Helen O'Grady students compete against eachother in YOTV's game show Blom or Vaya!

16 of the Helen O'Grady Youth Theatre students from our Kensington and Sandton studios had great fun going on set of the SABC 1 YOTV game show "Blom or Vaya". The students paired up with their best friends and had to compete against another couple. The winners were the ones who knew their partner the best and  the couple who got the most points on the leader board were the over all winners. The first episode flights on Monday 16th September at 3.25pm - do be sure to watch it. There are 4 episodes .  More of our students will be going on the show later this month.

Long Walk to Freedom featuring 4 Helen O'Grady drama students has an 8 minute standing ovation at the Toronto film Festival !

The highly anticipated film "Long Walk to Freedom" made its debut at the Toronto film festival on Saturday. We are very proud of 4 of our drama students who played Nelson Mandela's children :



 


Sinakho Motsepe
Role : Tembi (Mendela's son age 6yrs)

Khumbuzile Maphumulo
Zeni(Mendela's daughter age 8 yrs)

Joshua Manana
Tembi (Mandela's son age 11yrs)

Refilwe Charles
Zinzi ( Mendela's daughter age 12 yrs).

 

All the children have been attending the drama academy for many years and are real stars in their own right! The casting director was very impressed with their performances and how well they took direction.

 

Check out the links from the press conference:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24006151

 

 

 Idris Elba  who play Mandela is tipped to be nominated for an Oscar. The film is due to be released in South Africa on 29th November 2103.

 

 

Helen O'Grady drama students feature in YOTV's Yo Hambo show on SABC 1!

Good friends, Ryan Naamdhew and Zithobe Hlongwane  from our  Kensington class had the time of their lives when YOTV took them rock climbing and filmed their amazing experience. The  show will be screened on Monday 5th August on SABC1 at 3.00pm .They will also be doing a live interview and then introduce the episode themselves. We  wish them all the luck!

Ryan was originally interviewed by YOTV at the drama class in Kensington which is held at The Kensington Tennis and Bowling club, Ivanhoe street, Kensington  on Thursdays. Drama is Ryan's passion and during his interview he was asked how the Helen O'Grady drama programme had benefitted him and what was so special about it ! His interview and some of the drama lesson were then shown on an episode of Yo Hambo earlier this year. Ryan and Zithobe have developed a really good friendship since attending the academy and they have been coming for years. They are both very talented actors and are part of our casting agency , Take10. Zithobe has been on quite  a few TV adverts, featured in the TV series "The Wild" and Leon Schusters "Boeti and the Beast."




Lower Primary classes wrap up warm for their first dress up this term!

Our lower primary classes (5- 8yrs) had great fun dressing up for their improvisation "The Super Snowman". Our improvisations give the children opportunities to be creative and imaginative - some of our children  had never seen snow so they had to imagine having snowball fights, making a snowman , sledging or even being a snow angel.
Our wonderful programme helps develops language and communication skills, self confidence and self esteem and above all is fun!

Sandton lower Primary

Kensington Lower Primary

Youth Theatre presentations have the parents in stitches!

All Our Youth Theatre classes (13-18yrs) impressed their parents with some fine performances with scripts, monologues, small group improvisations , theatre games and much much more! Our fantastic youth theatre programme gives the students an excellent platform  in performance skills should they wish to take acting as a career. It also helps them in public speaking, presentation skills and consequently it will  make them effective communicators. Above all ,our classes are great fun and they just keep coming!!

Edenvale YT Theatre- The Wedding



Sandton YT - Sherlock Holmes

Sandton YT- Consulting you inner conscience



Pantomime Blanche!

Kensington YT- The Wedding

Zarza Booda- The hunting is bad!

Benoni YT- Zarza Booda

Kempton Park YT- Doctor in The house

Cartoon Capers

The Importance of Being Ernest

Upper Primary classes present "The Legend of William Tell" !

Our Upper Primary classes (9-12 yrs) impressed their  parents with  a short structured scene based on "The Legend of William Tell'. This part of our fantastic programme teaches our students about performing on stage including miming skills, adlibbing, stage awareness, voice projection and character building. Our curriculum is also diverse and our students learn  about different cultures and periods of history through the media of drama, making it fun and interesting. The kids really enjoyed dressing up and getting into character with some great performances by our various William Tell's and Gessler- the Austrian tyrant!!

Benoni Upper Friday

Boksburg Upper Primary

Benoni Upper Primary Wednesday

Kempton Park Upper Primary

Sandton Upper Primary

Kensington Upper Primary

Sunninghill Upper A

Sunninghill Upper B

Oh no ! Not another Fall,he's always slipping off that wall!

Our lower primary parent days in all our studios were a great hit with the parents. All the children dressed up as their favourite storybook characters and met in the town square to talk about their stories. Unfortunately, Humpty Dumpty kept on falling off his wall, but Little Miss Muffet came to his rescue. Parent days give our parents the opportunity to observe various components of our fantastic programme and to see how it helps develop confidence, social and communication skills!


Sandton Lower Primary

Boksburg Lower Primary

Kempton Park LP

Houghton LP

Sunninghill LP

Edenvale LP

Kensington LP




 



Celebrating 10 years at the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy

It is very exciting that 3 of our students have  been attending The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy Johannesburg East  for 10 years and  it was  a great pleasure  to present our specially designed cut glass trophies to mark their achievements at our mid year presentations.

Vanessa Joseph -Kensington Youth theatre. Age 19 years joined the academy in Grade 3. She now attends the National School of arts and is studying drama and directing. She is also in a band and sings. Vanessa has developed into a wonderful performer and a brilliant director.

Phoebe Worrel- Edenvale Youth Theatre- Age 14. Phoebe was just four and a half when she started at the Academy and her first role in our end of year productions was "The Old woman who lived in a Shoe". She has since taken lead roles in many of our plays. Phoebe is now a very confident speaker and versatile as an actress. She has really embraced being in the Youth Theatre class and brings great entertainment value!

 Jamie -Rose Brewer :Edenvale Youth theatre. Age 18 .Jamie-Rose started in the Lower Primary class in 2003. Over the years she has  gained huge amount of confidence and become a great actress. Her diversity as a performer has been demonstrated in the various lead roles she has had in our end of year productions. She is always enthusiastic and  brings great energy to the class.

The Circus Comes to Town !

The Lower primary classes had great fun dressing up as circus characters for their improvisation
" The Circus comes to Town". The children really enjoyed getting into character and "performing " .
Improvisations help children to improve their self confidence and communication skills  as well as  to be creative  and to explore the realms of fantasy. It is so wonderful to see children loose  their inhibitions after a hectic day at school!

Kensington LP

Sandton LP

 

 

 

 

Lower primary classes have fun Camping Out!

This week our Lower Primary classes had fun bringing their sleeping bags and wearing their pyjamas for their improvisation " Camping Out". Our improvisations help children to interact and develop their language skills as well as their performance skills. Here are pictures of  our Lower Primary class(5- 8 yr olds) held at the Edenvale Community Centre on Fridays at 3.00-4.00pm. They are a really fun and enthusiastic group and always put on a great show!!