Behind the scenes at one of our Drama School classes

I recently got the chance to sit in on one of our Drama School’s acting classes in Charlotte Martin Theatre. The first thing I noticed was how the kids seemed really engaged and excited to be there—in no small part due to the larger-than-life teaching of Keni, one of SCT’s Teaching Artists.


They started off with a few drama games. The exercises were really dynamic and fast-paced—I tried one out, and I was struck by the great energy level and focus which the students brought to the stage.


Eventually, the students began working on some simple scenes. After dividing into pairs, they were given an open-ended statement and a response—everything else was left up to them. Since the meaning and implications of the sentences were communicated through body language and context, there were some surprisingly different interpretations of the same phrase.


I tried my hand at this as well—I definitely did better than I did in the drama games, but I think my partner and I accidentally started a trend when we resolved practically every scene we acted out by having one of us storm off the stage. I guess I’ll leave dramatic interpretation up to the pros!