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TOMORROW'S thespians took to the stage at a special one-day acting seminar conducted by a former Hollywood director.
Rick Beeman, now photographic agency KSDi's general manager, is helping to enliven the arts scene in the kingdom by directing young talent towards possible careers in TV and theatre.
Thirteen youngsters, aged between five and 12, took part in the inaugural one-day event at the Bahrain Cinema Club in Juffair last Saturday.
Mr Beeman believes mastering the art of screen acting techniques can enhance a student's self-confidence, self-awareness and improvisational ability as well as building self-esteem. He said: "The seminar may focus on acting skills but the true value can be the number of life skills the students also develop. As well as having a fun time the confidence of the children grows throughout the experience."
The seminar included a selection of games and activities on stage with the aim of delivering words with various levels of expression as well as being able to communicate feelings in complete silence by actions alone.
British School of Bahrain pupil Roshan Rahamathullah, aged five, said he particularly liked the 'freeze' frenzy activity which enabled youngsters to take over roles from each other being played on stage and the 'yes' and 'no' activity in which the young starlets had to give as much feeling to their words as possible.
John Nathanael V Biazon, aged nine, from Gudaibiya, a pupil at Al Noor International School, said: "I think I've learned some very useful acting skills and how important it is to be yourself. I particularly enjoyed trying to convince the other person on stage to believe in what I was saying."
Parents were invited towards the end of the seminar to catch up on what the youngsters had achieved with a recording of the day's filmed highlights.
Mum Imelda Biazen, 43, an accountant from Gudaibya, said: "This seminar will help the children overcome any sort of stage fright they might have had!"
She said the youngsters oozed confidence at the end of the session and she thought it was good to see children of so many different nationalities working together happily as a team.
Each student received a certificate, a profile image taken by professional photographer Armand Hough and a DVD featuring their course antics.
The age range changes this weekend when a class for teenagers will take to the stage.
The one-day seminars follow on from a series of screen acting classes that took place over several weeks at Ahlia University and St Christopher's School.
Mr Beeman has directed and taught scores of students worldwide from Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Taipei, Houston and San Francisco to Saudi Arabia.
The acting seminars are part of KSDi's plan to help develop the entertainment and film industry in Bahrain. Mr Beeman said: "We are going to start producing movies here in about a year and a half and we are scouting fresh talents as well.
"There is a lot of talent here in Bahrain. These seminars are another way for us to showcase and develop that talent."
For further details contact 17593993 or email info@ksdibahrain.com.
