Acting classes show off talent

For the past eight weeks, local Bloomington elementary students and adults have been participating in the School of Dramatic Arts as part of the education program at the Bloomington Playwrights Project.\n"The Spring SODA Showcase" begins tonight as a culmination of what the students have learned in their classes, ranging from acting and playwriting to clowning and magic. The Spring SODA Showcase is an opportunity to see Bloomington Playwrights Project classes show off their acting talents and takes place 7:30 p.m. tonight and Wednesday at 312 S. Washington Street.\nDuring the showcase, the students will perform acting games, improvisation and self-written plays. Each group takes the stage for 15 minutes and its members demonstrate what they have learned over the course of their class.\nSenior Amber Nash is an instructor for the Acting II group, which includes children in fourth through sixth grade. The eight students in Acting II will perform a play they wrote themselves.\n"We started working on the play about three weeks ago," Nash said. "This is just an opportunity to show the parents what we have been doing in our classes."\nThe play is a spoof on the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Instead of swooning over her Prince Charming, Sleeping Beauty decides to sue him for breaking and entering, sexual harassment and invasion of privacy. The play is a mock trial with a presiding judge and two lawyers.\n"The kids came up with the concept and took it from there," Nash said. "They all have their set character and they kind of improv the whole thing. It's really cool."\nThe Acting II group will not only perform a play, but also showcase the acting and theater games performed in class each week.\nSODA actor Alex Graham, a fifth grader at Binford Elementary, loves to participate in the acting game aptly titled "Clerk."\n"Someone acts as the clerk of the store and people come up to him and they ask to buy things," Graham said. "We have to improv the whole thing and it is really fun."\nNash said she sees improv as an opportunity for the actors and actresses to get used to thinking on their feet as well as being comfortable as an actor.\nFifth grader Sophie Harris, another SODA actress, has been acting for a long time with the Bloomington Playwrights Project. Harris, who plays Prince Charming's lawyer in the play, said she agreed that "Clerk" is the favorite game among the performers. \n"I like it because we get to make up what we do," Harris said. "It is nice to act in such a laid back atmosphere."\n-- Contact staff writer Jaimie Cohen at \njrcohen@indiana.edu.