The Official Website of Adrienne Kress

I am descended from a teaching dynasty. Virtually everyone in my family and extended family is a teacher of some description so I always assumed I would follow in their footsteps. And in a manner of speaking I have. I never thought, however, I would become an experienced drama teacher for 8 - 12 year olds. I got all my experience in teaching this age group from working with the Georgian Theatre Festival for seven years, and all my training in teaching this age group from Christopher Brauer, an actor, director and instructor for the festival. He taught me by example, eating his lunch with the kids and playing with them, instead of spending lunches doing "grown up stuff" (whatever that entails). He taught me how to communicate with them, and he taught me techincal things like what drama games to play in order to teach certain general concepts. And he was always very supportive, giving me chances to direct the kids on my own, or the responsibility of doing the morning warm up, until the festival felt it was able to give me a group to be in charge of. Which was a great challenge. I have since worked for The Ontario School of Ballet, teaching the same age group, the challenge of course being that I was only able to see them once every three weeks and still had to put something together for their fianl showcase. Teaching kids is very rewarding, as you may have heard. But it is true. There is not better feeling than when a very shy child whom you had to virtually force onto the stage one year, not only can hold their own the following year, but becomes a leader for the other children. And I must confess, when a kid thinks you're cool, well it makes you feel pretty special.