Friday, February 26, 2010

Some Wikipedia resources

There's lots of drama-/ theatre-related material on Wikipedia, and while I know that Wikipedia can be a bit unreliable at times, most of the drama stuff looks pretty good.

Here's a few links to get you started:

Theatrical Genres (Remarkably varied material. I spent hours clicking on the links!)

Drama (Ostensibly a potted history of drama [useful for diploma students] but also great for exploring through the huge number of links, especially those on the right hand side of the page in the blue boxes)

Enjoy!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Michael Rosen

OK. I'm on a children's poetry thing here, with Jack Prelutsky a few days ago and now Michael Rosen. Michael Rosen is well known to speech, drama and communications teachers as a talented children's poet and also as an editor of children's poetry books. I found him on Twitter (Michael Rosen's Twitter account) and followed the link to his website (Michael Rosens's website).

His website is definitely worth exploring. You'll find poems, videos and so on. Click on the 'For Adults' and 'Links' tabs and see what you come up with.

I followed the 'For Adults' tab, clicked on 'For Teachers' and came to this site: http://www.childrenslaureate.org.uk/poetry-friendly-classroom which has activities and video tips for teachers working with children. They are aimed at primary school teachers but I'm sure speech and drama teachers will find something useful there.

Browse and enjoy.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Jack Prelutsky ...

... has a website. It's http://www.jackprelutsky.com/

So ... click on the artwork, wait for the flash screen to load, click on Grownups and then on Classroom Activites. There's a few ideas for a class or two in the Poetry Activities from Jack's Booklet download.

(It's my birthday today, so I've taken a few hours off. Hope nobody minds. DM)

Friday, February 5, 2010

Irish Theatre Magazine

I was following a link from Facebook today and I came across this publication - Irish Theatre Magazine (click on the link and you'll be taken to the site). It looks pretty useful for anyone interested in theatre, with theatre news, interviews, reviews and a blog.

I've subscribed which means (I think) that an edition will pop into my email inbox each week.

Worth a try I think. One can unsubscribe at any time.

(The link I followed related to Off Plan, a forthcoming play at The Project in Dublin, which is the next play I'm planning to attend. It's based on The Oresteia and is directed by Rachel West. Rachel directed Splendour a few years ago in The Project. One of the most memorable productions I've seen. Imaginative, creative and very thought-provoking. I loved it and I'm looking forward to being challenged by Off Plan.)

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Sligo Feis Ceoil

The Sligo Feis Ceoil will run from 5-8 April this year. The closing date for entries is 26 February. Two of the Irish Board's most experienced examiners are adjudicating: Eileen Fitzgerald and Patricia Reynolds.

Click here for the web page, syllabus and further information.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Accents on stage ...

... interesting article/ blog in the Guardian: here

From my experience examining and adjudicating, I do find that many children and young people, when performing a solo drama piece set, for example, in the US, concentrate so hard on creating and sustaining an accent that it interferes with other aspects of their performance, which suffers as a result.

Most times it's the character, and the content of the drama rather than the location that's important. So why not locate the piece locally, even though it's originally set somewhere else. By simply changing the location to Ireland, the young actor can concentrate on his or her performance and making the character believable, without having worry about the authenticity of her/ his accent.

This is just a personal opinion, not Irish Board policy or anything like that.

I'd welcome views and comments ...