The class watched as a student leaned forward and pretended to kick an imaginary penguin. It was like slow motion when the shoe flew off the foot and hit the ceiling, and caused the tile to move. Sophomore Kara Spencer watched in her Theater II class during a performance of a class project.
The theater classes offered this year included Theater I, II, III and IV, along with tech, musical and children’s theater. In Theater II this year, the class was project based. Students were able to work on projects that improved helped their knowledge of theater in general, acting, and special skills they might need later in their theater career.
“I signed up for Theater II because I really liked Theater I,” Spencer said. “I just really wanted to stay involved with theater because I do it outside of school so I wanted to take the class and see if I would grow as an actor.”
The class participated in a wide range of projects from performing of a Shakespeare monologue, to learning to juggle, to working on duet scenes. One project well liked by the students was where they had to write monologue from the point of view of someone running away from home.
“I really liked that run away’s project. We got to write our own monologue about why someone ran away because you can be really creative and I think it’s easier to perform something when you’ve written yourself,” Spencer said. “It was also cool at the end when we got together with other people and melded our monologues together and made a group performance.”
Because the students learned a lot of the basic knowledge of theater in Theater I, this year they were able to do a lot more hands on work rather than notes and listening to the basics.
“Last year in Theatre I, we had a lot of people that were just there because they wanted a fine arts credit and so people are more involved and willing to work this year so we are able to do a lot more stuff,” Spencer said. “We do more projects that are ‘here’s your assignment you have two weeks for getting it done’ rather than being watched every step of the way. I think everyone is more responsible so it is more fun and creative.”
This year in technical theater, the class worked on designing and building sets for the schools performances. Senior Colton Tou has worked on many sets and projects for the class and productions.
“It’s a Wonderful Lifewas my favorite project this year because it was the first set that I really just gave it my all,” Tou said. “I came after school, it was also the first show I’ve seen here.”
Technical theater goes to UIL competitions for set design. The students produce a ground plan of the set, an aerial view of the stage, then a rendering which is a sketch of what the audience will see of your set. After they finish the plans they send them in for the competition.
“This year it seems more serious and competitive but at the same time it was just as relaxing and fun as it’s always been and way better than Tech I,” Tou said.
Theater I was a class that introduced students to different aspects of theater. The students participated in projects that helped them improve their improv skills, speaking fears, and gave them a general knowledge of theater. Freshman Kinsley Stewart-Brown took Ms. Alverson’s Theater I class.
“My favorite memory in the class it would have to be just being there every morning before class starts and Ms. Alverson would just talk to us all,” Stewart-Brown said.
Some of the projects that students participated in were creating a monologue that was from a superhero’s point of view, making sock puppets, putting on an improv show and many others.
“The improv show was my favorite this year definitely because I am really good at making up things on the spot, I’m just not good at remembering stuff on the spot,” Stewart-Brown said.
Musical theater was a class that gave students the opportunity to learn the history of musical theater, perform songs, and learn styles of dance. This was sophomore Adrianna Estrada’s second year to take the class.
“I really enjoyed the class and the fact that we get to sing songs from musicals is the one of my favorite things to do. And we get to meet new people too,” Estrada said.
In this class, they learned about different decades of musicals and how they’ve changed over the course of history. The students did several projects to learn about the different types including, performing songs from the 1920s’ and creating presentations telling about the history.
“We sometimes do songs, where we have to practice and then perform them,” Estrada said. “Sometimes we assign a musical and we do those musicals and learn the history behind it.”
This year, Ms. Alverson taught the class several styles of dance and created choreography to help the class prepare for musicals the students might participate in the future. This class helped students in their skills as actors, singers and dancers.
“I took it again this year because I really enjoyed the class and the fact that we get to sing songs from musicals is the one of my favorite things to do,” Estrada said. “And we get to meet new people too.”
