Theater Programs for Young People

As a beginning actor, you’ll meet your fair share of people who will basically tell you that they’ve been acting about as long as they’ve been breathing.  This might be true; I really can’t say.

I’ve been acting since I was five or six, but I joined my first real theater program at ten.  I come from a very small town, but there were some real excellent programs where I lived, and I spent my summers in them until I was fifteen.

The best programs will put on a show over a summer, and will also include some “classes” where the kids will learn about things like voice technique and theater games. 

Such programs can be a lot of fun, and give young people experience both as actors and as people working in group (useful for any career).

They generally cater to the age range between nine and eighteen.

You might be in the age group to join one of these programs still, or maybe you know someone else who can.

It’s also possible that you’re interested in theater but can’t reasonably join a program like the ones I did while I was younger. 

I’d like to talk about the activities I found most useful, and what you can learn from them too.

Some of the things I was taught, about movement and about vocal projection, for instance, aren’t things that I can explain in writing, and they were extraordinarily useful.  I also learned a great deal about studying text (particularly Shakespeare), which put me ahead of the curb all the way into college, because I got Shakespeare in a way a lot of people never do.  I’m thinking about doing a post on Shakespeare, but for now I can’t really sum it up. 

Despite all this, some of the activities I found most helpful were the simplest. 

For instance, in one activity all the actors got together in a line and simply walked across the stage.  Then, we analyzed everyone’s walk, and what that walk said about them.  Then we discussed tailoring movement to fit a character.  It’s something I’ve talked about before. 

Experiences like that are very informative. 

A much more surprising activity, but one I ultimately found to be extremely important, was one in which the teacher placed a plastic cup on one end of the stage and had us walk across and get it.  Then, she had us walk across again, this time with our eyes closed, and try to find the cup.

This sounds a little silly.  I know a lot of the other kids thought it was.  I probably did, too. 

Now, I understand what it really meant.  It is important to know exactly where you are when you’re on stage, and what’s around you. 

In a recent show, I had to run backwards to hide behind a table.  I got behind it at least fifty times without any problems, both in rehearsal and in performance.  But, one time I miscalculated the distance.  I only brushed it, but I was moving fast enough that I fell down and bruised myself pretty badly.

It’s unbelievably important to know what’s where at all times. 

Also, another thing you often learn in theater programs is how to fall without hurting yourself.  That’s very useful, too. 

I’m fairly certain that, in the end, the audience thought that fall was part of the show.