out moments of discovery for the character he is playing at the audition. The actor knows what the character is going to say next. The character doesn't. What is the character like physically and vocally? How will the actor make the director believe in his or her performance? An actor should use imagination, research and hard work to mine the gold that lies in the character they are portraying.
An actor should always give their audition their best shot, being as prepared as possible so that there can be no excuse for failure. Excuses are for unemployed actors.
For some great free monologues go to Bottle Tree Productions teen monologues
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