Drama in Bromley, Gravesend and Sevenoaks!

This week, students of the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy in Bromley, Gravesend and Sevenoaks are back at class and having lots of fun.

The lower primary children will be working on a different play each week. The children will be playing many roles from pirates to aliens!

All upper primary classes have a selection of improvisations and mini-scripts this term. Their plays will be set in destinations such as The South Pole and Mexico! Mini-scripts allow each child to develop their own creativity and imagination as well as linking in the speech work we cover each week. 

Each primary class will also be acting out Mimes to Music, pretending to be Marionettes or on a Hunt.  

Our Youth Theatres students have a varied curriculum this term. As well as the all important voice work, students will be able to demonstrate creative ability via improvisation, experimenting with various theatre games, script work and working individually on some challenging monologues.  

We all look forward to another exciting term!  

If you would like your child to join our popular drama programme that helps children of all ages to perform, learn to speak well, develop skills to help them on leaving school, and have great fun, then give us a call to book a Free Trial.  

01689 812336  

email: bromley@helenogrady.co.uk

website: www.dramabwk.co.uk

National website: www.helenogrady.co.uk.  

Our teaching staff in Bromley, Gravesend & Sevenoks.

Training during the 2011 summer holidays in preparation for the new term.

(Back row L-R) Nicki Ayre, Kirsty Meekings, Nicola Weston, Alison Clinch

(Front row L-R) Helen Walls (Principal), Miranda Webberley

 

The Sleepover!

Here are some of our students who attend the Northfleet Helen O'Grady Class on Saturdays having fun !!! The class dressed up for a play called "The Sleepover" which descended into a huge pillow fight ! You can see one of the children is playing 'Mum' and looking on disapprovingly. Kirsty, the class teacher said "It was lovely - they all came in pjs and dressing gowns with pillows and blankets!"

GRAVESEND & DISTRICT THEATRE GUILD PRESENT.....Guys and Dolls

LOCAL NEWS

THE GRAVESEND & DISTRICT THEATRE GUILD PRESENT.....Guys and Dolls

23-26 March 2011

7.30pm

The OWG Centre

Hamley Road

Dartford

DA1 1PX

Box Office 07981 792101

www.gravesendtheatreguild.org

Guys and Dolls has music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, it is loosely based on Damon Runyon’s short stories "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure". It premiered on Broadway in 1950, ran for 1,200 performances and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. A film version was made in 1955 starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra. There was tension between the two stars, as Sinatra had wanted to play Sky, and not Nathan. Sinatra got his revenge afterwards by recording the songs Sky sings in the show. A comic morality tale set to a hot jazz score, “Guys and Dolls” is a New York love-story filled with memorable songs including “Luck Be A Lady” and “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat”.

Set in the shadier parts of 1950s New York frequented by gangsters and racketeers lead by Nathan Detroit, who, with his sidekicks, Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreet are desperate to find somewhere to hold their next crap game. Nathan's fiancée, Adelaide a singer at The Hot Box club, hates the crap game almost as much as Lt. Brannigan, who tries to foil Nathan's efforts. Sister Sarah Brown of the Save-a-Soul Mission is trying to get the gamblers to lead better lives but is finding it hard going and the Mission is under threat of closure.

Sky Masterson, the renowned womaniser and gambler, is in town and Nathan needs to find $1000 to hire Biltmore's Garage for the crap game. In an attempt to get the money he bets Sky $1000 that he cannot persuade a "Doll" of Nathan's choosing to go with him to Cuba. Sky thinks he is onto a winner until Nathan chooses Sister Sarah as the "Doll"! Sky uses his charm and persuades Sarah to go to Havana, promising to provide twelve sinners for the Mission. Meanwhile, in her absence the gamblers use the Mission for the game, but everything is spoiled when Lt. Brannigan arrives.

The next night, at the insistence of Big Jule a hustler from Chicago, Nathan is forced to hold the game in the only place left – the sewer! Trouble develops when Big Julie proceeds to cheat Nathan out of all the money he has made from setting up the game. Sky arrives and offers to play dice with the men. If he loses, they each get a thousand dollars - if they lose, they must attend the midnight prayer meeting at the Mission.

Sky wins, the gamblers attend the meeting and the Mission is saved. Adelaide and Sarah meet by chance and decide on a strategy to get their “Guys” and a happy ending is in sight.

THE HAYES PLAYERS (NEAR OUR HAYES STUDIO) PRESENT ....

Lettice and Lovage

by Peter Shaffer

16–19 February 2011

Hayes Village Hall

Wednesday – Saturday at 7.45pm

Box Office: 07905 210718

Tickets: £7

Lettice Douffet, an expert on Elizabethan cuisine and medieval weaponry, is an indefatigable enthusiast of history and the theatre. She is a tour guide at Fustian House ‘one of the least stately and least interesting of Britain's’ stately homes. Lettice begins to embellish its historical past and her lecture gains theatricality and romance as it strays from the facts. Lotte Schoen, an inspector from the Preservation Trust, is not impressed or entertained by these uninhibited history lessons. She fires Lettice, but gradually becomes fascinated by her unusual past, her romantic world-view and her refusal to accept the mediocre and the second rate. The two women forge an alliance to awaken their fellow citizens to the dreariness of modern life.

DRAMATIC MINE DISASTER IN BROMLEY

This week, 8-12 year old children in the Bromley area classes of the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy

COMMENCEMENT OF TERM - SEPTEMBER 2010

After a lovely summer break, Helen O'Grady students can look forward to coming back to their drama classes next week.  The teachers and I very much look forward to hearing all about the children’s summer adventures!

Classes begin the week commencing Monday 6th September.  Fees for the 13 week term are £91 (£71 if you paid a £20 deposit) and as usual, a family discount will apply for two or more children: the fee for two children is £164.00 (£124.00 if a £40 deposit has been paid). Fees are payable on the first day of term please, you may find it easier to send payment directly to the office address below. As we have over 300 students now, it is vital we keep a tab on class numbers.  If your child is going to be absent for the first lesson, please let us know so that we don’t overbook our classes!

This term, the lower primary children will be working on a different play each week. The children will be playing many roles from pirates to aliens! I feel that dressing up or working with props is invaluable to children because it unlocks doors of reality and allows them to extend characterisation through play-acting. Therefore, many lessons will involve the use of the aforementioned - don’t panic! All will be readily available around the home!! The children will also be able to develop conversational skills through short dialogues.

All upper primary classes have a selection of improvisations and mini-scripts this term. Their plays include titles such as: “I’ve Been Robbed” and “A Night At The Waxworks”! Mini-scripts allow each child to develop their own creativity and imagination as well as linking in the speech work we cover each week. Each primary class will also be acting out Mimes to Music. These include: “Tropical Storm” and “The Crafty Crockery”.

Our Youth Theatre students can look forward to a varied curriculum this term. As well as the all important voice work, students will be able to demonstrate creative ability via improvisation, experimenting with various theatre games, script work and working individually on some challenging monologues.

We all look forward to another exciting term!

A Dramatic Half Term

We are preparing for a very busy half term in the Bromley & West Kent Branch of the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy. Lessons will take place during half term for the classes in Gravesend Wrotham Road, Sevenoaks and Petts Wood to make up for the lessons that were cancelled in January due to the heavy snow.


After half term all the children in our Lower Primary Classes (5-8yrs) are invited to dress up as bears for the very charming play 'A Big Box of Bears.' Our Upper Primary Classes will be dressing up as characters at a Live Television Recording! We expect to see lots of Camera Operators, Floor Managers, Television and Pop Stars and some zany Audience Members too.


This term the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy have been offering a FREE TRIAL to new students and when they join a FREE HELEN O'GRADY T-SHIRT! After half term all existing students can Bring a Friend to class to dress up and join in the fun.


We look forward to having lots of fun and to seeing all the very imaginative costumes, created from low cost bits and pieces!