2016 Drama Classes:

Weekly Classes resume 18 January 2016

Here is a list of venues and times:

Mondays        

  Weltevreden: 3-4pm: 5-12 year olds

Tuesdays       

 Cliffview Primary School: 2-3pm:5-8 year olds

 3-4pm: 9-12 year olds

Wednesdays  

Fourways Gardens Estate: 3-4pm: 5-8 year olds

 4-5pm:9-12 year olds

 5-6pm: 13-18 year olds

Thursdays     

  Olivedale Library: 3-4pm: 5-8 year olds

4-5pm: 9-13 year old

                           Kyalami Estates: 3-4pm: 5-8 year olds

 4-5pm:9-12 year olds

Fridays        

 Randpark Ridge United Church: 3-4pm: 5-8 year olds

 4-5pm:9-12 year olds

     5-6pm: 13-18 year olds

                          Strubensvalley Library: 3-4pm: 5-12 year olds

Saturdays

  Norscot Recreation Centre: 10:00-10:30: 3-4 year olds

10:30-11:30:5-8 year olds

11:30-12:30: 9-12 year olds

   12:30-13:30: 13-18 year olds

               Berario Recreation Centre: 09:00-10:00: 5-8 year olds;

              10:00-11:00: 9-12 year olds

11:00-12:00: 13-18 year olds

Adult class 9:00-10:00

Drama classes for Teenagers

Fourways gardens estate has the most amazing youth theatre classes every Wednesday from 5-6pm. Today we had such fun creating characters and exploring a script about two cunning tennis players.

These classes are targeted at teenagers aged 13-18 years old and I just love how every single student is challenged with the very dynamic Helen O'Grady curriculum. Anyone can join these classes and everyone takes from the lesson what they need :)

Meet a Peep

This is Teagan O'Gorman, a Helen O'Grady student that attends the fourways youth group. She is 16 years old and has been attending drama classes for 2 years, "I continue because I love performing in front of people, playing different characters and coming up with ideas for scenes so that they are interesting and realistic on stage". Teagan is a super talented student who has a great enthusiasm in class, she is super friendly and great at working with her fellow students, no matter what their age! I love teaching Teags, she's a real super star that makes my job easy!!!

Arts Fest 2-2012

Today is the last day of our second Arts Fest for this year! So far we've had great fun creating plays, works shopping scenes, learning to dance and making masks-it's been full of fun and exciting activities. Here is a pic of some of the students at lunch break, Erin was super happy to meet two new friends, who she found out attend the same school as her!


This year we ran the classes at Norscot Recreation Centre in fourways.

Production Rehearsals kick off this week!!!!

This week is a great big buzz in our Academy as all the students receive information regarding the plays they will be performing at the Helen O'Grady Productions which will be performed from the 8th-10th of November at the Pro-Musica Theatre in Roodepoort.

Today our Fourways Youth Theatre students created freeze-frames about
their play "Cinderella in Africa"- through 10 frozen pictures using every person they were able to tell the entire story. It's amazing how creative the students get and how they grow from term 1 to term 3! Loved teaching you guys today-it was such a fulfilling lesson for all of us involved :)

Meet 2 Peeps!!!

Tonight I'm introducing you to two young lady's who are a pleasure to teach! Paula and Alex Duggan are two sisters who attend our Fourways studio every Wedenesday from 5pm-6pm targeted at teenagers. They've been at the academy for just over two years and I'm grateful for their creativity and great energy that they bring to class!

I did a little interview with the girls so that we could get to know them a little better:
On the right meet...
Alex who is turning 15 in a few weeks. She Started drama 2 years ago to improve her self-confidence and to learn how to stop mumbling and thus improve her Public speaking! She said that's she's really looking forward to productions at the end of the year :)

On the left meet...
Paula who is 13 years old. She says that she started drama because she enjoyed it and now she does it to learn new drama skills and boost her confidence. She said that she's excited for productions!

I teach Paula and Alex and they are such polite young women who approach each lesson with great energy and attitudes. Alex has grown greatly since she started and it's all because she challenged herself to push boundaries and come back every week. Paula has a wonderful enthusiasm for drama and she works wonderfully in a group.

I really am blessed by these two students!

Fourways youngsters shine!

Every Wednesday we teach at Fourways Gardens estate. We start off with our 5-8year olds and they start at 3pm. The hour long lesson is jam packed with fun activities that are designed to develop the children's confidence and speech skills! Here is a pic of the kids rehearsing duo logins, it takes 10 minutes for the kids to put together their scene and then they perform them for their peers, this develops their speech skills, memories, self-belief and acting skills!!!!

Leading the way in Drama!

Today marked the final day of the national Helen O'Grady annual seminar. Pretorias Principal Julie won blogger of the year-well done Julie:) And a huge congrats to Anita from Joburg North East for winning Franchisor of the year:) All the sharing, learning and creating of the past 2 days just shows how our Academy is leading the way for Drama Education!

Colourful Costume Creations

The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy held its end of year productions at the end of November. We challenged our students to create there own costumes for the plays...the students showed their true colours when they arrived to their dress rehearsals fully kitted and as bright as ever. Take a look at some of the exciting 'costumes for the Pirate Joe Play:

Our older students had to put together outfits for a play all about the circus - just look at some of the bright ideas:


The Fourways Students at their successful dress rehearsal!





The Olivedale Group having fun at their Photo shoot:)

Look out fot more pics of our students during rehearsals, photo shoots and productions - we had such an amazing time we just have to share!

Drama Fun in the Sun

Spring has Sprung and we couldnt be more delighted!!! The kids and I were so happy to finally feel the warmth of spring that we decided to run class on the lawns of Fourways Gardens Estate.

The day started off with the Lower Primary Group arrivivg to class dressed up in any crazy gear that they could find...Look at us showing off in front of the camera...


Here we are posing under the lapa - what an awesome group:)

The Upper Primary Group also came to class all dressed up and ready to learn! We decided that the best way to enjoy the wonderful warmth was to learn mini-scripts on the lawn...

This class was so focused on the work that they didnt even notice anyone around us, they learnt their lines  with focus and determination! Afterwards they went off and rehearsed their own endings. Working outdoors can be challenging as noise levels are quiet loud, but they projected their voices like real amphitheatre performers:)

All I can say is getting out of the classroom and into the garden was a brilliant way to celebrate the warmth of SPRING!!! 

Arts Fest 2010

Arts Fest Cast 2010

The June Holz allowed us to host an amazing Arts Festival at the Norscot Manor Recreation Centre!

The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy always tries to give its student opportunities to try out new activities. We know our students are great at Drama - obviously!!! We wanted to see how good they were at other art forms such as singing and dancing. Hence we enlisted some of Jo'burgs finest teachers to push our kids to the limit. Over 10 days, 32 students between the ages of 7 - 18 years committed themselves to an hour of song, an hour of dance and an hour of acting. Check out how cool our teenage gals looked as Cowgirls during Dance Class with Marlise.

We split our classes up into two age-appropriate groups. We named our teenage group the 'HOLLYWOOD' Class and the tweens were called the 'BOLLYWOOD' Class'.

All but 3 of the students at the Arts Fest are Helen O'Grady students and thus the level of talent was at an all time high! Alongside is a pic the Bollywood group taking a break during their singing lessons with their amazing music teacher Alex.

I taught the Acting part of the Festival.

The Hollywood group explored the various elements of Stanislavski's System.

They pushed eachother to explore their characters. Here is a pic the gals in acting class during a character creation activity.

Norscot Manor Recreation Centre has amazing facilities! The Centre not only has loads of rooms for hire, but it also has a play area and a coffee shop. The pics above are of the Hollywood group preparing for an improvisation. The winter days in Jozi are beautiful and way warmer in the sun, thus an opportunity to get out into the garden to do some brainstorming!!!

 

I am definitely super proud of the Arts Fest 2010; not only did we give the kids something to do, but we also gave them life skills that they can now use in all areas of their lives!

 
Look out for my next blog with pics of the performances from Arts Fest...