GEt Ready for TErm Four: Mini-Production!

Why are DRAMA CLASSES FOR EVERYONE?

The Malthouse is a multi-purpose arts space, housing Canterbury Children’s Theatre, Malthouse Costume Hire, and drama classes at The MALTHOUSE DRAMA SCHOOL.

Drama classes are fun. That’s a given, right?

And we all have an idea of the kind of student who loves them. Big! Extroverted! Performer! Personality for days!

But drama classes aren’t just for these types of students.

And they aren’t just for people who want to pursue performance as a career.

We say drama classes are for everyone…

Because they build critical interpersonal skills that will stay with and help your child for the rest of their life. 

Skills like: 

• Communication – Stage performance requires multiple techniques in order to be clear, audible, and enjoyable to the audience. All of these skills translate into real-world applications – whether that’s presenting at a conference, having a job interview, or leading a team. The technical skills of the stage are invaluable in any context that involves communication – so… all of them!
• Empathy – Acting is understanding and becoming a person who is not you. This process moves your child away from self-absorption and towards a greater understanding of the inner life of others. Drama literally allows you to walk in another’s shoes.
• Collaboration – Theatre is the great collaborative art form. It requires all participants to work together as a team to produce the final product. Drama builds teamwork skills as a byproduct of the form. 
• Problem-solving – Drama is challenging and engages the mind to think creatively, use abstract problem-solving, and to explore outside the box. Any stage production needs constant creative solutions. Because drama is a practical skill these solutions cannot be theoretical – they must work in reality. 

The Malthouse is the home of Canterbury Children’s Theatre, a full, producing-house theatre company, who build their own props, make their own costumes, and create sound and lighting designs for their school holiday productions.

As a student of the Malthouse Drama School, your child won’t just be working on their acting and performance skills – developing all of those bonus life skills – but also being given opportunities throughout the year to experience the full range of disciplines that are required to bring a live stage show to life.

Classes at The Malthouse Drama School are taught by Briar Patrick.

Briar has been involved in the performing arts scene around Canterbury for over a decade, starting her theatre journey in North Canterbury. She has performed onstage with various theatre groups including Showbiz Christchurch, North Canterbury Musicals, Magnitude Productions, and MUSOC. She has worked offstage as a director, pianist, and musical director, again with many theatre groups around Canterbury, and she currently teaches Drama and English at Avonside Girls’ High School.

Briar is excited to be working with Malthouse to share her experience and love of story-telling with a new group of rangatahi.

The teaching assistant for Term 4 is Anna Heffernan

Anna has been involved in the world of theatre from the age of five when she joined her first theatre group as part of an outreach programme run by a local Art Gallery. From there she joined the Ashburton based Big Little Theatre Company, a young people’s theatre company based at the Ashburton Event Centre and offering training in all aspects of theatre craft. The company produced two full scale shows per year and Anna enjoyed playing a diverse collection of characters ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary absurdist and comedic creations. By the age of 17, Anna had completed the full suite of Trinity College (London) drama examinations to Grade 8.

Anna has dedicated the past four years to teaching drama to children aged from 6 to 17, collaborating with the Lyttelton Arts Factory, The Big Little Theatre Company and recently Wildhearts. In doing this she has discovered a love of teaching, writing, and directing which has eclipsed her former love of performing and she wants to develop her career in this direction.  

She is very excited to be joining The Malthouse creative powerhouse and working alongside another group of amazing young people. 

Also, this guy is involved. 

All content and lessons for your child’s classes are co-created, overseen, and approved by veteran theatre industry professional Dan Bain (The Court Theatre, Scared Scriptless, Little Andromeda, Perfuct Storm, CCC Summertimes Outdoor Theatre, Improv Seduction, University of Canterbury Teaching Fellow, etc, etc) who makes sure that the course content isn’t just fun but also is relevant, important, and useful for both those with aspirations to join the industry and those who are just looking for a creative hobby.

But, as a comedian and improviser, he also wants to ensure the classes are fun.

So… that’s double fun?