Acting up is encouraged

Suzie Harrison

Learning the art of acting was something the students at Top of the

World Elementary School aspired to understand in their second day of

drama class taught by Steve and Julie Josephson of No Square Theatre.

“We started doing some improvisation last week, we found that some

worked and some didn’t,” Steve Josephson said, reminding the students

to remember which ones worked.

Students were told to start a scene and pass it on to the next

student while keeping the storyline cohesive.

Josephson said students sometimes want to make their friends laugh

instead of staying with the scene. But, he said they should think of

it as a team sport, working together to make the scene go forward.

“It’s an exercise and yes it helps improvisation,” Steve Josephson

said. “When someone starts a scene you have to go with it.”

One student responded that he couldn’t join the group because he

was on strike. But the others for the most part, worked on the

concept and seemed to enjoy it.

Breaking up into groups of four, the actors performed in front of

the other students, they where doing a mock infomercial and they were

trying to convince the audience to buy a product.

“Remember all the things you’ve learned about acting and remember

to speak loudly and don’t turn your back on the audience,” Julie

Josephson said.

Some students froze while others tried to be a clown, but others

took their task seriously and earnestly tried to convince their

audience of peers to buy.

The Josephsons pointed out the difference between performances and

students discussed why they thought it worked.

“I think it’s really fun because you actually get to experience

acting, it’s a really good experience,” Cassie Castro, 8, said. “It’s

exciting doing this with your friends because I really like acting.”

Erik Henrikson, 9, said he’s taking the class because he thinks

drama is really fun.

“It’s great to pretend you’re someone else and doing all these

voices and stuff,” Erik said.

Another student remarked that the hardest part of acting is

letting herself just go with the flow.

It was back to the Lorax for the end of the class, not a minute

lagged while learning about drama and too soon the students couldn’t

believe that class was over.