ABOUT
"Through spontaneity we are re-formed into ourselves... personal freedom is released, and the total person, physically, intellectually, and intuitively, is awakened. This causes enough excitation for the student to transcend himself - [they are] freed to go out into the environment, to explore, adventure, and face all dangers [they meet] unafraid."
- Viola Spolin, Creator of Theater Games
DraMagic! Theater Group is a diverse, community-oriented, integrative drama program that offers classes, workshop and performance opportunities to beings of all ages and abilities. Our performances and theater events call on the magic of Connection within and between each actor/creator and audience member, and invite each individual participating to discover, hone and breathe their own unique creative essence into the Life of a piece.
TESTIMONIAL
"Our daughter has thrived at DraMagic! and it's due directly to Esther's enthusiasm, care, and professional acting guidance. Our daughter truly looks forward to DraMagic! every week and we are so lucky to have such a high quality acting school in Lyons!"
- Salem McLaughlin, DraMagic! Dad
ABOUT ESTHER
Esther van Zyl was born in a seaside town called Gordon's Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa. Her love for theater started when she was in first grade and enrolled in her first after-school drama class, where she felt she had an outlet to freely express her full self.
Hundreds of classes and performances later, she went on to get a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies with Psychology from Stellenbosch University, then moved to New York City to study at the NY Film Academy and pursue her dreams of becoming a professional actress on stage and in film.
A turn of fate planted her in Lyons, Colorado, where babysitting and hosting children’s birthday parties soon turned into creating plays with local kids, and the birth of DraMagic! Theater Group.
Esther is currently studying and practicing the work of Viola Spolin, "creator of theater games, a system of actor training that uses games she devised to organically teach the formal rules of the theater. Her groundbreaking book Improvisation for the Theater transformed American theater and revolutionized the way acting is taught." https://www.violaspolin.org/
Esther is a certified Early Childhood Professional through the Colorado Shines Professional Development Information System (PDIS). She is certified in CPR by American Red Cross.
Esther is also an ongoing student of Non-Violent Communication (https://www.cnvc.org/), a way of interacting that focuses on deep listening and understanding of ourselves and others, and how to honestly express ourselves and receive others with empathy. She weaves the practice of these skills into her work with children, as she believes developing self-attunement, awareness and the ability to express our feelings and needs is paramount to developing ourselves as actors/creative beings/fully-expressed humans.
DraMagic's motto is "Free Your Full Expression!". This is Esther's wish for anyone she works with, or indeed, connects with in any way - that we all learn to let go of what holds us in, and let our inner Light shine bright!
