ExpressionWorks celebrates Fall with their active and engaging Halloween Craftiness!

As we entered our third week of our Crafty Arts session, we definitely enjoyed our spooky stretch to some favourite Halloween classics!

We also worked on our speaking and presentation skills with our Halloween news circle. It was great to find out all the wonderful events and activities everyone had in store. We also moved on to develop our articulation through the Monster Mash song.

We got detailed when it came down to designing artist ghosts in two separate groups, then leading around the room, following the directions of our crossing guard, Petra! Way to go Petra!

One of our highlights this term, was when our dear friend Jeffrey started our “Are you afraid of the dark” spooky story creation closing with a dramatic effect using glow sticks! None of us will forget that moment! Way to go Jeff!

We were also emotional when it came down to signing a card to celebrate our staff Jon’s new job.  He’s promised to visit us on the rare occasion due to his new schedule, and we are especially thankful to have the fabulous Alex back to join us in his absence.  All the best Jon in your future!

We also wanted to give Melvin a special shout out this week as he did an excellent job sharing his news with the group today! Way to speak clearly buddy! We are all so proud.
Can’t wait for yet another fun and active week.

Be safe on Halloween night. Don’t forget those bright colours we spoke about and practise your hygiene after eating any sugary sweets. I know we will! 🙂

 

Good-bye to our wonderful Jonathan Ursini of ExpressionWorks

We are sad to announce that this week was the last week for our staff member Jonathan Ursini of ExpressionWorks.
He has taken on another position which is exciting for him, but we will miss him dearly.
Our group gave him a wonderful send off last night and we look forward to seeing him at some point in the future.
We wish him all the best in the future. On the plus side, this means, we get one of our wonderful Senior Staff members back, Alexandra Marcozza. She will join our ExpressionWorks team this week until the New year. She may be travelling for a portion next year, but for now, we are glad to have her back with the group and since she’s subbed for the program before, most of our participants are quite familiar with her, so the transition should be seemless.
Thanks again Jon and welcome back to Alex!

Reminder you are welcome to dress up and bring NUT FREE snacks to class tonight to share with your friends. We also welcome and encourage gluten free items so we can accommodate more. We look forward to enjoying the fun times with you all tonight!

SingingWorks Reminders for October 30th

Just a reminder to all our SingingWorks Vocalists, that tomorrow night will be our rehearsal for our upcoming Video shoot.

Reminders:

* Amelia to bring capo

* Everyone to bring 1-2 coloured shirts so we can choose which one will be best suited for the video shoot. Caroline we know you’ll come wearing yours as you already arranged this with Lara.

* Timely arrival is crucial if possible the next coming weeks.

Thanks again.
Looking forward to also enjoying the Halloween/Fall Celebration in Drama with you all following SingingWorks October 30th.

Danielle & SingingWorks Staff/Volunteer Team

SocialWorks running on October 31st, get into the Halloween Spirit!

Hello SocialWorks Families,

SOCIALWORKS WILL RUN AS ALWAYS THIS FRIDAY (OCTOBER 31ST 2014).

We will be hosting a Small Fall/Halloween In-Class Celebration, so all are encouraged to dress up and bring NUT FREE snacks to share with everyone.  Please call 416-614-1078 or email dramawayoffice@gmail.com our office to advise us if you will be absent this week so we can plan accordingly!

LAST WEEK:

In following with our business theme, this week we focused on doing well in sales and persuading customers (We also discussed money management in there too)!

We learned how to take simple ideas and simple products, and use various persuasion and sales techniques to get the customer to buy our products.

We also used a learning tool of watching a few episodes of a short webseries for kids by Warren Buffet called: The Secret Millionaires Club. From these we learned that for a business to flourish, we have to be unique, organized, and listen to our customers.

You can find the links here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOrx-MJc-BA&spfreload=10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBUl-9zzxMM&list=UUaf88EBmtZuBFOifL0i5DFw&spfreload=10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3gBNBtJMJw&index=19&list=UUaf88EBmtZuBFOifL0i5DFw&spfreload=10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf81d0YS58E&spfreload=10

We put this into practice during our main classroom activity. Each individual created a name for a stand where they were selling a few items found in the classroom, there were then buyers who walked around with money – only purchasing if the sales person was able to convince the buyer of WHY they really needed this product. Throw back to Aristotle’s Ethos, Logos, and Pathos methods we also breezily discussed. You can find some cool pictures as follows.

Have a great week and we’ll see you on Friday!

Danielle

DramaWorks East – Class downstairs – Lower Level in Lawson October 29th, 2014

I was advised that there is an event taking place in the Lawson Gym tomm night October 29th from 5 – 7:30 pm, as a result we will host our DramaWay class downstairs on the lower level in the large gym.  Please avoid entering the gym. PLEASE enter and exit through front doors this week, and we appreciate your co-operation.

Reminder it’s our Fall/Halloween Celebration so all are welcomed to bring NUT FREE snacks as well as dress up if you desire.

Thanks for your understanding.

Danielle

ExpressionWorks gets spooky!

This past week at ExpressionWorks we had a very Spooky theme haunt us early… 🙂

The group had fun practicing tongue twisters about speedy spiders spinning silk!

We also told each other spooky jokes- responding in genuine laughter as well as themed cackles.

A high light was doing our role-playing as a reminder to wear bright clothing when preparing to head out in the dark. Costumes were a big help with this and also added a bunch of humour to the night!

For our expression hour-the group got imaginative and creative with making spooky shadow puppets.

We added a successful end to our weekly routine with a reflection circle where leaders had a choice to reflect on the class privately in their journal or aloud as a group while also showing off their puppet creations. Each room was led by our fabulous staff helpers, Jon and Mira!

A memorable moment was when our dear friend Jordan created a very gory Walking Dead zombie puppet picture.  We are definitely looking forward to this coming Thursday where we’ll engage the group in a story campfire after costume designing Halloween fun.  I hear some leaders are looking forward to having a few minutes in the spotlight time to tell Afraid of the Dark stories.

 

Fun times! Happy Halloween to all!

RhythmWorks West & East

Our RhythmWorks dancers are all working hard on developing their rhythm and different styles and form of movement.

RhythmWorks West has been working away on their Lana Del Rey choreography, and RhythmWorks East has several routines that they have been trying out.  Our East End dancers have been introduced to a wide range of new approaches.  Not only are they continuing to improve on their dance skills, they are excited to be trying some new elements in the coming weeks. As Morgan is experienced in both dance and drama, they will be trying to incorporate some text work and even work in some story lines within the framework of their pieces.  We are all eager to see how this turns out.

We are looking forward to seeing our Dancers perform. Don’t forget to reserve June 7 and 8 for rehearsal dates and June 9 and 10th for the showcase dates. We’ll confirm timing and schedule come the New Year!

All the Best,

DramaWay Team

Roles Assigned for our 2015 Open Class Multi Arts Showcase!

Hi Everyone:
We are delighted to announce that everyone is pleased and delighted with the roles they have been assigned in this years production.

If you’d like to know your actors role, please contact us by phone or email us at dramawayoffice@gmail.com to find out, we will not post on this blog.

We are far from distributing scripts, but we are now at the point of editing and adapting each group script now that we know who will be taking on which role.

The important thing to remember is that our actors are excited at our new approach this year of role sharing.
Many often want what they consider “lead” roles, however you know we sway away from these terms. But in reviewing, we thought we would try what some theatres have in the past, which is sharing a role. Therefore, in most groups we have about two roles that are being split between two actors. They will be told which scenes they are in to avoid any confusion once the script is distributed. In our larger groups like DramaWorks West and DramaWorks Scarborough we have 3-4 roles being split. If you need clarification on this new process, let us know, but we feel it is only fair to give it a try and see how it works out. Our main reason for doing this is so that our actors are more engaged in class as we can break up into groups for class rehearsals and avoid less waiting time for our actors.
We also considered feedback from audience members and families and as a result, have the goal of keeping the production shorter this year, if all goes well. Fingers crossed we can meet this goal! I know we’ve tried this in the past and haven’t always kept it under what we hoped, but perhaps this year is the year! We remain hopeful.

Thanks for your continued support and encouragement.
We remind you to keep an eye out for our Indigogo Fundraising Campaign which we hope to release soon.

Stay tuned.