Saturday, November 07, 2009
Students learn all about plays from the ground up
Post Gazette: "For some classes, teachers can pull open a file drawer to show off student work, but the creativity of Hampton High School teacher Dan Franklin's stage technology students isn't so easily contained."
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11 comments:
I know a lot of high schools are missing good tech programs, and this seems like quite a good foundation for these kids to start learning. Those of us who are in theater now have generally had to work to find a program where we can really learn and be challenged, but its good to see that there are schools which offer it and make all their students aware that theater design is an option. Although from the article the program seemed a bit basic, the fact is by just going through the process of working with a budget and doing starting research can be very helpful to understanding what theater work entails
I think that this is a good program that they have developed at this school. I know that I have never been a fan of the high schools that have teams of parents designing and building their sets, getting the costumes, props, etc. I think that even though as Sylvianne said, it seems a bit basic, it is much better than the schools that hire professionals or have parents working on shows. Plus, learning the basics is the first step to becoming more involved. I feel like just the fact that it is all 100% student done, makes it worth the effort.
I think its great that there are such active high school programs. These programs get the kids involved at an early age, which is much better for the universities, creating a larger pool of talented people. I really liked the part of this article that showed the fact that theatre students have records of things we have built, sets and props. Its a completely different kind of archiving for theatre students, and lasts in a completely different kind of way.
I was fortunate enough to start a guinea pig technical theatre program at my highschool like this. Many kids don't realize that their niche is theatrical production until later in life because their school did not have the resources. It's programs like these that help keep our industry alive and flourishing. Even if these kids never end up in theatre, perhaps they will take these skills learned in highschool and apply them to architecture, interior design, industrial design, etc.
This is great thing. I was fortunate to be able to do so much work--both designing and other--in my high school because there was no program involving outside designers. I'm a firm believer that in high school, it's a great chance for students to both design and learn on their own (with guidance, of course). When I started lighting shows at high school, it was a result of not having an established program and we just needed someone to do it. Not to mention, it taught many other things, like management skills. From that, my love of the industry and design was sparked and here I am now!
Without high school programs like the ones in the article to get students interested it would be much harder to recruit students into the technical side of theater in college. Having spent a lot longer in high schools than most it's very apparent that some students just naturally seem to become the "tech kids" and want to put most of their efforts into theater, they are often the ones who then go on to follow that as a college major as well. Being from this area and having worked at several of the mentioned schools these programs come as no surprise, what I find more surprising are the schools that just hire someone to build the scenery instead of using it as a learning opportunity.
Yeah, it's great that these programs exist, but speaking strictly in terms of this school offering a class...that's even better. We had a great little theatre program at my high school, but no classes in terms of stagecraft were offered. And being the stage manager for two years while maintaing an intense academic workload + other extra currics was a little hard on my time management skills, so I made the choice not to do tech. Therefore, my motto throughout high school was mainly something along the lines of, "I'll learn how to do [insert stagecraft skill here] if and when I get into college" Well I'm in college now and feel slightly behind because I didn't learn a lot in high school. So it's not enough just to offer drama stagecraft as a club. I really think schools who are serious about their drama programs need to implement different classes as well, because they certainly would have helped. It's great to see some schools actually doing that.
I wish my high school had a program like this when I was there. We barely had any sets, and what we did have was designed by the drama teacher/director, and sometimes built with the help of the students. Before I convinced the drama teacher to let me help with costumes, she did all of that herself too. I think this should be a course most (if not all) schools offer. Almost every high school I know of, has a drama class that puts on plays. The logical next step is a stagecraft class. Especially considering that it might be much cheaper to use the students to design and build the shows rather than hiring outside people to do it.
It's really great to see something like this, especially since this is the kind of environment that I first got into theater in. It's great that these students have to opportunity to go out and express themselves through the theater, where parents or teachers might take their place in other schools. Being able to work on shows that are completely student run helps people get into theater, learn the basics, and get on their way, and I was fortunate to experience a similar type program at my own high school back home, and be able to find what I loved in theater.
It's interesting that this is considered news. I would think that this is the norm wether the shows are good or not is an entirely different issue. Most schools create something to stick on a stage. It's not that impressive.
However after meeting many freshman actors here at CMU who are surprised that sets don't magically appear overnight or that there are people who design things or the concept that there are more people involved than just the actors... Makes me realize how incredibly ignorant some people can be. Even though these people are involved in theatre they still fail to grasp the basic concept that there are more than actors involved in a production.
So perhaps more programs like this, or a program that requires actors to be involved in the technical side, would benefit the future of theatre enormously.
I was so surprised how many people this program has for their tech program. If my high school had that many people building the shows, wow. I wish my high school had such a dedicated program. I am so glad that all the students are involved in their shows and that it seems to be more "together" program.
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