Durbanville Parents Day Huge Success!

Family and friends were thrilled and delighted by the June performances of the students in the Helen O’Grady class in Durbanville.

Parents Days in the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy are wonderful show-cases for the many skills developed and honed by the students under the watchful eye of their experienced teacher. The students put their vocal and acting talents into practice with scripted plays, improvised plays, music and movement pieces. Students aged 5-18 years of age enthusiastically took part in the show-case and received a rapturous reception from their audiences.

The first presentation was the Lower Primary class of 5-8 year olds. The children in this class worked hard on developing their confidence, self-esteem and strong, clear voices and acting skills. They demonstrated their vocal skills by performing many voice activities, using amusing rhymes and poems to the general hilarity of their family and friends. Once the laughter had died down the children came to life and acted out a play to music, called a dance drama. The main part of this innovative presentation was their wonderful whole class improvised play which required the children to adopt convincing roles and to develop, alongside the teacher, an exciting, ensemble piece of theatre. The audience was left spellbound!

The Upper Primary class took centre stage next to demonstrate the development in vocal skills through the Academy’s extensive and progressive curriculum. The spotlight this term was on their Verbal Dynamics play called “Cities!” using choral speaking and strong acting skills – it was as dynamic as it was verbal! To end, the students displayed their talent with script work – with two scripted plays, "The Visit to the Doctor” and "The Diary", with advanced characterisation required from the interaction between a blushing tomato and a cool cucumber. The audience were able to see how much creativity and energy the children put into their individual performances.

As a tremendous endorsement of the creative benefits of the comprehensive theatre-arts programme, the youth theatre took to the stage with gusto. These young people, aged 13-18, have undergone extensive voice training and acting tuition, stretching their existing talents and developing new ones during an action-packed term. They demonstrated advanced acting techniques in various genres including silent movie acting, radio plays, class improvisations and challenging scripted plays. The audience whole-heartedly appreciated the superb performances and enthusiasm which this class so readily displayed.

Presenting the students with their certificates and medals for progress, the Principal, Duncan Rice said: “This term is a culmination of the skills taught. This provides a strong grounding for our summer productions which are performed in a professional theatre, where everyone gets the opportunity to further develop their talents.

“Fortunately there are still some places available in this exciting project. No audition is required and the rehearsals are great fun, continuing our development programme.”