Contemporary Theatre

This course expands upon the acting skills that students developed in the 9th-grade Fundamentals of Theatre class while also incorporating opportunities for playwriting, acting, directing, . Topics of study include long-form improvisation, incorporating text, set, costume, lighting, and sound in performance. Students examine the form of ethno-drama, and then decide on their own topic to research through interviews with community members. Students combine their interviews to create scripts and then rehearse and perform their own ethno-dramas.

 

In the spring  semester, students will select a contemporary monologue that contrasts in genre with their monologue from Acting 1 and will prepare both monologues for an audition. We will read A  Raisin in the Sun as a class and then pairs of students will prepare scenes from the play for  performance, using 20th-century acting techniques including Stanislavski, Hagen, and  Meisner. The course ends with an introduction to physical theater and an exploration of mask work, commedia dell’arte, and clown. Most assessments in this course are performance based and are designed to prepare students for college-level and professional work in theater. After completing this course, students will have a strong acting background and will have  more opportunities to branch out into other areas of theater.