VETERAN actress in the local entertainment industry and Director of Purple Arts Productions, Simone Dowding, is currently in the process of registering the children who will participate in her annual Children’s Drama Workshop after school closes.

This year being the 11th workshop, the training will commence on July 6 and run until August 31 at Theatre Guild in Kingston.

Dowding told Buzz this week that she will be going with between 20 and 25 participants as she normally would since the children’s drama event got started.

Thanks to support from Theatre Guild and Continental Group of Companies, Dowding is looking forward to hosting the workshop again which she said provides numerous benefits to the children, including improving their boldness and teaching them the fundamental aspects of drama.

Children’s drama therapy, stage breathing, stage geography, and how to master the art of listening, are just some of the topics on the agenda for the workshop which will be on from 10:00 hrs to noon during the period, with children ranging from nine to 16 years old.

The art of costume and stage management, playwriting, directing, and acting will also be taught by Dowding who has many decades of experience in the industry. Having graduated from the E.R Burrowes School of Art and other institutions, she ended up with a total of 13 certificates and won Theatre Guild’s Best Actress Award in 2012 for the play ‘Old Story Times’.

Companies and others wishing to do advertisements would secure Dowding’s help in finding the right children to perform, and she couldn’t be prouder of the fact that it is her training that helps them be less shy and learn the skills necessary.

The lessons are mostly practical because Dowding said she doesn’t like to burden the children with literature. The workshop usually culminates in a grand show called ‘Emerge’, which features a production that is done entirely by the participants.

Through her company, Dowding works primarily with children and seeks to provide them with opportunities that she said she never enjoyed as a child. Having worked on the popular production ‘Link Show’ over the years, Dowding has produced ‘House of Pressure’, ‘Miriamy’, ‘Eleventh Finger’, and ‘Jezebel’, among other shows.

Reflecting on the genesis of the workshop, Dowding said she wanted to do something in theatre after being trained for many years and she eventually formed the company with the introduction of the children’s workshop.