Not a whole lot has been going on this week, and so I haven't found much great inspiration for a post today, at least not one that can be done quickly. Probably, the most exciting thing this week that has happened for me personally is that I was asked a few weeks ago if I would be the advisor for a new drama club at school and I have been working on that this week. I am really excited about it. It's going to be a lot of work for me, but I look forward to the challenge. We are hoping to have a plan in place for when school starts next year.
This week I have been working on a plan of action so that it can be presented to the students and get some interests generated. At first, I want to put together a few fundraisers that will not be too expensive to produce. We have a lovely mansion near the school where we may be able to have a murder mystery dinner night. The kits for the murder mystery nights are not too expensive and I hope to be able to adapt one so that we can have a little local flavor to it. The mansion where we hope to host it has an old legend that it is haunted (actually by two different women who had unhappy lives in this house). The second of the two women may have even possibly been murdered after a dinner party. I think it will be a fun and fantastic fundraiser. We are hoping to have it sometime near Halloween.
We actually have a beautiful stage at school, but currently the lighting does not work, so they will have to be fixed before we can stage our first real production. I hope the murder mystery night can raise the funds to fix the lights. Then I am hoping that we can have a series of comedy skits that can be our first production. I think that we can do a night of a "thousand" laughs or something similar that can be a relatively inexpensive first production so that we can generate funds for a larger show next spring.
I certainly think that we will have some interest and I hope the interest will grow. I do not have any real experience with theatre, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Do any of you have any experience with productions?
To say that I am excited about this would be a bit of an understatement. Even though I am not out at school, I guess I don't have the ruggedness that the other men/coaches at school have. Everyone I know who I have told about starting a drama club seems to think that it is natural that they would look to me. Even though I'm not out, I think the gay stereotype is still there. Oh well, I am going to enjoy it anyway, no matter what they think.
Lights! Camera!!! Action!!!
ReplyDeleteIt will take a lot ot time and work, but you will be able to handle the task..just keep it simple and do nto take on too much!!!
Awesome! I was doing theatre in some form since 5th grade, and the teachers that led it when I was in Junior and High school were my heroes! Good for you for taking this on.
ReplyDeleteAs for stereotypes, did you think maybe they gravitated to a history/English type like you?
If you can find it, we did "Storybook Theatre", a series of short fairy tale like stories, each with a twist and pretty funny if I remember correctly. I was the adulterous minister whose big line was....HAHAHA, I'll make you wait (unless you've read it on my blog).
Peace <3
Jay
I'd recommend picking up a copy of The Backstage Handbook, its a simple resource for tools, tricks, maths, also a good teaching tool.
ReplyDeleteAlso, look into the fields of Creative Drama/Devising and Story Theatre.
Good books to look at for those are: Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher's Handbook by Viola Spolin (really anything by her), anything by her son Paul Sills, Theatre for Community Conflict and Dialogue: The Hope Is Vital Training Manual by Michael Rohd, Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond by Nellie McCaslin,