Young actors learn skills at workshop

NEW BREMEN - Twelve budding actors spent three days this week learning about acting and performing on stage in the Crescent Players' first young thespian workshop at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in New Bremen.

"This is the first youth workshop we've ever had," said Rachel Meiring, Crescent Players secretary. "I'm hoping that we continue it next year because it was a lot of fun seeing the kids learn and take in all these different techniques."   

Group members got a chance to show off what they had learned on Wednesday afternoon.

"I learned how to speak louder on a stage, and how to act and how not to be afraid in front of people," said Emily Ayers, who will be a fifth-grader at St. Marys City Schools.

"I learned how to communicate with other people, that when you're talking to speak out instead of just mumbling," added Ava Trentman, who will be a sixth-grader at New Bremen Local Schools.

The 12 participants spent five hours on Monday and on Tuesday learning about singing, dancing and portraying characters on stage. On Wednesday afternoon, they got to sing and perform choreography to songs from "The Lion King" and perform an adaptation of "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" for a live audience of family members and other onlookers.

The teachers admitted the students had struggled with some aspects.

"The toughest thing for them, I think, was getting outside of their comfort zone and getting them to think outside of, like 'I'm not me any more. I'm this character.' That was probably what they struggled with the most, but in the end they actually did very well with that," Meiring said.

Singing while dancing also proved to be a bit of a challenge.

"They all knew the songs pretty well, and that's kind of how we intended it," Meiring said. "We picked 'The Lion King' because everyone knows (it). It was the choreography and the singing at the same time that was new to a lot of them, but they all did really good. I'm really impressed with them."

The participating students ranged from grades 4-7 and from as far away as Huber Heights.

"It's a great way to get them into theater, whether it's our theater, drama club in high school or middle school. But it's also good life skills to learn, so we're hoping we can continue and maybe funnel them into Crescent Players or maybe their own drama clubs or just get them exposed to the arts," Meiring said.

The Crescent Players is a community theater group founded in Minster in 1967 and welcomes all ages in Auglaize, Mercer, Darke and Shelby counties.