Theatre
Literacy in the arts develops an understanding of artistic ideas and an appreciation of the concepts of form and style in any particular work. Theatre Arts incorporates all the arts: visual arts, dance, music, and theatre. Thus, the Theatre Arts Department develops aesthetic awareness and appreciation for the arts through developing communication skills through improvisational technique, developing acting techniques, understanding the fundamentals of play production, and the presentation of improvisational and scripted material.
Courses Offered
Course offerings are contingent on MPA policies regarding student enrollment numbers for each class.
| Theatre I |
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Fifth graders will spend a full semester immersed in building upon their theatre skills through acting, writing, and even directing. Students will begin the semester with theatrical games and challenges to build a collaborative environment, along with learning how plays are put together. They will explore movement, pantomime, and tableaus. A variety of assignments will teach character analysis, dramatic structure, and conflict. Students will work individually and with partners on acting projects and a melodramatic film. |
| Theatre II |
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Me, Myself, & I. What it means to be me. Who are you in the world? What do you think? See? Feel? …. And how do you express it all? The middle school years are a time of physical, emotional, and social change. Theatre is an excellent way to communicate and to explore these challenging, yet exciting times in a fun, safe, and educationally vibrant setting. This course will place an emphasis on the emotional, physical, and social growth young people experience at this age. As a class, we will embrace self-expression, truth-telling, playfulness, playwriting. Students will learn to utilize their bodies to heighten character development for comedic and dramatic roles. Sixth graders will spend the semester producing scenes about life as a middle school student and what it means to be an inclusive, kind, compassionate human being. Using humor, poetry, movement, song, yoga, physical exercises, improv, and playwriting students will explore relationships with peers, guardians, and the greater community. All students will memorize scenes and monologues for our final showcase performance at the end of the semester. |
| Theatre III |
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From Page to Stage Actors, directors, and designers all have different jobs to bring a script to life…going from the page to the stage! This semester we will focus on the jobs of the actor and designers. Students will work on contemporary monologues and scene work with their classmates, along with creating costume, set, and flat designs. |
| Theatre IV |
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Theatre IV is a fun culmination of the Middle School theatre curriculum. Through theatre games, active exploration, devisement, and performance, students will further their confidence, grow in creative risk-taking, and care for their fellow artists. Guest artists from the local community will introduce the class to fight choreography, prop creation, dance and movement, and Shakespeare. Students will learn and then create a staged fight scene. Students will explore the fundamental components of dance through improvised movement and then choreograph their own short works. Prop creation will combine with the dissection and rebuilding of a Shakespearean monologue for performance. Projects will focus primarily on nurturing a student’s sense of creative risk-taking, as well as promoting connection between students through various aspects and manifestations of theatre-making and performance. The class will finish with an end-of-semester showcase highlighting the group’s work throughout the year. |
