17
Mar 2025
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Drama Classes for Kids
Mayoor Private School, 42nd St. Al Wathba South, Abu Dhabi, UAE
VAIPA, Furtados, Royal Opera House, Mumbai and Avid Learning present Creating Musical Theatre
An open workshop that explores a range of theatre-based practices reimagined for young people and filled with music making activities. The workshop will include movement, improvisation, narrative, creative collaboration and performance practices. Participants will discover how music/soundscapes can be created in a space together, which will then be incorporated with movement to create 'music theatre'. There is no prior knowledge of music or theatre required to attend, but just a willingness to experiment and work collectively to devise a new music theatre piece over the course of the workshop.
HIGHLIGHTS:
• Gain a deeper knowledge of the performing arts, how it can be used to communicate stories.
• Understand the relation between music and theatre.
• Various theatre and music making activities designed to encourage team building, ensemble performance and building narratives.
• Our young participants will learn to coordinate, work together and discover what goes into creating a professional musical theatre ensemble.
• Create and tell their own stories through movement and sound, using their voices as instruments.
• The workshop will culminate in a sharing where the children will be performing the short pieces that they have created during the workshop.
Sandeep Gurrapadi is an American operatic tenor, educator and composer with experience in the UK, Europe, India, China and America. Sandeep has premiered leading roles in new opera at the Téte a Téte festival, Grimeborn festival, Southbank Centre - UK, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Opera House and London Festival of American Music - amongst many others. He has been invited to perform as a soloist in venues ranging from the Beijing National Stadium (Dialogue for Asian Civilizations Conference for the Chinese President), to the Beaumaris Festival of Wales and the Royal Opera House of Mumbai. In 2022, Sandeep was an understudy in the highly acclaimed opera Violet for the Aldeburgh Festival with the London Sinfonietta (produced by Britten Pears Arts and Royal Opera House - Covent Garden). He then went on to originate roles in the productions Witchfinder by Cohere Arts, Meal One by 509 Arts [UK wide tour] and Silver Spoon by Keynote Opera. Whilst in India, Sandeep will be performing in recitals for the Art Song Festival alongside soprano and artistic director Nina Kanter in cities across the country. As an experienced facilitator, Sandeep has worked with organizations such as Streetwise Opera, KM Music Conservatory, English National Opera (Baylis), Trinity Laban Conservatoire - London and the Singapore Raffles Music College. Alongside performing, Sandeep is also a doctoral researcher with the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he is investigating music facilitation practices within the context of exploring third space identity and intercultural artistic partnerships. Further info: www.sandeepgurrapadi.com
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Martha Maria Mitu is a classical violinist, interdisciplinary performer, composer, and music educator. Alumna of the Lucerne School of Music Switzerland, and Bern School of Music - Martha has performed and showcased her work in various prominent international stages (both classical and contemporary) all over Europe, Asia, and the UK. Martha is currently a 1st violin member of the BBC Concert Orchestra where her most recent performances include - Snape Malting BBC Proms, the Nevil Holt Opera and new recordings with internationally acclaimed soprano Barbara Hannigan; Martha has also performed recitals at Wigmore Hall with Effra String Quartet and has been Concertmaster within the Lucerne Festival Switzerland. Also an avid composer, Martha has composed and performed a series of interdisciplinary works, often designed for classical instruments, electronic music, and visual arts (paintings, interactive video projections, and dance). Martha’s compositions have been showcased in festivals such as HSLU New Music Days Festival – Lucerne, Switzerland; Perceptions Festival at the Apt Gallery in London, and many others.
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Musical Theater – Why You Must get Your Kids to Experience it
[5 Long-Term Benefits that your child can reap]
Musical Theater, in varied forms, has been a very popular medium of artistic expression for a long while. Not only does it carry entertainment value on a superficial level, but telling stories through a song-dance sequence is a very powerful way for messaging to an audience that tends to stay highly engaged during the performance. Initiating your kids in musical theater at an early age can help them benefit in multiple ways as follows:
Exploring Different Arts
Musical theater brings together a combination of varied art forms – song and music, acting, story-telling, dance and movement. Kids can get to explore such art forms, and several of them may be able to niche down on one or two that appeals to them the most or naturally suits their artistic aptitude. They may later be able to go out and explore off-beat careers as musicians, singers, theater and movie actors, voiceover artists, choreographers, and so on.
Skills aside of Arts
Apart from artistic skills, kids also stand to develop their inter-personal skills and get their first lessons in management by participating in musical theater. More importantly, they develop a collaborative mindset which is important for success in any profession. Participating in musical theater could expose kids to the fundamentals of professions such as event management, lighting designing, and music and film journalism. Moreover, they also get to overcome their stage-fright and develop confidence to address a large audience. This confidence also builds a healthy level of assertiveness which is essential for professional success in every career.
Building Emotional Intelligence
As theater artistes, kids need to learn how to get into the shoes of the characters that they play. This helps in building a sense of empathy and understanding for each other and people in general. Moreover, by learning to manage their emotions well, musical theater would also equip children to be better at handling challenging life situations. Not only would this help deliver better academic outcomes, it would also ensure that children grow up to be good human beings in general.
Discipline and Consistency
Musical theater demands a certain level of commitment to honing the necessary skills. This helps children in cultivating the attributes of discipline and consistency of action, which they will also carry into any other endeavor that they undertake.
Problem-Solving
Creativity in one area also tends to rub off in other areas. A study by University of Edinburgh professors reveals that children are more adept at thinking out-of-the-box while solving problems than college graduates because of their flexible and fluid thought processes. Musical theater taps into this thought process flexibility and nurtures it, thus equipping participants to be better equipped at finding creative solutions to problems.
It is in view of the aforementioned benefits that we at Avid Learning have been holding musical theater workshops for kids. We would welcome you to enroll your kid into musical theater with us. Not only do we look forward to meeting young performers with unique set of skills and talents, we also take pride in nurturing them and helping them channel those qualities in ways that would be life-long beneficial to them.
