Open Teenage workshop at Norscot Recreation Centre

Our teenagers at the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy Norscot studio treated a bunch of their parents and friends to a viewing of an open lesson! The drama teacher at Norscot, Megan facilitated the hour of improvisations, scripts and drama games. The class did an amazing job at entertaining all of us and blew the crowd away with their dramatic skills. Teenage drama classes run every Saturday at the Norscot Recreation Centre for any teenager between the ages of 13-18 years.

Classes Around the World!

The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy is such an awesome Academy to be a part of...not only do we give some of the best drama lessons but we're also one of the biggest Academies out there. Off the top of my head I can say that we have classes across several continents such as Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. That means that we have students in at least 5 of the 7 continents :) how cool! It's no wonder parents are choosing to send their kids and themselves to our classes!

Inhale confidence, exhale doubt!

One of the most rewarding elements of being a drama teacher is watching your students grow from strength to strength. Through attending drama lessons students learn to believe in themselves and their ability to perform, to speak, present, create and lead. So when many parents enquire as to what's the point of drama - I can say with confidence that there are too many benefits-I've seen individuals transform over the 8 years i have been apart of the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy.... Whether a child's from Durban or Gauteng :)

Meet a Peep!!!

Today we launched our 'Meet a Peep' update! What is this I hear you ask? Well basically we will be blogging about our students!

Today's student is the fantastically lovely Fantine Nel.

Fantine is 16 years old and lives in Roodepoort. She's been with the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy for the past 2.5 years and attends the Randpark Youth Theatre on Fridays from5-6pm. When asked about drama and why she does it, Fantine said:
"I love that you can live outside lines, do crazy thing and it's totally acceptable".

I'm Fantines teacher and I love teaching her. She has developed her acting skills very quickly and every week she impresses the class with her creative ideas and outstanding performances. What a wonderfully enthusiastic and focused drama student :)

Gauteng Training such a success!

Yesterday the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy's Principals and teachers from around Gauteng met up for a day of training. It's so important for the Academy to keep everyone buzzing with enthusiasm and energy at every lesson, and there's no doubt that yesterday got all of us excited about our upcoming productions. We had such fun learning the new songs, dances, scenes and blocking for 2012s productions. I can't wait to get our students involved!!! A big thanks must go to our Executive Principal Vicky Stroud from Port Elizabeth for all her knowledge and support.

Drama - Good for your Health!

As the winter months approach I personally get into an 'Action Plan' mode - I refuse to let the winter bulge hit :)  Johannesburg gets particularly cold and I get particularly hungry! I move into exercise mode and my mind becomes extremely health-focused, well I try at least ;) All this health consciousness gets me thinking about my overall well-being and how I'm coping not only physically but mentally too. Its so important for every individual in the world to be comfortable with who they are and what they can add to the world...and even though they may be one small individual they can make a difference!

I took a long hard look at our drama classes, and that's when I realised how my seemingly small academy is making a big difference! We try to do our bit for each individual that we teach, we strive to boost their self-esteem and self-belief so that they can grow into mentally healthy individuals - how do we do this? Well we look to praise each student no matter what the praise may be! Every week I know that 325 individuals have had their self-esteems boosted - how cool!!!

 In today's word we are so focused on physical appearance and looks that we tend to forget that we need to develop the 'unseen' bits of us too. Surely once we take care of how we view ourselves and the world psychologically we will start viewing everything else a little differently and a little more positively. This is a little bit deep for a Tuesday afternoon, but I just thought that I should share how proud I am of the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy! All over the world all the many small and large Academy's are making a HUGE difference to so many individuals.

If you think you need a boost to the self - come to a drama class, its extremely good for your health :)

Tomorrow our Boskruin/Randpark students return to Randpark United Church for their weekly drama classes! The studio is so popular that we have very few spots available :) so if you want to join you better move fast.

At 3pm our 5-8 year old actors will meet for  their very first lesson and we will kick the lesson off with fun, speech-developing activities! I don't want to give too much away for their lesson; but I can say that the play they will create tomorrow involves something that is very close to their little hearts - LOOSING A TOOTH :)

Our Upper Primary class for ages 9-12 years, has always been a jam-packed group - this year is no different! The lesson is full of confidence-building improvisations. I am very excited for this group to create their own scenes that involves something that is close to their hearts - school!

From 5pm-6pm the Boskruin Youth Group will attend their first Youth class. This year we have loads of students moving up from the Upper Primary Class - I cannot wait to see the talent of this group! We already had very talented and creative teens in the Youth Group but with the addition of so many experienced Upper Primary students this year is going to be AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!