The SSIS Junior School division Drama program is specifically designed to develop the kinesthetic, existential, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences of students in the most important formative years of their lives. These intelligences are crucial for children to inculcate in themselves an invaluable ability to build healthy social and working relationships with their peers. This is an important opportunity, especially for students coming from single-child and/or small nuclear families.
Young budding dramatists are introduced to an exciting array of drama games that boost their confidence at verbal and physical expressions while having lots of fun. It is heartening to see that many SSIS students are ingenious enough to devise variations of these games during their playtime at lunch – a testament to the effectiveness of these drama games at not only instilling the skills they have been designed for, but also at promoting creativity from the children.
By involving students in various traditional dramatic art forms such as puppetry, mime, shadow play, dance, and generic play production, the children learn to take pride in their own work and respect every individual’s contributions toward each project. Students whom have undergone drama training in SSIS usually display a high level of work etiquette, team spirit and integrity.
Recognizing the fact that not all the older children enjoy performing, these students have instead been given opportunities to develop their handicraft and organization and leadership skills, by assuming the roles of backstage technician, stage manager or director. SSIS students are also privileged to be able to work with peers of different cultures, personalities and work attitudes – priceless lessons that shall benefit SSIS students for life.
SSIS students are also treated to “bite-sized” exposure to multi-cultural dramatic genres such as Indonesian Wayang Kulit shadow puppets, Taiwanese 霹雳布袋戏 techno glove puppets, Vietnamese Water Puppets, Shakespearean tragedies and comedies, Stanislavskian Method Acting, Grotowskian Poor Theatre, Artaudian Cruel Theatre and Chinese Beijing Opera throughout their six years in Junior School. This form of cultural immersion in international dramatic arts shall ensure that SSIS students acquire a tasteful appreciation for the aesthetics.
The SSIS Drama program has been fine-tuned over the years to offer the most essential skill set that would equip a child with a head start in his or her future. It goes far beyond what is offered by speech and drama programs that are commonly available in the education market, and is indeed a proud and unique niche of SSIS.