Happy Birthday Helen O'Grady

Today is an exciting day for our Academy-it's THE Helen O'Grady's Birthday :) In the 1970s this awesome woman started developing a drama method that aimed to develop children's confidence and skills in verbal communications. Today the small academy she once started is now across the glove with over 50000 students attending classes every week! Check our our new website www.dramaafrica.com-it was launched in honour of Helen O'Grady's birthday.

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 :)

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 :)

Drama is an on-going activity!

Helen O'Grady was one clever lady when she started developing her brilliant drama curriculum. Not only are the lessons jam-packed with fun activities but they are also very developmental. Students can attend a class with no drama background at all, or they can be experienced, they take from the lesson what they need and I believe that both students would have found the lesson completely beneficial! I was chatting to some of my Randpark
youth students this afternoon and we were having a great big discussion with how beneficial they have found our lessons; Tiro a student who has been with the academy since 2008 said that drama has helped her learn when to tone down and not be "too in peoples faces", her twin brother Thulo who has also attended the lessons since 2008 said that unlike his extroverted sister he need a confidence boost and that's exactly what the drama has done. It just shows that this is a truly self-development program; whether you attend for 5 years or even 1 you will take from it what you need. Each lesson is completely planned out and students can attend from the age of 5 all the way up to 18 and would never have repeated a lesson. Below is a pic of our teenage students in class; from left: Sarah has been with us for 2 years, tiro started with us 5 years ago and Anshcke have been attending lessons for 3 years:)

Celebrating the great lady Helen O'Grady

Tomorrow South Africa celebrates National Women's Day. Back in 1956 over 20 000 women staged a march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria. They did this to protest against the proposed Urban Areas Act which was basically a legislation that required African persons to carry the "pass", special identification documents which curtailed an African's freedom of movement during the apartheid era. These brave lady's left petitions with over 100 000 signatures at the Prime Ministers J.G Strijdoms door.
In University we had to study a play called "You Strike the Woman, You Strike the Rock" ,this play
Was created 20 years ago to pay homage to our mothers and it tells the story of 3 women who sell chickens and oranges near a taxi rank. Through their story's we become aware of how strong a woman is and how integral they are to our society as they play out their roles as mothers, wives, daughters and sisters.You Strike the Woman. Throughout the play we become aware of the inherent strength of a women as a mother, wife, daughter and sister.

Today the female role is taking on new forms and more and more women are becoming successful businesswomen and entrepreneurs. One such lady that I have to pay respect to is the lady who started this very Academy back in 1979 in Australia-Helen O'Grady! Mrs O'Grady so many children, families, entrepreneurs, teachers, students and so many more individuals have been impacted and changed for the better because you created such an amazing organization, method and curriculum. We at Helen O'Grady Joburg North West thank you from the bottom of our very hearts!

To all the Mums, Sisters, Daughters, Nieces, Wives, Granny's out there: Happy Women's Day!