Show Time!: Music, Dance, and Drama Activities for Kids
support are a few of the skills that can be learned with these musical games If you like to move you'll feel like dancing when you see all of the fun games in Gotta Dance Whether you are a skilled dancer or just love to dance around your living room these activities will give you ideas for creative moves Theater games such as those found in An Actor s Life for Me are great for parties rehearsals and other indoor and outdoor fun Directors and teachers have used theater games for years to help actors learn to work together focus develop their characters and boost their energy at rehearsal If it's scripts you're looking for you'll find a vari ety of short plays and scenes for young people in Show Time From folk tales such as Paul Bunyan to classics such as Alice in Wonderland these scripts are sure to get your creative juices flowing Viola Spolin author of Improvisation for the Theater Theater Games for Rehearsal and Theater Games for the Classroom first introduced the idea of teaching the ater through games Actors have been using games ever since Games are a fun way to expand your cre ativity sharpen your focus learn to work with others on projects and build self confidence These games are for everyone not just those serious about becom ing actors So put on your dancing shoes and get ready to play because it's Show
The History of Musical Theater W illiam Shakespeare filled his comedies with music In A Midsummer Night's Dream the fairies sing and dance for their fairy queen French playwright Molière also included songs in his plays In A Doctor in spite of Himself the doctor prescribes a song with a merry note and a dance with a lively step to cure some of his patients Later Molière worked with composer Jean Baptiste Lully to create comedy ballets These were some of the first known dramas that included music and dance although they were not quite what we would call musicals today Musicals came about as composers began to par ody or poke fun at opera They lightened the mood of the music and changed its style to be similar to popu lar music of the day The Pirates of Penzance which hit Broadway in 1879 was one of the first musicals In the 1920s Tin Pan Alley a district of com posers and publishers of popular music in New York
City was the hot spot for American musicals Many songwriters including Irving Berlin and George Gershwin created musicals in these publishing hous es In 1927 musicals began to take on all sorts of themes both comedic and serious Show Boat was the first musical that had songs that actually moved the plot forward a breakthrough for telling stories in musical theater style The term musical was shortened from the term musical comedy but it now refers to dramas as well as comedies In 1960 the first rock and roll musical hit the stage It was called Bye Bye Birdie and told a story similar to what happened when Elvis Presley was drafted It also includes a grown up love story that follows the standard boy gets girl boy loses girl boy gets girl back plot of earlier musical comedies Many rock musicals have since followed Today Andrew Lloyd Webber and others continue to add to the wealth of musical theater Many actors say that live musical theater is where they began and it is still their favorite venue Musicals continue to be a favorite among theatergoers especially young peo
Chorus Game Three or more players n ancient Greece and even in Shakespeare's time the chorus was not a group of people who sing songs together in a play as we use the term today Instead the chorus was one actor who often told the audience what was about to happen in that scene This was because there were few surprise endings in early theater Playwrights wanted the audience to know the story before they watched the performance Since they didn't show very much violence on stage at that time either the chorus would also tell the audience if someone was hurt Another job of the chorus was to announce the passing of time so the audience would know if the next scene happened years or only moments after the previous scene This is an improvisation game that shows the job of the chorus before the invention of musical theater Improvisation also known as improv is a style of act ing where you create without any advance prepara
