Theater Department

All classes meet one double period per week unless otherwise noted.

ACTING (Lamazor/Osborn/Barnett)
This is a professional caliber acting class with emphasis on character study, acting technique, breathing, vocal, and relaxation exercises. Time is devoted to movement exercise, sense memory, and to improvisation, games and storytelling. Ensemble work is encouraged and developed. Scenes and monologues focus on discovering the individual actor’s personal relationship to the role and to the text. Actors learn how to break down scripts and understand beats and actions. There are opportunities for performing scenes and monologues, geared toward the individual actor’s needs and desires. Scene rehearsals with partners often take place outside class time. We may have visits from special guest artists and workshop leaders, and we take trips to see exceptional productions around town. Ibsen, Shaw, Stoppard, Mamet, Churchill, Williams, Shepard, Wilde, Shakespeare, and many other fascinating friends await you. Experience the joy of playing great roles!

ACTING INTENSIVE (4x per week) (Lamazor)
Same description as above, except that this class may work on full length plays in addition to scenes and monologues. Students may direct scenes or projects on occasion. There may be several performances at different sites over the course of the year. Imagination is our guiding force. This class functions as a true, joyful “ensemble” of actors! Open only to advanced students with the permission of the instructor.

ACTOR’S VOICE (1x per week) (Osborn)
The wonderful world of dialects, speech and vocal production awaits you. Funny voices, accents and more are explored in this class in which the vocal side of acting is stressed. Poetry, improvisation, contemporary and classical texts are used, and we work on several class projects including scene and monologue work. Last year’s material included The Importance of Being Earnest, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and several Shakespearean works. We incorporate relaxation techniques, voice building, and breathing to help actors deal with the demands of auditions and performance. There are also opportunities to work on eliminating accents and addressing individual speech problems. This dynamic and practical class is tailored to the specific needs of its students.

EXPERIMENTAL IMPROVISATION (Barnett)
Actors frequently employ improvisational techniques during the rehearsal process as a means of further investigating the text. There are also performers—many comedic—who use improvisation not merely as a means to an end, but as an art form in and of itself. In this class we cultivate an improvisational technique that encourages spontaneity and abstract thinking. We try to strip away the conscious impulse to ‘be clever’ that many performers have and work instead on identifying primary impulses and freeing the mind and body so that ideas unfold naturally within the context of a given exercise or scene. There is a unit on autobiography in which each student creates three performances, a unit on site-specific theater (performances, ‘happenings,’ or installations set outside a traditional stage; past work has taken place in a stairwell, in a park, and on a street corner; this past year, the students created a traveling theatrical treasure hunt), and a unit on rehearsal technique in which we study methods relevant to experimental narratives. This is a course for students with or without previous experience in improvisation. It is also a class for dancers interested in working with text, writers interested in transforming their observations into physical life, and visual artists. The class also benefits anyone who is nervous when speaking in public.

IMPROVISATION: THE NEXT GENERATION (Gnagnarelli)
Those who follow the wisdom of the Tao prize simplicity and spontaneity above all else, and that is precisely what we study in this course. Each section of this class creates its own structure and dynamic, building scenes with location, relationship, and action as the building blocks. After reviewing the basic rules of improvisation, we explore a wide array of styles and forms, comedic as well as dramatic. Informal performances for lower and middle school students may arise, and an evening performance is optional. In addition to learning how to create characters and interact with scene partners, you develop skills that help you in auditions, rehearsals, and performances. While dramatic skills are used to strengthen your acting abilities, laughter improves your health and well being—so comedy is our main course!

SHAKESPEARE ACTING (Reardon)
Comedy! Tragedy! History! Princes, queens, peasants, buffoons, sex goddesses, the mad, the brilliant: take your pick of characters—Shakespeare has them all. This class teaches you the joy of playing Shakespeare with the trust and ease you find when performing any other playwright’s work. The material we use includes the best of Shakespeare. Everyone plays leading roles.

COSTUME PRODUCTION (Hamilton, Shand)
This class focuses on costumes for Theater Department play productions and related areas of research and design. Students learn about basic pattern making and costume construction by building costumes for school productions. Personal design projects may be limited to two per student. Crew participation for a minimum of one play or dance concert is required.

COSTUME SCULPTURE (Hamilton)
This class focuses on developing creative design and pattern-making skills in order to create costumes for use in the school theater/dance productions. Additionally, students design at least one hat and one garment from project research, incorporating their own ideas to create wearable, useable art. Materials are non-traditional as well as familiar fabrics. Each student is required to maintain a design sketchbook of personal ideas as well as solutions to specific design problems given. Be prepared to be adventurous and experimental, and to think in ways you have not yet explored in regard to costume, fashion, and art. Crew participation for a minimum of one play or dance concert is required.

TECHNICAL THEATER (Briggs/Skeens)
Students in this course are responsible for the building, painting, lighting, and running of all productions, as well as maintenance of the theater and its equipment. Scenery: ground plans and elevations are created on requirements of a given script. The actual execution of designs is done using basic carpentry and metal working skills. Scene painting: problems in texturing, new materials, and various other painting techniques specific to theater alone is studied. Stage lighting: the class studies the design and function of lighting equipment and dimming devices. Sound: recording and the use of sound for the theater are covered. Students’ designs are encouraged and accepted for school productions. This is both a practical and a theoretical course. Students may apply for a position on a running crew.

PLAY PRODUCTION (Briggs/Skeens)
Each member of a production staff, from the director to the stagehand, has specific duties and skills. Students in this class learn techniques for running a smooth and professional show, with the opportunity of taking on responsibilities for our theatrical productions. Topics covered are construction, maintenance and set-up of props, reading and taping out scale ground plans, writing up cues, calling sound and lighting cues, and more. This is not a carpentry class, although construction is involved; this is a course specifically designed for advanced tech students interested in stage managing, house managing, props mastering, and designing, and for those students ready for more involvement in technical theater. This class is open to students with one year of Technical Theater, by permission of the instructors. All students are required to work on at least one production; this requires time outside of class.

PLAYWRITING, 9 th and 10 th Grades (Garrett)
This course explores the elements of playwriting that make it a three-dimensional living art form. Through weekly exercises, we approach a playscript as a blueprint. The course culminates in staged readings of the students’ plays. In addition, each student investigates the work of a modern playwright, discussing and demonstrating scenes from that writer’s work to the class.

PLAYWRITING, 11 th and 12 th Grades (Garrett)
The student is encouraged to identify and investigate his or her central imaginative concepts and to shape them into the stuff of drama. Principles of dramatic construction as set forth in Aristotle’s Poetics, “the logic of consciousness” as described by Suzanne Langer, and “the enslavement of the attention” as recommended by Artaud are among the concepts discussed. Principles of directing are demonstrated. The class culminates in a festival of workshop productions of the students’ plays.

MOVING IMAGE 1 (Dobski)
This class concentrates on the study of film as a two dimensional art form that moves, focusing on the principles of two-dimensional design and the dynamics of screen space. Working with 16mm film equipment, we emphasize the basics of emulsions, lenses, light readings, and editing. Students produce individual exercises and group film projects. This is a non-linear course, requiring constant participation. The class is open to 10 th, 11 th, and 12 th grade students.

MOVING IMAGE 2 (Dobski)
With continuing emphasis on two-dimensional design, this class explores digital video production and electronic editing, as well as advanced lighting techniques. Students receive an introduction to sound recording technology and the aesthetics of the sound image. Individual or group projects. Prerequisite: Moving Image 1 and permission of the instructor

MOVING IMAGE 3 (Dobski)
This is a course in advanced film production and color cinematography. Students shoot film, transfer to video and edit electronically, producing a major film work on tape with a complete soundtrack, including an original score. Prerequisite: Moving Image 1 and 2, and permission of the instructor

HIGH SCHOOL PUPPETRY (1x per week) (Asbell)
This course is an extension of middle school puppetry. All skill levels are welcome. Individual projects may include rod puppets, hand puppets, marionettes, body puppets, and masks.

AFRICAN DANCE (Olaiya)
An exciting introduction to the traditional music, rhythms, costumes and dances of West Africa . Open to all high school students who actively desire to explore the joys and complexities of African art and culture. Classes are sometimes accompanied by a live drummer. There are opportunities to perform, to learn about drumming, and possibly to drum. Students may work on costumes or accessories for the dance concert.

DANCE 1 (Boyd, Jackson )
The class focuses on developing students’ individual choreographic voices through improvisation and the creation of short movement studies. Class begins with a warm-up that integrates different techniques from ballet to African dance to yoga. Students are exposed to different choreographic approaches through attending performances and studying videotapes; in addition they have the opportunity to work with professional choreographers, learning pieces and taking direction. Dances developed both individually and collaboratively with the class are performed during the year. Those developed in association with the instructor are eligible for performance in the student dance concert, for which original costumes may be designed or assembled by students. Both new and experienced dancers are welcome.

DANCE/CHOREOGRAPHY 2/3 (Boyd, Jackson )
This class studies dance technique, improvisation and composition to create expressive dance pieces, exploring movement and drama through solo, duet and group forms. Modern dance technique leads to improvisational work and short studies to explore movement textures and qualities. We work with directing multiple bodies in space, using partnering techniques and weight exchange to convey emotional meaning, and studying formal compositional elements such as symmetry, tension, dynamic use of space, costume and environments. Diverse dance styles, uses of rhythm, and music from many traditions are investigated, and students have the opportunity to work with professional choreographers, learning pieces and taking direction. Dances developed in association with the instructor are eligible for performance in the student dance concert, for which original costumes may be designed or assembled by students. There are field trips to notable performances. Prerequisite: Dance 1 or permission of the instructor

DANCE/CHOREOGRAPHY 4 (The Department)
We continue our study of dance technique, improvisation and composition. Emphasis is on the development of the individual artistic voice through complex, expressive dances incorporating solo and group aspects, examination of multimedia techniques, and the use of juxtaposition and collage to expand dramatic possibilities. Each student undertakes a research project supporting the creation of his or her own dances. The Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts provides a resource for our study of diverse music and the integration of costuming, language, and props or sets into our dances. Students have the opportunity to work with professional choreographers, learning pieces and taking direction. Dances developed in the class in association with the instructor are eligible for performance in the student dance concert, for which original costumes may be designed or assembled by students. There are field trips to notable performances. Prerequisite: Dance 1, Choreography 2/3, and permission of the instructor.