Theater is a language through which human beings can engage in active dialogue on what is important to them. It is a lab for problem solving, seeking options and practicing solutions.
Agosto Boal
The Los Angeles Drama Club started with 5 children at the famous historical Brookledge Theater on a wet January afternoon. Built in 1941 for the purpose of hosting private magic shows, it was here that the Los Angeles Drama Club, now with 12 members, performed for the first time. The youngest Player was 4 years old, the oldest 10. We worked eight long weeks and performed the famous The Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It. There was live music and full costume and 68 teary-eyed audience members.
Viola Spolin
Founder, American Improvisational Movement
It has been five years since that first performance. The troupe has grown to 40 families, and we’ve found a new home at The Lost Studio on La Brea. We mount 3 to 4 full productions of Shakespeare a year, exploring his universal themes and making them personal to our lives. The children, called “Players,” enter the sanctuary of the dark theatre, where they begin session with a circle check-in, ice breaker games and exercises that allow and encourage self-expression, self-exploration, and brain and body coordination.
“…We do yoga together to re-direct our breath, we engage in improvisation, role-playing, conflict-resolution, movement, sound current and breath work. We draw and design images of our characters. And we rehearse the play, having read it and acted out the story together. We personify villains, heroes, everyday people, monsters, fairies, kings and queens, and our imaginations come alive with possibilities. We become them and they us and for that afternoon in Drama Club, our everyday lives rise to a serious level of importance. We know when we climb the steps to the theatre on Drama Club day, we have a job to do. We know a lot is expected of us and because our teachers are holding us accountable as a group, we rise to the occasion.
It is week 9 and the rehearsal process is in the Storming phase. We scream and yell and laugh and struggle and sigh. We now start to embody the characters. The directors are saying, “You DID it! That’s IT!” And we go home and learn lines and bring ourselves back the next week to have that moment again. We charge and trudge wholeheartedly through the toil and sweat of the creative process, and after our shows close, our troupe returns every season to start anew…”
Having the children beg us to tell them what the play will be for the next season warms our hearts. What child of 7 is passionate and knowledgable even, about the plays of Shakespeare? Each one of ours.
The real reward is in this journey. But that does not detract from the shock of the finished product, which never fails to stun and surprise adult audiences. The thing that has set us apart from other child-Shakespeare productions is, as a group, we believe that we can do anything we decide to do.
Richard Monette, Artistic Dir. Stratford Festival
