Shakespeare drama workshop for 10 to 13 year old kids

Friday, 1 August 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

At Russian Centre, Colombo

A drama workshop introducing Shakespeare to 10 to 13 year old students will be held at the Russian Centre auditorium from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on 5, 6 and 8 August. The workshop, designed in a fun and practical style, will explore scenes from a few famous plays. The students will engage

with the language, plot and themes, with the main focus being the plays as performance pieces. Designed for students with little or no previous exposure to Shakespeare by children’s drama practitioner Aroshe Ranasinghe, the workshop will be conducted on stage to give the kids ‘the actual feel of how Shakespeare intended his plays to be – performed, and not analysed to the last layer on texts with pens and pencils’. Aroshe has been teaching drama and theatre at the Russian Centre where the drama classes take place on stage, giving the students an actual feel and experience of theatre, and her students do UK group drama exams and public performances. In fact, her students were awarded first prize in the Grade 4 Shakespeare Group Drama at the Trinity Guild Hall UK prize giving in 2013. Why Shakespeare? Aroshe explains: “Shakespeare is fun. His plays have all the appealing ingredients of a good movie: crime, fights, love, loyalty, betrayal, power, jealousy, intrigue, fantasy and of course, exciting and unforgettable characters. We use language that he created, almost four hundred years later, perform his plays in many languages and some of his characters and themes are universal. I have seen even the most reluctant student respond to Shakespeare’s plays if the approach is active. This means that we don’t read a text but use it as a script for performance. Unfortunately, today’s child has very little exposure to the greatest playwright in the world, so this a chance to do something fun during holidays as well as venture into the world of the world’s most famous and oft quoted playwright.” Give your child the opportunity to enjoy the magical world of Shakespeare’s theatre. For registrations and more information, call the Russian Centre on 0112685440. Only a few spots are available.