The Dramatic Effect

Final Presentation

Leader are Kavin

Trinh And Johnson
Le
Volunteers are Jeremy Truong, and Kevin
Mascreanas

Project Description
The Dramatic Effect is a performing arts program where we wanted to teach younger children the
basis of acting and performing in front of a small audience. This program not only emphasizes our
passion for acting, but it also brings up the issue of how many art programs are constantly getting
their funds cut by the government. We wanted to give the younger children an opportunity to try
something new and obtain a new experience that may motivate them to take up a variety of different
arts.

Process
Our activities for our first session went exceptionally well. Our participants were very engaging in the
actual process of creating their own scripts and they did not misbehave too much when were talking
to them as a group. The second session was honestly best described as a curve ball. We were given
a completely new group of participants, meaning that we had to improvise a new program plan within
ten minutes before actually starting. Things did not go as planned because they were misbehaving
quite often during the games and some would even leave the group. This also goes to our fault as we
did not emphasize the rules from the very beginning. During the instances where the kids would
misbehave, we would clap to get everyones attention, but a few still continued to misbehave. Thats
when we would personally tell the kids that if they kept fooling around, they would not be able to
participate anymore. During our final session, we had to make slight changes to our final outcome.
Instead of a scripted performance, it was changed into an improv style performance. We had an extra
thirty minute extension to our program (10:30AM-12:00PM). That gave us more time to make an
improvised program plan. Another issue that also occurred was when our participants did not show up
at our usual meeting time (10:00AM). We called them immediately and Kevin showed up right before
we started, while Jeremy showed up slightly after. Even though they did not come on time, our
session was very successful because our participants were enjoying themselves with the warm up
games, the actual process of making their own improv scripts and performing to each other.

Outcomes 1/2
Experience changes in their skills of teamwork and their knowledge of these fun art
programs exist. Their behavior changed from being controlled to somewhat less control.
Changes were expected because all of our games and discussions were revolving
around teamwork building. The acknowledgment of theses art programs come from all
the script building and improv style acting. Behavior changes were lightly noticed
because it wasnt anything huge to deal with. All of these changes were actually realistic.
Teamwork building from games, acknowledgment of an art program because this was a
drama teaching class, and its just common behaviors that you would witness in a typical
young participant
The effect of the project partnering with CCNH was because we were allowed to partner
up with OOSC. When we partner up with OOSC finding people was not as a challenge,
and leaving a deep impact on kids that allow them to grow out their own comfort zone.
What I mean by this is that drama can help with building such skills that you may never
notice. Example; Doing a speech, telling a lie(never encouraged by us), going in front of
an audience, being respectful as an audience. Etc.

Outcome 2/2
Yes, the project has two goals for them and us to accomplish. Those two goals
were to improve team work skills amongst each other and to also present a
script that the participants had made with the help of their peers and
Leaders/Volunteers
A short term impact for our project is that we gave an opportunity for our
participants to try something new within the OOSC program at Charles Dickens.
A major long term impact for our project could easily be the team work and
cooperation skills that our participants have learned through active involvement
in the games and the actual script/improve building. Our participants may have
built a stronger level of confidence for themselves, enabling them to hopefully
try a variety of different programs that are offered to them. (Beyond Arts!)

Lessons Learned 1/2

One of the bigger lessons that we learned was that we should have thought more
in-depth of scenarios in which we would get a new group and make a program plan
for those types of situations. Along with that, we also realized that we have to
emphasize the rules from the beginning and follow through with what we would say
to the participants. Some key skills that we obtained from this was how we
organized we had to be with all of our program plans and schedules.We learned
that we had to be more firm and assertive when explaining the rules of each activity.
We also learned that making a backup plan before each of our session is better
than actually making an improv session five minutes before the actual session. This
would have saved us time, but during our second/third sessions, we were not
expecting any changes to our program plans
Working with an organization like CCNH helps us work with a good organization to
help us develop skills we need in the future. We developed skills like; planning
ahead, being punctual, being careful about copyright, etc.

lessoned learned 2/2

We learned that CCNH couldnt be run if they didnt have lots of
volunteer to help them out. CCNH is organization that helps with the
neighbors if they are in need and works to bring a community closer
together. (TICC, Supper Club, Friday Youth Drop-In)
Some strengths that we had were that we participated in the Summer
Youth Projects last year. That gave us some more experience than
others. Our challenge was that since we participated in the Summer
Youth Projects last year, we had to become a better leader by taking
initiative with our volunteers and give them a say on what they want to
do. We also looked over how we did last year and took it to ourselves
to not make the same mistakes as we did last year.

Project Evaluation 1/3

1.) Our project, The Dramatic Effect, addressed the issues of the arts programs. With the
government consistently making cuts to the arts programs, sooner or later there will either be a
very limited amount of arts programs offered to students or none at all. We wanted to give our
participants a chance to participate in a higher level of drama.
2.) The Dramatic Effect wanted to have a target audience of mixed participants
(Youth/Seniors), but were given instead a younger group instead (6-12 year olds) We had the
staff of not only at CCNH, but the OOSC staff at Charles Dickens help us with picking our
location, our participants, the equipment, and the planning stages with Randy. We also needed
a couple of volunteers who had drama experience help us in running each session. Those
volunteers were Kevin Mascarenas and Jeremy Truong.
3.) Success to us in our project is to have them complete two of our goals, working together to
come up with an idea and a final presentation. We allowed them to work in a group to come up
with ideas to present to an audience. We gave them a based location where they had to
implement ideas for. Our participants enjoyed coming up with ideas to present to each other.
Everyone who participated in The Dramatic Effect have a really imaginative mind.

Project Evaluation Part 2/3

4.) Some measurable/Observable results that we expected were that our participants
were working diligently to work on their scripts while including everyone into the
discussion. We also expected them to talk nicely with one another and listen to our
instruction thoroughly. During the sessions, the participants did work very diligently on
their scripts/improve, but at times would be distracted and move away from their
assigned groups. Everyone treated each other nicely and no ones idea was left out. At
times when we were giving our participants specific instructions, some would fool around
and leave the circle. That was at our fault for not being firm enough with our rules from
the very start.
5.) Our final outcome was between decent and successful. Basically 8.5 out of 10.
Reason for that is because we wanted them to make a script that was planned ahead by
1 or more sessions before. But since we could not get a consistent group we had to
change it up every now and then. But overall, we had three really good sessions. In the
end, we changed our goal from a scripted performance into an improve style performance
and that overall was a great way to end off our last session.

Project Evaluation Part 3/3

6.) All of our activities were to help our participants become more engaged with
their own peers and us. Games such as British Bulldog and Ninja were to help
create that connection between Leaders/Volunteers and our participants.
Followed by a variety of drama games (What are you doing, Space Jump)
which not only involves everyone, but it aids in getting their creativity juices
moving. Our activities work hand in hand with building the basis on drama skills
in the best way possible for our participants. Through games and fun activities
that they enjoy doing.

Self Evaluation
For both of us, our skills as a leader has definitely improved in comparison to last year. We took more
initiative as leaders to better hand things on time and make sure that our volunteers were punctual
just as ourselves. We put a lot more effort into each of our program plans and made sure that we
were on schedule with each of our activities. Even though we had some last minute situations pop up
right before our sessions, we managed to still pull off an improvised plan and run it to its best
capability. Changes are bound to happen anytime and our skills in last minute improv has improved
indefinitely. A thing that we would still need to work on is how we as leaders would take control of our
participants if they start to misbehave. We improved slightly during our last session as there was not
as many disruptions, but we should have been more firm with those who misbehaved rather than
laughing along with them (Example: Talking Tables Situation)

Final Words
We would like to give a big thanks to
Our volunteers; Kevin and Jeremy
For their amazing commitment in both the planning stages of our program and aiding us in running
the
sessions to its best
CCNH
For giving us this amazing opportunity to be a part of the Summer Youth Projects for the second time,
and giving us a wonderful time. A big thanks to Randy for helping us through everything! From the
one-on-one sessions, to helping us find a location, providing constructive criticism, and making this
experience a really great one!
Charles Dickens OOSC (staff)
For giving us the amazing opportunity to work with our participants. Without the Charles Dicken
OOSC, we would not have had a chance to work with fantastic participants that we had.