2023-2024 Theater Arts Classes
Tuesday Classes
30 West Pershing Rd, Kansas City, Missouri
SPRING SEMESTER: Tuesdays, 2/13/24 – 4/30/24 (No classes 3/26/24)
NOTE: The Troupers Class is for advanced students with 2 years prior acting classes at TYA or equivalent.
Saturday Classes
11901 Wornall Rd, Kansas City, Missouri
SPRING SEMESTER: 2/17/24 – 4/7/24 (No classes 3/23/24)
TUITION: Tuition may be paid for the school year or the semester. In order to secure a place in class, payment must be made at registration.
DISCOUNTS: There is a 10% discount for season ticket holders, for families with two or more students enrolled in class during the same term, for Avila employees and for Union Station members.
CLASSES VACATIONS:
THANKSGIVING BREAK: Nov. 21-25, 2023
SPRING BREAK: March 23 and 26, 2024
The Curriculum progression for acting classes at TYA
The class activities below are first listed at the level at which they are introduced. Then the skills are reinforced at each level, not with the same material, but with continually advancing activities at more complex levels.
Students discover the actor’s instrument in voice exercises, movement exercises, and imagination exercises. Students learn to verbally express their ideas, listen and follow directions, dance, sing, dramatize and memorize poetry and stories, cooperate with their fellow performers, play theatre games, and improvise scenes. The class projects come from popular children’s stories. Students are introduced to costumes, scenery, masks, puppets, and props at this level.
Students explore all of the above plus: interact with peers and instructor to create dramas, express emotions through acting, demonstrate their self-discipline and concentration, strengthen their voice and diction to communicate to groups, act out original ideas collaboratively in small groups, practice problem-solving through dramatic play, perform memorized monologues, and dramatize well-known and original stories.
Students build on all of the above plus: study character behavior and analyze how to vary pitch, tempo, tone of the voice, and movement of the body to create a wide range of characters. Students collaborate in planning and performing group improvisations. Students express emotions with the stage techniques they have learned. Students practice stage blocking and notation as they rehearse and present scenes and monologues from play scripts.
Students apply and analyze all of the above plus: learn advanced stage terminology, analyze and evaluate others’ performances, practice basic auditioning skills, then rehearse, polish, and perform scene study with scripts appropriate to their age. Students sharpen their ability to spontaneously interact with others in advanced improvisation techniques.
NOTE: The Troupers Class is for advanced students with 2 years prior acting classes at TYA or equivalent.