Arts and Personal Enrichment Teachers (Private Tuition)
Teach students in the practice, theory and performance of art, dance, speech and drama in private training establishments.
Showcase week at the studio
You are a speech and drama teacher getting a class of twelve young performers ready for a showcase on Saturday night in the hall. It is Tuesday, four days from the show. Costumes are half finished, the script has been trimmed twice, and parents are starting to ask questions at pick-up time.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
My daughter has been coming for years, and she is only in the second row of the chorus. I think she should have a solo. Everyone says she is the best in the group. Can you change it?
Explain how roles were chosen and what she does well and could work on
He had not heard the detail before. He is still a little disappointed, but he nods at the point about her timing, and he asks if she could help the younger ones next term.
Say the casting is set and that he will see her shine in the chorus on the night
Mr Haddad leaves unconvinced. You were clear, but you did not explain how decisions are made, so he assumes it was about favourites. He mentions it to two other parents.
Give her a short solo to keep him happy, and fit it in somewhere before the second half
He is delighted. Another child who had earned the line loses it, and her mother arrives on Wednesday asking why. One easy fix has created a harder problem.
I want to do a monologue for the showcase. It is from a play about a really violent fight and a bunch of swearing. I think it is powerful. Can I perform it for the family audience?
Say it is not suitable for this audience and make him choose from your list
The decision is right, and Kai complies, but he feels his taste was dismissed. His new piece is flat in rehearsal and he starts coming late.
Tell him his instincts are great and let him perform it with the worst words taken out
The edited version leaves the piece confusing, and the younger siblings in the audience still get a scene that is far too intense. Parents complain afterwards.
Praise the ambition, explain the audience and help him find a piece that fits
Kai wants to know why you are saying no, so you tell him honestly. He picks a different piece with real tension and no violence, and performs it with more control than you expected.
Sorry, the council has booked the hall on Thursday evening, so you will only have the stage for one hour instead of the full rehearsal. Can you make that work?
Tell her that is not acceptable and demand the full rehearsal back
Priya cannot change a council booking. You have used up goodwill with someone you will rely on all year, and you still have only one hour.
Cut the run-through of the quieter scenes and rehearse the show in order next week
You can manage the hour, but the quieter scenes are shaky on the night. Having no run-through of the middle was a gamble that does not quite pay off.
Accept the hour, ask Priya for any extra time on Friday, and plan which scenes need the stage most
Priya finds twenty minutes on Friday afternoon. You use the Thursday hour for the transitions and entrances, and rehearse the rest on the floor of the studio.
How it went
On Saturday the lights come up, and every child gets to the end of their part. Teaching speech and drama is partly performing and mostly noticing what each child needs, from the quiet ones to the very loud ones, and managing parents and venues along the way. Which of those parts would you enjoy most?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The girl who whispered
A fictional case set in a speech and drama studio in a converted church hall.
The situation
Nadia ran speech and drama classes in a hall that smelled of old wood and tea. Lily, aged ten, never spoke above a whisper. In group games she would mouth the words, and when it was her turn to share a story, she looked at the floor. Her father had enrolled her hoping to build confidence, and told Nadia privately that he worried she would never be able to speak up. The end-of-term showcase was six weeks away, and every other child already had a speaking part.
What they did
Nadia did not push Lily to be louder. She asked her what she liked and found out Lily loved animals and was a very good listener. Nadia gave her the role of narrator for a short animal story, with a microphone that let her use a normal voice and a carpet square to stand on so that she did not have to look at the audience. In rehearsals Nadia asked the other children to turn away while Lily read, and slowly turned them back one at a time.
How it turned out
On the night Lily read her whole part. It was not loud, but it was clear, and people at the back heard her. She did not turn into a chatterbox. Her dad said afterwards that she had asked to do another term.
What would you do?
- Why did Nadia change the setting before she changed the child?
- Is being brave the same thing as being loud?
- What might a teacher learn about a child by asking what they love?