Young actors learn how to improvise
An improvisation theatre workshop for children had the troupe shooting from the hip, speaking off the cuff and working on Russian accents.
Palmerston North’s Centrepoint Theatre ran its first school holiday acting programme for a week, with a group of 8- to 13-year-olds.
Tutor Ben Ashby said the workshops had been popular and more were planned, with a different acting theme for each holidays.
Improvisation had been a fun place to start, Ashby said.
‘‘It’s such a community theatre that we wanted to get a whole lot of kids from Palmerston North into the theatre and excited about this world of theatre, and it’s all about having fun.
‘‘People who have trained in improvisation, you can tell, they are so able to bring more ideas as an actor, and change the moment.
‘‘It’s those unplanned moments that light up the most – where actors are alive,’’ Ashby said.
On the first day the children started off shy and silent, and by the end of the week they were expressive, funny and not afraid to look silly or to play with acting, he said.
Lucas Bowen, 12, said he had fun working on accents, improvisation games and getting to practise acting without being embarrassed.
‘‘Accents are fun. It’s an easy way to tell people where the person you’re playing is from.
‘‘I like Russian – you can listen to Vladimir Putin on the news and roll the words [out of your mouth],’’ he said.
Exercises during the workshop included ‘pop up story’, acting out a school year book photo, ‘he said, she said’, and theatre sports games.
‘‘It’s great taking kids away from watching screens, getting them watching each other and being funny and telling stories,’’ Ashby said.
Ashby said a senior teen workshop and another junior workshop are planned for the July school holidays.