TheatreWorks Workshop

Recently, the G.A.T.E. 5th graders in my school have done an activity called TheatreWorks. A TheatreWorks expert comes and teaches us some basic things about theatre and then they teach us a poem that we enact. Our teacher was Vera Sloan and she taught us how to be actors. She told us how to do some basic warm – ups, tongue twisters, what the actor’s toolbox is (it is the three things you need to act, which are: voice, body, and imagination), and the meaning of the word ensemble and the essentials to be an ensemble. We also learnt a special game about being an ensemble called Pass the Clap or The Clap Game. It had 3 variations and we were the first class that our teacher taught the third variation to.

It was a 2 - week program. During the second week, the teacher brought a poem called “All the World’s a Stage” by William Shakespeare. We were divided into 4 “clumpy clusters”. I was in “cluster” 2. The taller people were in the back and the shorter people were in the front. The front row people had to kneel while the back row people had to stand. Each group got certain lines, which we had to recite while we made gestures associated with that line.

On the day of the performance, some parents, TheatreWorks officials, and most of the 4th grade, 6th grade, and non – G.A.T.E. 5th grade students came to see us perform. We did our warm – ups, then we recited our tongue twisters, and then we stated what the actor’s toolbox was.

After that, we played a game called Machines. We had to make a group scene that made us look like we were a machine. We each had to make a different sound, perform a different repeatable activity, and have a different level (height) from everyone else. We also got two parent volunteers for this game. The volunteers were my friend my friend Divyesh’s mom and my mom. After we finished, someone in the crowd was supposed to name the machine and its use. Someone called it the Funny Machine. It had done what it was supposed to do because everyone laughed.

Later, after we played Machines, we played Pass the Clap V (variation) 1 and V2.
The last game we played was called Pantomime. It was a little like Machines. However, there were a few differences. Instead of some random person starting of doing some random action, someone would be taken into a place called “The Cone of Silence”. They would be told that they had to act like they were in a specific place. Then that person would have to enact an activity you would do in that place silently. The other people would have to guess where you were and then raise their hand to be sent into the scene as well. They would be judged to see if they really knew where they were by the teacher by the look of the activity they were enacting. We also had 2 adult volunteers for this game as well. After the scene got crowded, someone in the crowd had to say where we were. Someone said that we were in the snow and they were completely correct.

Finally, we enacted “All the World’s a Stage”. After that we were lead outside and given awards. That was the end of the TheatreWorks workshop.

At first, I felt embarrassed about Theater Works. However, in the end, I had fun. I started to miss it a little bit after it was over.