Childrens theatre lesson 1

This was my first lesson working on the children's theatre piece. The lesson consisted of performing the previously devised pieces to the other groups in the class which we would eventually perform to classes of pre-school children. The lesson started by including myself into a groups performance by learning the story and creating a part for myself. The part which I devised was the role of the 'Dragon Whisperer' which consisted of playing guitar as the story was told and contributing to the story line by reading out parts on the story and reacting with the audience.


At this time we also chose costumes which we felt fitted the story and were also aimed at the audience. We chose light brown dressing gowns and big colourful wigs to suit children theatre because they are big, bright and capture the children's attention.




During the stages of rehearsing we did make some changes due to more actors joining the group. For example we added in my character and took away a role because one of the actors was not present and we needed to rehearse and perform. This meant changing the story slightly from having a min antagonist to there just being an overall problem that the children need to solve. This links into our ideas of interacting with the children to keep them fully entertained at all times. We will achieve this by asking the children riddles and questions to help us out.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqjNHZn7b1Q&feature=youtu.be







Second lesson in Children's Theatre


This lesson we all went off in little groups and completed the tasks we had been previously set at the end of last lesson. Me and Valencia had the task of finding a children's story to tell in our piece and link it to our story somehow. We originally chose 'The Thief and His Master' by the brothers Grimm but we cam to the conclusion that it was too long and couldn't link to our performance so we changed it to 'The Princes and the Frog' also by The Brothers Grimm. This linked well into our original story because it follows the same idea of a human and a creature that meet and change each other.


I also started to compose some music with Andy in the class for songs for the characters that the children will help us sing. Two songs are parody's of songs that's already exist, 500 Miles by The Proclaimers and Lose Yourself by Eminem, which we will change to lyrics to match our story. We chose these tow because they are recognisable songs from most ages and for their comedic effect. The third song we wrote was an original for everyone to join in for as a sort of final piece. We decided to do it this way s it would leave it on a high and keep the children entertained until the end.
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