CALLING ALL DRAMA QUEENS AND KINGS!

The Benefits of Acting Training For Tweens, Teens and Tots

Do you remember seeing your first play? Better yet, do you remember performing in a play for the first time? There is no other experience quite like sharing yourself with an audience...fun, magical and elevating!

Acting onstage takes us away from the TV and Technology into real time where we are able to connect authentically with others while having lots of fun! More importantly, stage work encourages us to connect to our limitless, imaginative and artistic natures.

As a savvy parent, you probably have a good idea about some of the obvious benefits that Dramatic Training and Stage Performance affords young people--but the benefits are so strong, they are worth repeating!

1. Confidence: When the environment is safe and the teachers are supportive, friendly and skilled, even shy, reticent individuals overcome their self-consciousness and blossom!

2. Poise: Theatre and movement games help one to develop an awareness of body and posture in space. The result of this awareness is a confident physical presence that exudes an authentic grace on and off stage and a genuinely powerful way of relating to the physical world.

3. Strengthened Interpersonal Relationships: The very nature of theatrical games and exercises is dynamic, inspiring one to collaborate with others. This collaboration leads to understanding, generosity and the all-important ability to “play well with others.”

4. Enhanced Communication Ability:   Vocal projection, eye contact and critical listening: these skills are incredible strengths in one’s professional and personal life. These strengths are the natural off- shoot of working in a focused and fun theatrical setting.

Another communication skill, learning to read and play off the physical, verbal and emotional cues of your acting partners is key to becoming a better communicator, one who can put her or himself in another’s shoes, leading to the most important benefit of theatrical training:

5. THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPASSION: Theatrical training inspires one to understand how others tick. This understanding always creates a more self-aware and compassionate individual...and awareness and compassion is what composes a successful life and a kinder, more functional world.

Mary Ann Riel, M.A., is the Artistic Director of The Summer Theatre Camp of Montclair, now celebrating our 25th joyful year! She can be reached at 973-746-8686 to discuss your child’s training this summer.

The Summer Theatre Camp of Montclair

67 Church Street, Montclair NJ 07042
www.stagekids.us