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4 B A C K T O S C H O O L , M U S I C & D A N C E … A N D M O R E ! - S U P P L E M E N T T O T H E W I N N I P E G F R E E P R E S S - T H U R S D A Y, A U G U S T 1 0 , 2 0 17 FIND YOUR REASON TO PLAY. Studies show that music education can raise IQs, boost self-confidence and improve concentration. And it's fun, too! MUSIC LESSONS offered city wide and on campus. All ages and levels welcome. GROUP CLASSES in Musical Theatre, Early Childhood Music and more! Get started today. 204-474-9797 | prepmusic@umanitoba.ca | umanitoba.ca/music/prep Prepstudies PLAY. MUSIC. Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences If they had been born 400 years ago, that is. Imagine the horror — and panicked fumbling around in pockets and purses for ear buds — when one innocent young actor zings another with, "Thou artless, dizzy-eyed bugbear!" The response is even worse: "How dare you, thou goatish, onion-eyed bladder!" Finally, the encounter ends with this show- stopper — "Me goatish? Thou shouldst speak, thou impertinent rump-fed minnow!" What? You were expecting something else? Kent Suss, Theatre School Director at MTYP, said having young actors from nine to 12 years old learn Shakespearian insults helps open up their minds to the real breadth of the playwright's unprecedented vocabulary. "They love it. It encourages them to act out this intense drama and aggression towards each other. The vocabulary that people have when insulting each other (these days) usually isn't that rich," he said. "To suddenly have 100 insults to lay on somebody is really freeing and fun. It starts to make you realize this text has so many rich meanings in it and it gives you an opportunity to go deeper into the language and find ways to express things that you didn't have a way to express before. It's a consciousness expanding experience." For any acting teacher, using virtually any act in any Shakespearian play is pure gold. The unorthodox words force the students to breathe deeply and master the use of their breath to get complicated sentences out. "They've got to articulate and go into their diaphragm to deliver the words. It's great training for any kind of acting," he said. MTYP provides professional theatre instruction for children as young as three, all the way up to young adults. Three-year-olds can take Drama Ventures classes with a parent or caregiver. This class is built on the child's natural love of stories, which they get to act out in costumes, through creative movement and role playing, which are all elements of the course They can graduate to Dynamic Drama, which is geared towards four- and five-year-olds who love to be on their feet, run around and express themselves. "We structure the class so that's encouraged," Suss said. MTYP theatre school offers classes in areas including musical theatre, film and acting. There is also a wide variety of classes for teens, such as Actor & Camera for Teens and Improv, and there are performance companies that offer intensive acting training. This involves six hours per week from September to March and culminates in the performance of a full- length drama or comedy. Another new class for teens is Intro to Makeup, where Theresa Thomson, a creative partner in Post Mortem Productions, teaches actor makeup, character makeup and special effects, such as zombie makeup. Students also learn to do their own makeup, which Suss said is an invaluable skill for any actor. "We help them see the other programs, too, such as costume design or how to work the lights. This is another chance to see how much the theatre has to offer for work opportunities," he said. Some MTYP students will go on to very accomplished acting careers but the idea isn't to train the next generation's Emma Stone. Learning how to act teaches very important skills that can be used in everyday life, such as listening, communicating and public speaking. "(Acting) builds confidence speaking in front of people and seeing yourself as the kind of person who can do that. Acting classes introduce risks gradually so students become empowered. They realize, 'I can do this. I can pull this off.' That can be transferred to all kinds of opportunities that have nothing to do with acting," Suss said. For more information, visit mtyp.ca/theatre-school.cfm. ❚ By Geoff Kirbyson | Winnipeg Free Press Parents accompanying their children to the new Junior Shakespeare class at Manitoba Theatre for Young People should brace themselves for some of the most foul-mouthed exchanges they've ever heard. "They've got to articulate and go into their diaphragm to deliver the words. It's great training for any kind of acting." MTYP theatre school offers classes in areas including musical theatre, film and acting. MTYP photos

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