Drama & Voice Coaching
English Language & Accent Tuition
with Joanna Hempel
Voice Coaching & Presentaion Skills
Contact:
Joanna Hempel
9518 4615
0433 896 420
joanna@atticstudio.com
Children's Drama
Children's group drama is held weekly over an 8 week term. Class sizes are limited to 8. Improvements to a child's confidence, concentration, creative and verbal expression develop over time with regular attendance and practice.
Drama classes with Joanna Hempel involve structured play using games, songs, excercises in rhythm and movement, visual observation, listening, physical feeling and vocalising. The child learns to tune in to all five senses, describing what is being experienced, and to create from the imagination and from reality.
Exercises slowly increase in difficulty as young minds absorb the challenges. Group and individual expression is developed through movement as well as language. Later, stories are told through the creation of characters, animals and scenes. Some costume is introduced gradually.
'A BIG THANK YOU. My son comes home really happy and
confident'
- mother of an 8 year-old
Structured improvisations are begun early and, as the children advance in ability, there is a gradually increasing emphasis on form. Parents and teachers report on inprovements in a child's expression - in written work in English at school, in imaginative and creative play with other children, and linguistically with adults.
Joanna Hempel teaches drama to children in a non-competetive way, encouraging co-operation, relaxation and self awareness. She has enabled many shy children to find their voice, and helped the "dramatic" child to learn to listen.
Holiday Drama is offered in the first week of the winter break.
Parental involvement is encouraged. Parents may sit in on any class, and many join in some of the activities. Parents may creep up into the Studio to act as an audience for the children's performance of sketches in the latter part of a lesson. An Open House Workshop is conducted at the end of the year in which relatives and friends observe a selection of exercises and activities.
Joanna Hempel trained in Psychology at the University of Sydney and later in Theatre, gaining an M.Litt at the University of New England, Armidale. With a Polish background, Joanna was director and playwright for the Armidale School of Youth Drama. Many of her plays for teenagers have been published and are studied in Australian schools. She has shared her techniques with drama teachers in colleges, schools and at conferences inter-state & overseas. In 2001, she opened the Attic Studio in Glebe in Sydney’s Inner-West to offer drama for adults and children to help them develop by extending their language and performance skills.