July 21, 1999
Students take center stage during summer class
Carol South
Herald contributing writer
How many 13-year-olds would want to get up on stage, in front of their peers, and ham it up? Play any number of characters, including a younger, naive boy or a baby or a selfish little girl or an invalid?
Thirteen students ages 11-14 did just that last week in an Acting II summer enrichment course offered by the Traverse City Area Public School system. For two hours each morning, they completed acting exercises that taught them to use their voice, body and facial expressions to communicate on stage. Improv skits helped them learn to quickly get into character and act it out, revising and working with other actors as they went.
The chance for self-expression appealed to the students, most of whom were novice actors.
"This is my first acting class and I like it because I can really express myself," said Steve Dammon, 12. "You can be really funny and I liked the games we all played."
Sometimes acting brought out another facet of a student's personality. Elliot Nelson's quiet, more reserved demeanor belied the fact that by the end of the week he liked playing comedic roles best. Encouraged to take the class by his mother and talked into it by a former teacher, Susan Littlefield-Dungjen, who taught it, he was pleased with the results.
"I get to express myself in ways that I would not normally do," said Nelson, 13. "This built confidence that I can get up on stage and do this."
Elissa Preseau, 14, was one of the students who had acted before, landing parts in three plays previously. Despite being a veteran, Preseau admitted to some stage fright before a performance, even a small one like in the course.
"I get nervous but once I see the audience the nerves all just go away," said Preseau, a student at Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School who plans to audition for a role in 'Annie' later this year. "I like to play comedic roles best because I like to hear the audience laugh and make them feel like part of the play."
On the final day of the week-long Acting II course, the aspiring actors enacted a skit, either a dialogue or a monologue assigned by the teacher. Although they spent just two days preparing for the skit, the results were on target. They milked lines, paused dramatically, got into character, rolled their eyes and responded to each other like professionals. After each skit, the rest of the class noted what worked and gave each other positive feedback.
Littlefield-Dungjen has taught an acting course during the summer for the past few years. This summer one course expanded into three parts: Acting I, Acting II and a production class. During the two-week production class, which starts this week, students will prepare a play and present to an audience on the final day.
"They love to act, it is a really neat age to get them started," said Littlefield-Dungjen, a sixth-grade teacher at Silver Lake Elementary School who teaches the Theater Arts summer enrichment program. "Some of them are already dramatic and they love the class."
This is the first summer that Traverse City Area Public Schools has offered the expanded Theater Arts program and it has proven to be quite popular. Rounding out their summer enrichment curriculum was French and Spanish classes in June for elementary students and four sessions of Safety City in June and July.
For fall, the school district plans to offer additional French and Spanish enrichment courses for elementary students as well as a Classical World of Latin course and additional Safety City sessions.
"Because the enrichment classes are not for credit, it puts a different focus on it," said Pat Lewallen, special programs principal for Traverse City Area Public Schools. "The students are not worried about a paper or a test, they are just having fun and learning something new."