Shelbie Kinsey

A new semester and a new year has begun at SDSU, and if students’ resolutions consist of diving into a new subject or finding a unique class to broaden their horizons, they may want to take a look at Theatre 355- Children’s Theatre.

The class is taught by professor Chris Guyotte, who is excited to teach this course.

“I would love to see students in this class who plan on teaching, especially elementary,” said Guyotte. “It will enhance their ability to teach through active learning and of course theatre students, because a career in theatre is not complete unless you have worked in children’s theatre.”

The course will focus on adapting one of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales into roughly a 10-minute-long children’s stage play focusing on the age group of 5-to 10-year-olds.

A grant from the SDSU foundation made it possible to bring in Liz Peterson, playwright for the SUT production of the Wind in the Willows, to critique some of the students’ work for this class.

The class is beneficial to not only communication studies and theatre majors, but any student who plans on working with young children. This course focuses a lot on child psychology, and could give a student a new or different perspective on working with children.

This semester is Professor Guyotte’s second semester teaching here at SDSU, and he is already at home among the students in the department.

“I had Chris for Play Analysis in the fall and really enjoy his teaching methods, and he was always encouraging us to come to him with any questions or problems and very interested in what the students had to say on the subject matter,” said Karissa Willmont a junior CST major who is enrolled in the upcoming Children’s Theatre course.

“I look forward to this class, and being able to work with kids because I believe it is very important to educate our youth and get them involved in the creative arts,” Willmont said.

The class may also be a good fit if students are serious about theater and want to dig deeper into the art of performing.

“I think this class sounds really interesting,” said Chris Ebel, a sophomore majoring in vocal music education and CST. “I think I would get to read plays that I would have never picked up, and I also think it would give me a broader aspect of theatre.”

The class is offered Monday, Wedenesday, Friday 1:00- 1:50 p.m. this spring. The next time this class will be taught is spring of 2012, so if students are interested in taking it soon, there is still time to get into the class this semester.