She Has Always Been a Drama Queen

I'm just now paying for her to put it to good use.

A few weeks ago I realized...Gymnastics is not cutting it anymore. When I talked to her teacher she confirmed that Belle wasn't the same Belle in gymnastics. She wasn't listening, she would do her stuff half-heatedly.

So I asked her one night what was going on. And she broke my heart when she said, "A kid in gymnastics called me fat."

Oh, baby.

We talked for a while as we always have about how she is the most beautiful girl in the world and she is a princess in God's sight. Period.

But it didn't help.

So we suspended gymnastics indefinitely and I began to do further research into something that I was already considering for her. After I talked to the director of it all and found out what they do, I thought this would be an optimal way to build her self-esteem up and give her some more confidence (as if she needs much more). But I really feel she does need more in strange settings.

There is a group in Conway called "Children's Theater to Go"

And she is excited about it!

We headed out to our first class on Tuesday. She was little anxious at first, but then made a friend and said, "Bye Mom!"

She cherishes me so.

Anyway, Daddy brought her home that day and she came in singing and dancing and I thought...Tuesdays should be a blast around here from now on!

So, I asked her what she learned in class today.

"We did nothing but play games...fun ones!"

Hmmm...that much money for games? Surely not. The teachers have degrees in drama!

My daughter does too, just not from an acredited university.

Anywho, I e-mailed the director to just ask about it and here was her e-mail to me:

Hi Billie.

They did play games, but all with a purpose. They warmed up with the name game, which of course helps everyone learn each other's names, and also establishes eye contact and interaction between the students because they have to catch a ball and name one another as they play. Good actors are always aware of one another, and are ready to react quickly and easily to the other actors.

They also did a series of physical exercises to stretch and warm up. Acting is very physical, so they always stretch their arms, legs, faces, mouth and lips. As we go, we work with enunciation exercises as well.

We used Simon Says to begin teaching stage directions. If you're standing on a stage facing the audience, your right is stage right, your left is stage left, toward the audience is downstage and away from the audience is upstage. The director tells the actors where to go with these directions, so we want our students to know what to do if the director says to move stage right, or enter downstage, or move to center and so forth.

The class ended with final bows - we show the correct way to bow, and applaud each person in turn. Theatre is a group art, and all the actors in a play need to be aware of how important every other person on stage is to their own performance.

Karen

Who knew Simon Says was so technical? Anyway, I couldn't help but laugh...she had no idea what was going on. But she was soaring HIGH when she came home.

And that did this Momma's heart good.

And probably just exploded her Aunt Becky's...

Can't wait to see what happens tonight!