News and Reviews
At look back on a drama-filled year
2008 has been a busy year for Drama Workhouse. Earlier this year we re-branded the Drama Workhouse, developing a new logo, brand new promotional materials and a spanking new website which we are still perfecting and updating. If you’re in and around Brent, you may just see our new postcards, posters, as well as our new banner at the Duddenhill Centre.
We’ve also been active in the community. In addition to supporting Brent’s RESPECT festival, which included a Drama Workhouse stand and customised performance, we’ve maintained our involvement in our prison programmes, bringing the world of drama to troubled teens and adults.
We’ve had our successes, but we’ve also had our challenges. With limited budget in today’s current climate, all our work has been completed with a shortage of staff and funding. We’d love the opportunity to get more involved in the community to help bring drama to life among a wide range of children, teens and adults. For that to happen, we need your help spreading the word, helping us to encourage more students to get involved in the world of acting.
To help keep our charitable activities alive, we also have a new corporate sponsorship program, and are looking for active volunteers to help raise awareness for how local companies can give back. Click here for more information.
Credit crunch hits charity giving
Why we need your help more than ever
The global credit crunch is starting to be felt by charities, as one in four charities that accepts donations has seen a fall in giving in the past year. A further one in 12 has had to make redundancies, a survey suggests.
The Charity Commission poll of about 500 charities said 38% of charities reported being hit by the economic downturn of the last year in some way. More than half - 54% - were affected by increased costs for basics such as energy, food and travel. Charity Commission chairman Dame Suzi Leather said charities were facing a great deal of uncertainty.
"Charities are really being squeezed by higher costs and higher demands for vital services," she said. "They will wonder how they are going to survive the current crisis while trying to continue meeting people's needs."
She also urged the public to carry on donating to charities during the current financial crisis. "They need our help more than ever," she said.
Each workshop you purchase goes into the support of charitable efforts offered by Drama Workhouse. Even if you don’t have time to act, a charitable donation can help keep our charity alive and thriving. Click here for more information on how you can help.
Getting your act right!
The history of the dramatic form
Acting is said to have found its origins in the religious rituals of the primitive times and the first performers were the religious leaders of the tribes. The development of theatre, as we see today, is largely attributed to the Greeks.
Acting began out of our need to express, emote and to tell stories. Drama dates back to 534 BC. Contests were held to determine who was the best actor. This person was called "Thespis" who was also one of the first actors. He played many roles to perfection that ranged from women to children. The term "thespian" is derived from Thespis.
In those days, actors wore masks to portray different characters. The chorus usually ranged from 15 to 50 people. Acting in the beginning was largely about monologues. Actors acted out the thoughts going on in the mind of the characters. Aeschylus introduced a new paradigm to acting by introducing a second actor. This closely resembles the acting that we see today. The performances underwent a huge change. From simply stating the internal voice, thoughts and motivations of a single actor, the oncoming of the second actor brought in face-to-face conversations as well as dramatic conflict. Later, Sophocles added the third actor and extras.
Gradually, acting evolved to its present day form. Certain basics of acting never change, like what goes into making of an actor. The aptitude of the actor is chief determinant in the acting of the performers. Acting is all about the ability to visualize feelings. You can draw on your own experiences also to enact certain characters. Actors are born with an aptitude but a good acting school can help to hone this skill.
A misconception that people generally harbour is that acting is what they get to see on the screens, but that is just half the picture as you can find actors in theatre, television or a comedy club. Acting might be a tough proposition for some, but the passionate ones endure the rigors to get a chance to show their histrionics.
Interested in seeing if you have what it takes to be an actor? Or just want to have a good time trying your hand at a new role? Contact us today.
Putting Young People Centre Stage
By Stephanie MacKenzie-Smith: It’s often said that the work of a child is play. Words like “imagination”, “make-believe” and “pretend” all seem like words from a golden bygone era - an era far away from the world that many of today’s children inhabit.
Did you know?
Interesting facts and figures about the value of drama.
In 2003 the Centre of Applied Theatre Research (CATR) at the University of Manchester commissioned a study entitled Playing the Part that assessed the impact of youth theatre on the personal, social and political development of young people. The study found that youth theatre provided young people with a unique support structure for making positive transitions to adulthood and that it offered them a safe place to assert independence, take risks and responsibility, build relationships and find peer and adult support.
According to the CATR study, some young people that took part in the study admitted that participating in theatre helped to ‘calm them down’ and the study went on to say that “channeling feelings, energy and anxiety through performance and other youth theatre activity helps young people learn how to cope with and control their feelings and express themselves more effectively in a range of contexts.”
Exposure to drama and theatre production is also proven to improve the listening and speaking skills of children in primary school. A three-year programme instituted by the National Theatre and published by the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute for Education followed children aged seven to 10 from eight inner-London primary schools. The studied Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Marlowe’s Dr Faustus and also included a storytelling programme and a theatre production showcasing the children’s own performances. Students participating in the NT program enjoyed school more and improved their speaking and listening skills, in addition to showing a marked increase in self-confidence in class.
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