6th Performing Arts: February 2009

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Drama Fest and Spring Play Cast

Tuck Everlasting Casts
Thank you all for your great work at the open casting calls this week! Ms. Dooley and I appreciated seeing your wonderful talent and the time you took to share it with us. We are planning to perform this play in two ways, so we have two casts: the Festival Cast will perform at the drama festival in May and the School Cast will perform at PHA soon after the festival. We are also doing some neat movement and vocal work with the Voices, but you will hear more about that during rehearsals. We are excited to give everyone the chance to work on different parts and hope that each student will enjoy working on the play!

It is important that each cast member is able to commit to being at rehearsals, so we ask that you take February Vacation to have a great time, but also to really make sure you will be able to do your best with rehearsals and the performances. IF YOU WANT TO BE PART OF THE PLAY YOU MUST RETURN YOUR PERMISSION SLIP, SIGNED BY A PARENT TO MS. DOOLEY OR MS. LACOUNT BY TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 (RIGHT AFTER VACATION). We need to get started as soon as possible, and we need to know who we are going to be working with.

Congratulations to you all and have a fun and safe February vacation! If you have any questions, please ask Ms. Dooley or Ms. LaCount.

Festival Cast
Tuck: Catello Batinelli
Mae: Garlyn Colas
Jesse: Justin von Bosau
Miles: Elizabeth Pierre
Winnie: Rebecca DiTucci
Grandma: Illyana DePierro
Stranger: Alyssa Wong
Constable: Olivia Porte
Voices: (Captain) Lyndsay, (Captain) Crystal, Hannah, Joelle, Lorena, Jackson Manz-seik, Rebecca, Emily, Imani, Grace

School Cast
Tuck: Hannah Eyoub
Mae: Joelle Bueno
Jesse: Lorena Cruz
Miles: Jackson Manz-seik
Winnie: Gabby Ferriera
Grandma: Emily Goldstein -McGowan
Stranger: Imani Abraham
Constable: Grace Montiero
Voices: (Captain) Lyndsay, (Captain) Crystal, Catello, Garlyn, Justin, Elizabeth, Gabby, Illyana, Alyssa, Olivia

Drama Fest and Spring Play Cast

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Drama Club is on!

Drama Club meets on WED and FRI from 3:05PM - 4:15PM We are excited and so lucky to have Branigan LaCount, an Emerson College senior in Theater Education join us for Drama Club as well as performing arts classes. Ms. LaCount, a graduate of PHA, has been teaching theater since her senior year in high school when she taught some 2nd graders at the LowerSchool, who are now students in the 6th grade. She will be with us until JUNE. She is a fine actor and singer and brings many gifts to our work.

Drama Club members are reading plays as we look for a piece to bring to the Middle School Drama Fest in MAY. We must commit to a play by FEB 15.

FRI drama club will be for 7th and 8th graders ( 5th and 6th graders may attend club on FRI if okayed by director) We also play theater and improv games. Students may need to come to both rehearsals closer to performance date. Looking for an organized person to be the Stage Manager

UNIT 3 Playwrights + Theater Arts: Some Essential Questions

How do costume, set and props help tell a story? How is "character" created through dialogue? How can a complicated story be told in dialogue? What are stage directions?

Branigan

My name is Branigan LaCount and I am the performing arts student intern at the PHA middle school. I am very excited to be back at PHA after graduating from the school in 2005.

I am currently in my senior year at Emerson College in Boston. I am a BA Theatre Education major with a performance emphasis and upon graduation will receive my MA teaching license. I have been involved in theatre for as long as I can remember and have been teaching drama related classes since my sophomore year of high school. I've acted in over 40 different productions, both musicals and straight plays, and have performed in three different countries. Theatre and education are very important to me so I am very excited to be able to combine them in my work as a student teacher at PHA!
Outside of PHA, I am involved in several other areas: Currently, am working toward my goal of founding a children's theatre organization that specializes in working with mentally and/or physically challenged children, by developing a program that meets these goals. My aim is to have the program up and running within the next two years. I am also a drama teacher with the Boston Children's Theatre, working with 4-11 year age group, and I am manager at Coldstone Creamery, where I train new employees, make ice cream, and decorate cakes.

I look forward to a great semester at PHA!

Improv - vocabulary

Accepting - Improvisors need to create a reality that is not really there, without knowing what other reality the other players have in mind. In order to clearly show one united reality, improvisors should be accepting. That is they must listen carefully, play, react, and build every idea they hear or see from each other.
Blocking - not accepting other players` offers - contradicting and destroying what fellow players do or say.
Canceling - destroying what has been established. Try to use all elements that have been introduced by fellow players and realize that contradiction isn't interesting.
Offers – any action or dialog that gives an idea to fellow impoviser and will advance a scene. Usually a good thing. Offers are supposed to be accepted. A strong offer is an offer that clearly gives a direction into which a scene might evolve. An Open Offer is an offer that leaves a lot of possible directions for the scene to evolve in.
Players - students, actors, and people who are engaged in improvising. Schools, groups, actors,theater companies and even companies form "teams" and play together using improv to create scenes, theater pieces and play games.
Scene - a scene is a short-short “story” or exploration about one idea or theme through action and words made up by the players with suggestions from the audience or using an existing story or idea. A scene has a beginning ,middle and end and a who, what, when, where and how.
Wimping – wimping is accepting offers but not doing anything with them. Typical wimping is asking an open Question and leaving the action to be decided by the other player. Another common example of wimping is babbling without making any offer.

Unit 2 - Improv

Improvisational theater or "improv" is a form of theater in which the actors use simple games and prompts to perform spontaneously. Improvisers use audience suggestions to guide the performance as they create dialogue, setting, and plot on the spot. These days "improv" techniques are taught in standard acting classes but also are used in corporate settings, college and any place where creative thinking is valued. The basic skills of listening, being clear in thought and speech and confidently intuitive are part of improv study.

Intuition and creativity can be developed. The best way to improve one's improv skills is to practice. Improv is a skill for all walks and ages of life! In the US impov is best known for its comic possibilities. But there is a serious side to improv as well. People who are interested in social change have used improv and theater to help people think and act in ways to change the world. Agosto Boal is perhaps the most famous and his work is carried on here or www.theatreoftheoppressed.org.? Theatre of the Oppressed is a form of public theatre developed by Brazilian director, Augusto Boal, in the early 1970s. This participatory approach to performance provides a platform for dialogue, critical inquiry, and provides tools for individuals and communities to transform their social realities through direct action.
In a forum theatre model, a short skit is presented for a community that addresses a specific oppression faced by members of that community. Audience members are asked to offer alternative solutions and are invited to directly assume the role of the characters, modifying the outcome of the plot by switching roles with the actors. This process is repeated until the actors and the audience come to a consensus over a solution presented.
We will study improv to exercise our positive thinking and to improve our public speaking and acting skills. We will use games and scenes - comedy and drama and we will create it all. Improv is fun, deep and a skill for life!

6th Performing Arts

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Drama Fest and Spring Play Cast

Drama Fest and Spring Play Cast

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Drama Club is on!

UNIT 3 Playwrights + Theater Arts: Some Essential Questions

PHA performing arts blogs

Blog Archive

Branigan LaCount

Branigan

Osiris and Isis

UNIT 3 Playwriting: Original Plays of Egyptian Myths

Improv - vocabulary

Unit 2 - Improv

Listen

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” - Epictetus (Greek philosopher associated with the Stoics, AD 55-c.135)

Unit 1 Storytelling and performance techniques

Contact us ?

Leave a comment (click on word COMMENTS at bottom of any post) or email Ms. Dooley at: ndooley@prospecthillacademy.org

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