Playact - Performing for the over 40s (From Your Local Guardian)

Playact - Performing for the over 40s

3:23pm Thursday 16th August 2012 in Elmbridge

“I love acting. It is so much more real than life”

Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Dorian Grey Have you always secretly yearned to perform on stage but didn’t know how or where to begin?

From September 12th 2012 a local group will start a course of performing arts workshops to help you bring out your inner artiste.

PlayAct has been formed by four Elmbridge locals all of whom had previously attended adult performing arts classes in the area. The workshops are aimed at the over 40’s who may not necessarily want to join an amateur dramatics club, choir or dance class.

Christine Humphries explains, “The idea is not to work towards performing a complete play, learn elaborate choral techniques or become the new Darcey Bussell but to incorporate elements from all performing arts to build self-confidence, have fun and forget your worries for a couple of hours every week. Our two fantastic professionals who will guide students through a combination of Drama, Song, Dance, Theatre Games and Stage-Craft and we then perform what we’ve learned throughout the course in front of friends and family at the end of term.

  There are many such groups that cater for children and young people but nothing for the generation of over-40s who may have spent their adult lives looking after children and partners and would now like a bit of “me-time” and an opportunity to have a go at being on stage”.

Julie Baker, another member of the group, originally found the idea of performing hugely intimidating but the patience of the teachers and the support and camaraderie from the other students meant that, by the end of the course, she was delivering a scene from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” from memory in front of an audience. “I would never have believed I could manage to do anything like that but the whole experience gave me such an overwhelming sense of achievement I can’t wait for our new term to start!”

PlayAct are offering a free trial workshop from 1930 – 2100 on Wednesday 22ndAugust from 7.30 til 9pm at The Drama Studio, Hinchley Wood School where the classes will start from Wednesday 12th September 2012 from 7.30 to 9.30 for a 10-week term.

For more details please email PlayAct on playact.org@gmail.com or ring Chris on 07917 124451 or Lottie on 07767 204544.

Based on information supplied by Lottie Gazzard.