The Vancouver Island Regional Library’s Campbell River branch and On The Mark Theatre teamed up recently to bring stories off the page for kids.
They held a session in mid-August at the local branch to teach children some of the basics behind improvisation and how it relates to telling stories.
“We’re doing an improv workshop where we get to explore what makes up a story,” said On The Mark’s Laura Mudge. “It’s so kids can explore a story in a new way.”
For example, this might mean coming up with a way to re-tell a fairy tale by incorporating actions and costumes. As Mudge says, people use their imagination to picture a story when they read it, but this workshop offers kids the chance to act it out and explore it in their own way.
The Lights! Camera! Action! workshop was part of the library’s Summer Reading Club this year, which is held for kids up to 12 years of age. The improvisation workshop was open to anyone though.
The group started with some warm-up exercises before moving on to scenes, reading parts from The Gruffalo Play and doing character work, again with the aim of showing how to bring stories to life in a different way.
“This is our first time partnering together,” children and youth librarian Joëlle Samson said. “Every summer, we do the Summer Reading Club.”
She says it was a great opportunity to have On The Mark come and introduce kids to new experiences related to reading.
The Summer Reading Club, which operates every summer at VIRL branches, includes weekly themes and is a free program for kids to help them keep their reading skills sharp in July and August when they are outside of school.
“It does help children continue on with their reading throughout the summer, so they don’t experience the reading summer slide,” Samson said.
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For On The Mark, the theatre company does other kinds of workshops throughout the community, such as the Super Hero Theatre Camp during the March school break. It is also holding an eight-session workshop starting in September that will lead up to the Halloween Improv Howl at the Tidemark. For more information, see http://tidemarktheatre.com/organizer/on-the-mark-theatre/
