Our exciting new division, HCAC Kids offers a range of workshops revolving around theatre training, storytelling and poetry for kids between the ages of 6 – 12 years old. Each semester, our workshops will focus on exploring and expanding on a specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) as the central theme. Through our series of values-based workshops, your child will be engaged in the performing arts and also build an awareness of the world through social issues.
How do we champion empathy in children? What can parents do to nurture children to be more fearless and authentic as leaders and communicators?
Beyond learning how to act, tell stories and write, engaging in the performing arts teaches your child what it means to be fully human. Our holistic and multi-faceted syllabus, combined with individualized instruction, builds awareness of the world through social issues i.e the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Our emphasis on a values-based education offers your child an opportunity to blossom into their highest potential.
Children: Our pride and joy, the light of our life. As parents, finding the best way to nurture your child can be tricky terrain. Here at HCAC Kids, we believe that acting is especially beneficial for the little ones by equipping them with essential life skills. With the likes of increased articulation and reading skills, acting seeks to build confidence and allow children to hold their own in a public sphere.
Acting helps children to freely access their imagination, learn how to collaborate with others as well as cultivate empathy! More specifically, the benefits of acting can be unique to each child. The craft is merely a tool that seeks to amplify the good traits in a child and overcome other habits that might hold them back from fulfilling their full potential!
Regardless of the starting aptitude, HCAC Kids is confident that your child will walk away learning something new about themselves while having loads of fun!
Our Alignment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (U.N. S.D.G.)
Arts education for kids tends to be outcome-driven and performance-based. We’re using the craft to teach other skills. We’re more focused on process. We’re focused more on applied theatre. How theatre is used on an everyday basis in the real world.
Our 1:10 Teacher-Student Ratio
Our intimate class size ensures as much face time as possible. We have individualized attention for each activity. In a smaller class group, we are able to hear each child’s voice.
HCAC Kids is Part of the HCAC Family
Our kids program is part of a larger ecosystem of workshops for adults, actors, non-actors and corporate training. The possibilities are endless for how our kids and adults can work together.
A Private Online Tribe
Our private alumni FB group is available for parents to join to see regular events and audition notices should you want your child to actively take part in auditions, and shows around town.
Headed by our experienced instructors, our diverse faculty of coaches have trained and taught children of various backgrounds from all over the world, ensuring all HCAC workshops to be of international standard.
Holding a Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology from Singapore Polytechnic and The Bryan-Tan HCAC Teaching and Acting Scholarship, Kaelen has been active in both the performance and teaching industry.
She has worked with numerous companies to teach a wide range of students varying in age Speech & Drama – Pre-school Level (Metropolitan YMCA, Creative Cottage), and Primary and Secondary School Drama CCA or English Literature and Drama Enrichment Programmes (How Drama, Tongue-in-Cheek, DramaArts).
Kaelen’s performance credits include Singapore Repertory Theatre’s “Lifespan Of a Fact”, “1984” and “Ghostlight”, Young & W!LD’s “Love & Information”, and KidsSTOP @ Science Centre’s “Saving Billy!”.
Gursharon Kaur has taught in different schools during her stint as an Education Officer with the Ministry of Education in the past 8 years. She completed her overseas teaching assistantship, teaching AP Literature and Language Arts at San Marcos High School in Santa Barbara in 2013. This was an international partnership program between the National Institute of Education and the Teacher Education Program, The Gervitz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Since then, she’s worked with three secondary schools in Singapore with vastly different profiles to teach English Language and Literature. She trained the student emcees for the school’s annual Speech Day. She organised a drama program for the Secondary 1 cohort with the enlistment of Act 3 International. She is working on obtaining her CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) to teach English to speakers of other languages.
Her current interest at this point is in exploring somatic education. She is taken in by her personal experience with the Feldenkrais Method and how the brain uses movement and awareness to create possibilities for new neural pathways and changes in lifelong patterns. She is enrolled in the Feldenkrais Professional Training Program in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Unfortunately, we do not permit children below or above the age range of 6 - 12 years to take part in our workshops for kids unless otherwise stated.
Yes. Every child who completes the 8 sessions in good standing and attendance will receive a HCAC Kids certificate of participation from us.
As a general rule, we do not promote result-based work unless we develop specific workshops with that in mind. Instead, our 8-session workshops will culminate in a work-in-progress-showcase.
There, parents, friends, and family are invited to watch your child and other children present work that they are comfortable sharing.
The work presented may be something the kids have worked on or something they feel comfortable in showing at a level they are proficient at. We believe in avoiding shows purely for entertainment where your child’s learning and development is sacrificed for rote learning and regurgitation in order to churn out a result.
Your child should be comfortably dressed. No dresses or skirts (unless your child also wears leggings) as your child will be moving around and sitting on the floor. Your child must also be barefoot or only wear socks with grip.
Within the week of the scheduled workshop, you will receive an info pack email to tell you what your child needs to bring/prep for the workshop.
Instructors will also communicate with you via email/WhatsApp if there are specific needs on what to bring/prep.
As a general rule, your child should always bring a water bottle as our workshops are physically engaging.
We do not provide and food for your kids. We do however have a water fountain available. We recommend that you pack some snacks if your child gets agitated without meals.
For snacks please avoid packing anything with peanuts, or any major allergens such as: wheat, soybeans and milk.
If your child has any allergies to food or medication, please inform us at least ONE WEEK before the workshop starts. If you feel your child’s allergies are likely to be triggered during the workshop, we recommend that you pack sufficient medication and counter-measures for your child to bring to the workshop.
If your child has any allergies to food or medication, please inform us at least ONE WEEK before the workshop starts. If you feel your child’s allergies are likely to be triggered during the workshop, we recommend that you pack sufficient medication and counter-measures for your child to bring to the workshop.
If your child has any needs/behavioral traits we need to be aware of, please inform us so that we can accommodate accordingly. While some of our instructors are trained to work with kids with needs/behavioral traits, we are as yet, not fully equipped to handle entire groups.
If your child is not potty trained, pack an extra set of clothes in the event they have an accident. Extra clothes are not needed if your child is potty trained.
You are welcome to accompany your child to the workshop but we advise you to not hang around the workshop space as this may be distracting for your child. There are several cafes and restaurants in the surrounding neighborhood and City Square Mall you may want to peruse before arriving at least 5 minutes before the end of the workshop to pick up your child.
Parents are asked to arrive at least 5 minutes before the end of the workshop to pick your child up.
If you are running late, the teacher/staff will wait with your child for 15minutes after the workshop ends.
HCAC will then charge $5/min after the 15minutes grace period is up. This charge will cover the cost of a teacher/staff member waiting in the studio with your child.
If your child is sick/absent, please inform us at least 12 hours before the workshop starting time. This will ensure that the workshop can start promptly and that there are no delays if we wait for your child to arrive.
If your child is required to leave earlier on the day of their lesson, please inform HCAC or the teachers AT LEAST a day beforehand and inform us who specifically will be picking the child up. If the parents are not picking the child up, the person who is, must fill-up the Early Dismissal Form prior to the pick-up. Please email our staff at hello@hcac.sg for a copy of this form to be filled.
Please note that we will not able to release your child early under any circumstances without a copy of this form for our records.
We do not specifically help your child get jobs and auditions. That said, throughout the year, we often get approached by production companies looking to hire or audition child actors. We will then share these casting calls on our private HCAC Students and Alumni Facebook page.
Yes we will. Please be advised that our marketing team and/or instructors may take photos and videos of your child to be used only for marketing purposes. Should you not want your child to be in such photos/videos, please contact us with your request in writing so we have a record of it.
Our instructors and staff on duty all have access to our emergency SOP manual. A hard copy of the manual is also available in the administrative office as well for reference.