Largest African Drama School Host Camp

Largest African drama school hosts camp

Helen O'Grady Drama Academy will next week host a holiday drama camp in Westlands Nairobi, expanding its outreach in helping kids develop confidence, self-esteem, communication and performance skills using Australian Actress Helen O'Grady's tips.

Those that attend the camp running from July 16 to 19 July at My School (Montessori) Peponi Rd Westlands, will become part of the more than 50,000 students attending drama classes each week in 1,400 locations throughout the countries of operation worldwide.

Founded in Australia, the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy is the only organisation of its kind in Africa, say organisers. It began when Helen O'Grady, a trained teacher, drama teacher and actress, hired a hall in Australia and commenced affordable after-school drama classes for young people from ages 3 to 19+ years back in 1979. To date, her legacy continues as the school has spread to 10 African countries including Kenya, sharpening acting and life skills in kids.

According to the organisation, what makes the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy holiday programme unique is that students not only receive a top-quality acting education but also receive defined nurturing to develop their life skills such as confidence, self-esteem, proper speech habits, creativity and initiative-taking.

The curriculum is divided into various categories for each age group. The age 3 to 5 group, also known as the Kindy programme, empowers young children and their natural self through creative drama. It works with children to build confidence, communication and interactive skills though drama techniques, such as storytelling, improvisation, devised theater and play, mime and dance to mention a few.

In the ages 5 to 8 category, kids practice social skills as they develop clear speech and fluency, in that they would be able to ask questions, seeks answers and share information with others. Kids participate in activities such as speech creative movement, improvisation and a special end of year performance helping them to become more articulate.

For the upper primary category of the age 9 to 12 category, students participate in a wider range of activities such as speech, drama movement improvisation, snippets and scene starters. At the end of each year, they utilise all the skills acquired to create short scripted production performed for parents and friends.

But for this holiday drama camp with training lasting for three-hours a day, students aged 3 to 12 years will produce a short scripted play during the week, taught by the academy's specialist teachers.

During each day students also gain experience of theatrical disciplines, which could include: singing, dance, drama, mask-making, puppetry, mime, costume design and physical theater.

The highlight of the holiday programme is a ‘workshop’ performance for parents and friends. It also aims to compliment the work completed during the term-time programme and take students to the next level of their personal development.

The camp is worth Sh9,900 for the one week course for children enrolled in the academy while children outside would pay Sh9,950 with students from the same family would get a 10 per cent discount. The academy would also provide T-shirts to students for the workshop performance.

However, spaces are limited to 20 children per age-group. For booking and details, the school located at Montessori, Peponi Road Westlands, can be contacted on 0721 955 308 or harun@dramaafrica.com