Teaching Drama Online
We’ve just finished our first official week of classes for our new Online Spring Semester. What a whirlwind! In the past 3 weeks we’ve designed new programming, got it up online, offered it and filled it! There are 183 creative and energized children aged 3 - 18 taking drama classes, acting classes, musical theatre, writing for theatre, theatre criticism and more.
All of us are learning so much! It’s really exciting to see which drama exercises translate onto the Zoom. We do our warmups: breathing, articulation and resonance. We play “Pass the Face,” “What am I Doing?”and the “Tableau Game.” We teach dance moves, character development, scene studies and vocal techniques. We’ve been re-imagining our spaces and creating individual set designs. We’re laughing, and we’re moved to tears by the power of theatre.
It isn’t all working perfectly. Sometimes the internet goes down. Sometimes someone gets accidentally shut out in the waiting room. Devices behave differently and in sometimes mysterious ways. The time delay makes teaching singing really challenging! We miss being together and miss the way that we were able to create stories with our bodies and voices in the same space.
But we’re doing this together – artist/instructors and students – helping each other. Our student have got great ideas. They are getting to know each other and to trust this new way of working. We are all learning and playing, experimenting and discovering.
We’re staying connected. One Zoom box at a time.
