acting classes for shy kids

Alexander Technique For Kids

Alexander Technique For Young Actors

I have spent my weekends the past seven years working with the bright and precocious young performers at The Playground Los Angeles, Gary Spatz’s first-rate young actor’s conservatory here on Avenue of the Stars.

Gary has assembled a truly unique and dynamic staff of teachers to run a program that is the model for other acting schools for young people the worldover. It is an extreme privilege to be a part of it and more often than not, I learn more than I teach while working with my students and colleagues at the school.

My primary function as a teacher at The Playground is to teach the foundational acting technique that the conservatory offers in its curriculum for students from reading-age up to young adults. Working with students in this broad age-range affords me a fantastic view of the artistic and psychophysical developments as they occur in young performers as they grow up.

Read more

Acting For Shy Kids

Acting Classes For Shy Kids

Many a child shows up for our acting classes at The Playground in a very shy state of mind. Some have difficulty making eye contact. Others are uncomfortable expressing their thoughts to people they don’t know. These may be symptoms of the “first class jitters,” but for some, social anxiety and nervousness are part of their daily experience.

One of the real gifts, I believe, of an acting curriculum is that it gives the student-actor permission to play. And, inevitably, during the course of that play, the student-actor’s shyness starts to fade away and is eventually replaced by confidence.

All of the acting exercises, improvisations, theatre games, and scenes we do at The Playground serve to encourage students to look each other directly in the eye and express their thoughts through words and behavior. Invariably, these exercises are done with a sense of play and fun, so even the shyest of students can find the confidence to stand on his or her own two feet.

Read more