Creating a character to enhance your Kid’s Church program is a lot of fun and adds excitement. Children love a visit from an absent minded professor, a lost detective or a shearer from a sheep station.   A character will engage the children’s attention and bring an interactive element to your lessons.  And even though it’s a bit of amateur theatre for you, there’s no reason why you can’t learn some techniques and improve your skills, by working on characterization.      Understand that by taking on the part of somebody else you are taking on a role. That role has personality traits, qualities and specific characteristics which form character.

Without successful characterization you can’t embody the role and bring that person to life in a three-dimensional way.

5 Steps Towards Characterization

1. Determine the gender, age, physical characteristics, personality and costume of your character.
2. Decide how a person, dressed in costume, would stand, sit, walk, kneel and even fall down.
3. Choose gestures your character might use.
4. Commit. Stay in character no matter what happens. How would your character react to a prop falling off the stage?
5. Consider Vocal Elements:
   Pitch – speaking in a high, low or natural voice
   Pace – the speed with which you speak, e.g. the speed of response in an argument
   Pause – a dramatic pause at a crucial moment is very effective in performance
   Tone – your tone suggests your mood and your intention towards the listener, e.g. happy, sad
   Volume – you must be audible to the audience but not shout at them!
   Accent – you need to consider the accent that will work for your character
   Emphasis – this is the pressure on individual words that makes them stand out
   Intonation – the rise and fall of the voice. There’s a clear movement up when we ask questions. Intonation also helps us to say what we mean

Should You Use an Accent?

Speaking with an accent is one of the hardest things an actor will do. They learn phonetics, melody, rhythm, stress, grammar and word meaning. In a Kid’s Church setting it’s more important the children understand what you’re saying.  Try using a word or two in the language, like hello and goodbye, or thank you. The children will probably have heard them before.

A well-loved character can visit your Kid’s Church again and again. They can turn any story or memory verse into an exciting and memorable lesson.

So have a go. Create a character for your Kid’s Church. You may find you’re quite the trouper!

Here’s some links to Bible Lessons and Super Sundays that use a character!

https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Change-Your-Tune-Darlin.pdf

https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Dusty.pdf

https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Country-and-Western-Day.pdf

https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lego-Day.pdf