Theatre

The Theatre department at Blackbird Academy of Arts is designed to introduce and encourage students in the art of acting.  There are two basic types of acting techniques- the Stanislavsky Method and the Meisner Method – and both will be introduced during our classes.  Stanislavsky’s method expresses that an actor should use life experiences to understand fully the experiences and emotions of their character while Meisner’s method puts the actor in the scene to where the actor shouldn’t focus as much on the character’s past, he should instead simply exist within the moment of the scene.

It is difficult to gauge how much a child will understand the emotional side of the above techniques, therefore students at Blackbird will start by learning the techniques within the context of theatre games and exercises. These games and exercises, many of which are used in college and even professional theatre settings, will help the students to connect with characters and learn the techniques of acting in a fun learning atmosphere.

Fun with Acting: This is class for ages 7-9 which introduces students to the basics of acting.  While memorizing lines is an important part of acting, the much more difficult and important aspect is an understanding of the character.  Therefore students at this level will spend much of this class engaging in theatre based games and exercises designed to give them an understanding of what a character is, how to match emotions and mannerisms to characters, and how to interact with your fellow actors.  Parents and students should understand that these are foundational principles necessary for the process of actually putting together scenes, which will start to be incorporated later in the year.  This class will perform 1-2 times in the school year.

Acting Workshop: This is a more advanced class for ages 10 and up that will take the basic concepts of theatre and acting to the next level. Students will continue to work on creating and developing characters and will also work on line memorization, how to write theatrical dialogue and scenes and will learn more in-depth techniques.   This class will perform 2-3 times during the school year.

Summer Camps: Each summer we offer musical theatre camps for ages 7 and up.  These camps offer students the opportunity to work with music, theatre, and dance faculty while learning the process of putting these three arts together for the stage.  Look for more information as summer approaches.

Spring 2012 Schedule