Performing Arts
Drama in the Middle and High Schools
During the academic year, students may participate in a number of drama presentations which include the fall and spring productions and the annual Shakespeare Festival. In the Middle School, students will spend eight weeks learning about the theater, gaining skills as performers, and stretching out their creative thinking. The class will work on building an imaginatively-rich and supportive environment, a space where all members can feel good about taking the creative risks that are an essential part of making art and an artistic lifestyle. In the High School, students will spend an full year doing similar activities. In both the middle and high schools, class efforts will be concentrated on the world of theater and sharing our mental inventions through performance, classes are geared towards developing an overall sense of voice and joy in the ‘creative-self.’ Lessons are taught with the belief that an expressive and empowered imagination is an asset in any choice of career or lifestyle.
Middle School Drama
In the first part of our quarter, students will learn theatrical warm-ups, exercises, and games designed to loosen the imagination and gain an artistic confidence which is stronger than the habitual urge to be embarrassed by our own creativity. In the second half of the class, students will use the developed skills to create a performance project to share with other exploratory classes. In the past, final performance projects have included:
6th Grade: Greek Mythology Adaptations or Parody Fairy Tales
7th Grade: Theatrical adaptations of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
8th Grade: Shakespeare studies in correspondence with the annual Shakespeare festival
High School Theater
Students will learn theatrical warm-ups, exercises, and games designed to loosen imagination and gain an artistic confidence which is stronger than our habitual urge to be embarrassed by our own creativity. They will also learn a variety of theatrical forms and techniques including improvisation, scene study, dramatic writing, Shakespearean theater and the world of technical theater. Our written work will include writing regular learning-evaluations and close observations of other theatrical works. Throughout the year, we will showcase our work in performances relating to our in-class work.
