Helen O'Grady Drama

The Helen O’Grady Drama Academy began in Perth , Western Australia in 1979.It is of international status and in South Africa alone there are 9 branches with 4,000 children attending each week.I have now been involved with the Academy for over 15 years,6 years in London,UK and 9 years in Johannesburg.The Academy has gone from strength to strength and we now have 600 students attending classes in 14 locations.The Academy has expanded with the help of my highly skilled, caring, enthusiastic teachers , Catherine Brooks,Venetia Herbst, Stephanie Nel, Hilliary Meikle and Cindy Hammond.







Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Benoni Studio on the Move!

 The Benoni studio held at St John's Congrgational Hall, Farramere were in awe of their amazing teacher, Stephanie Nel who was demonstrating certain techniques in our movement programme. Drama trained and specialising in dance, Stephanie taught the children about rhythm and co-ordination. Our unique drama programme incorporates a movement section which teaches the students that acting is not just about using the voice- its abut the whole person.
The first part of the lesson envolves them warming up their voices and loosening up!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Show must go on!

Last week our upper primary classes acted out being on a real live stage show where everything was going wrong ! Someone was sabotaging the play- did they find out who it was ? Our Upper Primary classes in Edenvale and Sunninghill had great fun with their fantastic teacher Cindy Hammond who was teaching them improvisation and miming skills as well as spacial awareness. The Helen O'Grady programme also helps develop self confidence , communication skills and social skills.
 





Saturday, March 3, 2012

The Hunt !

Our Lower and Upper primary classes had great fun acting out a mime to music called "The Hunt". Mime to music teaches the kids how to communicate non verbally  through their facial expressions and through the whole body.The Sunninghill Lower primary class, held at St Stephens Church certainly got into character and came with war paint, spears and African wrap arounds.
Sandton Lower Primary  pose to give their hunting faces!







Friday, February 24, 2012

Young At Heart!






This week our lower primary classes had great fun dressing up and acting as old people! We had  some great characters in our lower primary Morningside class.They also had to be aliens on  a TV set and their lovely teacher Hillary Meikle joined in the fun. Our classes at Morningside take place at the Ulman Recreational Centre, Gallo Manor  on Tuesday afternoons.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Edenvale Boy as lead Role of Mowgli at Peoples Theatre

























Kian Du Preez (10 years) from our Edenvale Upper primary class has landed the role of Mowgli performing at The Peoples Theatre in Johannesburg. Kian has been attending the Academy for just over 5 years and the unique programme has certainly helped him get selected for this prestigious role. His younger brother Jude (7 years) who has also attended the Acdemy for nearly 3 years  has a featured role. Jude who started off as a very shy boy has also been in numerous TV ads including Twin Savers, Milo, Ultramel & PPC cement .
Well done boys ! We are very proud of you.
Please support them and go watch the show- 5th March - 15th April. Kian is one of 3 Mowglis performing so make sure you check out when he is in it.
 It's sure to be an entertaining show. To book call 0114031563
 

Houghton Drama Academy off to a flying start !

The Houghton Lower Primary Class (held at St John's College) had a great time this week with their teacher Hillary Meikle. Dressed up as tourists they imagined  being on a magic carpet exploring different exotic lands. The improvisation helps with multiple sentence flow, developing their creative mind and using props.

Houghton Upper Primary enacted a scene requiring strong emaginations and emotions as their improvisation involved being in a taxi accident!
Some real drama queens here !!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Bedfordview Classes exploding!

Bedfordview Upper Primary class(9-12 yrs) having great fun with their fantastic teacher Stephanie Nel as she builds them up into a frenzy during a voice cannon where they errupted as a volanco. Our unique drama programme teaches the children to use not only their voices but their bodies to express themselves.


Following her upper Primary classes , Stephanie teaches her Youth theatre (13 -18 yrs)students about projecting their voices in a fun way!