I keep seeing all these notices for drama camps and acting schools. Seems everywhere there are adverts to send your kid here & “we’ll make them a star“.
Are any for real? Is there any educational value to them? And if so, what kind of class should you chose?
I decided to turn to an expert: Daniel Macdonald is a highly respected casting director, playwright and educator from Saskatchewan. Here’s what he thinks about it all.
“The worst thing out there is acting classes for kids – especially for film and TV.”
He elaborates: “As a former casting director and drama teacher, I can tell you that you don’t want young people to “act”, you want them to be themselves. Why? They’re not going to play hard-core lawyers, or plumbers, or sleazy politicians. They’re going to play kids. Maybe a little brattier or goofier but basically themselves.
“Kids are always acting. They’re imagining and pretending. Acting classes often start to remove the creativity and spontaneity and begin to make the young person think that their instincts, their natural inclinations are incorrect. So the child begins to doubt themselves and become stiff and “unkid-like”. We have seen this on a million shows where kids have to say lines that an adult has written for them. So often the kid is the worst thing in the scene. This is not to say there isn’t a place for acting classes but they should be primarily devoted to improv and game playing and getting kids to become more confident in their own abilities.”
My friends over at the Toronto based The Nation Theatre of the World run year-long improv classes for all ages, as well as running a summer programme specifically for kids.
Dan says “improvised creations emphasize process and so as a result automatically become a better learning tool; it is the students who make all the basic creative decisions. The learning level is much higher. It inspires confidence and greatly increases listening skills, it forces students to pay attention to others in a way that scripted work with its focus on memorization cannot. It instils in the students the notion that their voice counts and that they are creative and inspires them to be more creative as time goes on. A constant reinforcement of this from grade 2 to grade 9, and think of how confident in their abilities and their creativity students will be by the time they hit high school.”
Naomi Wright, an improv performer and instructor agrees. “One of the most wonderful lessons to learn in improv is not to worry about making mistakes, because making a mistake is often the best thing that can happen to a scene. As long as you make it, and deal with it, with total commitment. Improv is really just a treasure trove of lessons about life.”
Dan does caution stage parents: “Parents are very misguided when it comes to the notion that their children are going to be acting stars. The percentage of child-actors who become successful adult actors is miniscule. This often because what made them precocious or charming or cute at 11 is gone by the time they’re 19. Then they’re just like every other face. Very often kids like doing film and TV because of the special attention and adulation they get from peers and grown-ups and their own parents – a very dangerous thing when you’re a 13 year old girl. You come to think you’re really important and, unless you’re Dakota Fanning, you discover at 20 that you’re not.”
Ouch. True, but ouch.
In the meantime, I think I’ll be signing my kids up for improv classes because anything that boosts confidence, ups their listening skills and lets loose their creativity sounds like a good thing to me.
Lea says
Tina Fey in Bossypants says in her Rules of Improvisation:
Improve teaches a person to say yes and add something to the conversation.
It teaches the rule of Making Statements, this is a positive way of saying “Don’t ask questions all the time.” Speak in statements instead of apologetic questions, where the voice goes up at the end. Here is a good one: There are no mistakes in improve, only opportunities.
Can Summer Improve make your kids into super stars, or just help them enjoy a funnier life….. Tina Fey likes to improve with bits like: “Many of the world’s greatest discoveries have been by accident. I mean, look at the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, or Botox.” Bossypants had me giggling late into the night.
Steve Bowell says
I think entering a kid in a performing arts workshop in the hopes that he’ll become a child star is a poor reason for doing it. But how about this:
You’ve heard of the notion that if a kid is very agressive and likes to pick fights, the best thing to do is to enrol him in a martial arts program. Why? Because it will teach the kid the DISCIPLINE that attaches to the “Warrior Code.” It will teach him to take pride in his new-found ability to control his aggression and release it only in appropriate circumstances.
The same thing with a kid who likes to “show off” and “act up” all the time. A good child drama program will inculcate the principles of DISCIPLINE (you show up on time, you learn your lines, you take direction) and TEAMWORK (you work WITH your fellow performers, not against them) that attach to the Actor’s Code.
Yes, a good team sports program teaches the same thing. But if the kid isn’t interested in hockey, but is interested in singing, dancing or play-acting, why not let him learn discipline and teamwork within the context of an activity he enjoys?