Preview of our 15th Anniversary of Theatre at APR!

I can't believe we are celebrating our 15th year of Theatre Arts at APR! It began with a dream in the fall of 2001 and now entering our 15th year, our program is stronger than ever and a mainstay at the school and in the community. For those who have missed us over the years, here are some highlights:
* Our troupe was founded with a small dedicated group of 7 Thespians; today, we have over 40 Thespians and Thespian Apprentices every year!
* Our first production of The Dining Room in the fall of 2001 had 8 actors in the cast; this fall, our revival production will have over 20 cast members and another 10+ on crew!
* Our curriculum began with just a few short courses for a few grade levels; this year, students in grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 will ALL have Drama as part of their course of study!
* In 2009, we added the ZIPS program (Zoom Into Productions by Students) where our HS Thespian leaders coordinate their own productions for the MS and HS: directing, writing, designing and producing a full production on their own!
* Our actors & techies have earned over 25 awards at the METG and ITS Festivals; we have earned awards every year at the festivals (from acting to design to directing & stage management).
* Our first trip to NYC was in 2005 with only 15 Thespians; we took our first trip to Hollywood in 2014 and we will take our 6th trip to NYC in spring 2016 with 26 Thespians!
* Our fundraisers began in 2002 and haven't stopped since: we raise between $10,000-30,000 every year in support of our theatre needs and ensuring that every Thespian can attend our out-of-state trip adventures!
* Many of our Thespian graduates go on to participate in college theatre and several are now pursuing theatre-related careers in Boston, NY, and even abroad!

What hasn't changed? Our students' commitment and dedication to celebrating theatre. Their passion and energy are contagious, and our Thespian troupe continues to be a family in support of our success as a unified troupe. I love seeing our Thespians make their first entrance onto the stage in the 5th grade and am overjoyed with pride watching them take their final bow as they approach graduation. And when they come back to tell us of their adventures in the "real world" beyond our school walls, we are reminded that they are always part of our Thespian Troupe family and their legacies live on.

We hope you will take advantage of the many offerings at APR for students to develop their love of theatre:
* In the classroom: Drama classes in grades 5-8!
* After school: as part of our theatre productions!
* Joining the International Thespian Society Troupe: an international organization that honors the dedication and successes of Thespians all across the globe!

Check out our events, join us for a show, come celebrate at the Thespian Benefit Gala, and take pride, as I do, seeing our students grow as confident, collaborative, creative leaders.

New upgrades for our MS Drama classes!

    I am thrilled to report that there are some new and exciting changes to our 7/8th grade Drama program this year! Our 7/8th grade students will be choosing Fine Arts' electives! Each trimester, students can choose to take Drama, Art, or Dance. This will give students a chance to explore a variety of Arts' offerings or go more in depth with one particular interest.
    In Drama, this will give us an opportunity to explore specific themes and dramatic styles as a group all keenly interested in Dramatic Art. Our shared interests will help support, encourage, and shape our learning as we explore a variety of theatrical genre from around the world and history. In trimester 1, our 7th grade Drama students can take Shadow Puppetry, where we'll design, create, write, and perform our own Shadow Puppet plays based on folktales from Asia (where Shadow Puppetry was developed into a high-art form). For 8th grade Drama students, they can take Commedia dell'Arte, where we'll explore this comedic style from the Italian Renaissance and then design Commedia masks and write and perform our own modern Commedia plays! It should be a great start to our first-ever Drama electives at APR!
    And not to be outdone, our 5th grade students will begin their introduction to Drama with their exploratory course. We'll spend the year discovering different styles of storytelling: from performing multicultural folktales in tableaux style in Trimester 1 to an exploration of family stories and improvising American stories and creating our own fairytales at the end of the year. It will be an exciting year of discovering acting, playwriting, design, and performance for our youngest APR students!
    And for any students for whom being in a Drama class just isn't enough time on stage? They can check out our productions! Aladdin, Jr. this fall and then our winter one-acts and spring ZIPS!
It's going to be a fun and busy year for Drama at APR!

5th grade storytellers

   Our 5th grade Drama course focuses on the theme of Dramatic Storytelling. Whether it's telling stories in a frozen Tableaux or using our voices to convey different characters or interpreting family folktales in a dramatic format or creating our own unique fairytales to perform, this first year course introduces students to the performing arts where all students can easily access the curriculum and art form.
   This winter, students are taking family stories and dramatically performing them in small groups. They are researching from their families, uncovering stories from when their elders first started school, and then they are script-writing, creating characters, and rehearsing these stories for a dramatic performance. Storytelling as an art form has been around for thousands of years as a way to pass on family legacies and as a way of teaching future generations. You can check out lots of family folklore storytellers on YouTube, as well as a sample of Native American storytelling on this link: Native American storytelling conference: Smithsonian Museum

7th graders as Shadow Puppeteers

    In the busy and creative 7th grade Drama classes this winter, students are becoming shadow puppeteers! Using Chinese myths from their Mandarin course and building upon their Visual Art skills, they are scriptwriting their own shadow puppet plays, designing the puppets and scene designs, and preparing to perform their own creative plays in class this winter. This tricky performance art method has been around for centuries, beginning in Indonesia and catching on throughout the world over the years.
     Our 3rd floor cafeteria has been transformed into a shadow puppet theatre, but if you want to check out professional samples as well, head to YouTube and search for "Shadow Puppets". There are some links on this post that you can view as well.Shadow Puppet play from Puerto Rico

A new year and new big dreams!

Another school year is upon us which means new plans and dreams for what else is possible on the horizon with our APR Thespians.

Here's what the new year has in store:

• Another MS-HS production (grades 5-12)! We had so much fun last fall, that we have decided to do it again. This year, a night of dinner theatre mysteries: A Night with Sherlock Holmes. Look for more info as we get closer (opening Nov. 21, 2013)
• Some more jumping fun at Sky Zone (to add to our growing list of creative fundraisers)!
• Our usual fall line up of the Haunted House and Halloween Carnival (Oct. 25) and delicious cookie dough.
• Winter and spring one-acts (Festival and ZIPS!) Titles and dates TBD once my creative Thespians decide what they would most like to do.
• And, are you ready with the drumroll? Our BIGGEST new initiative for this school year... a trip to... Hollywood, California! Yes, it's true, we decided that our trips to New York are amazing, so let's look to the next big place to explore in the performing arts: Hollywood! The students and I have dreamed up quite an adventure and it will truly be a memorable experience for us all in spring 2014. You'll hear a lot more about this as we plunge into our fundraising season this fall. (Look for info on donorschoose.org this fall and plans for a Thespian Gala Benefit this winter!)

For now, we're geared up for an exciting launch to the 2013-14 school year and our exciting plans for our dedicated Thespians! Stay tuned....

APR's 1st Musical is finally here!

      I can't believe it. 12 years ago we started our little theatre program here at Academy of the Pacific Rim in an empty small cafeteria room, hand sewn black curtains, some rented lights and a bare floor.
Every year we have grown our program: new plays, student directors, our ZIPS program (Zoom into productions by students), and developing student leaders and theatre enthusiasts with our Thespian Society.
Thursday night, we make history once again. Despite not having any music or choral classes at APR, we are opening our 1st ever musical production! With the talented assistance of Bil Mooney-McCoy directing our students on vocals, and our amazingly talented student stage managers, scene artists, lighting and sound techs, and the beautiful voices of our students, this show is ready to open!
    The voices will amaze you, the story will delight you, and you'll be singing along by the end.

Join us as APR makes history:

Once On This Island, Jr.

Thursday and Friday at 7pm and then Saturday at 5pm

Tickets are only $3 for students and $5 for adults

At Academy of the Pacific Rim: One Westinghouse Plaza, Hyde Park

See you at the show!

Off to NYC!

I can't believe it's that time of year -- time for our HS Thespian troupe to head off to New York City! Time to take in the sights and sounds of Broadway! I look forward to this trip every two years as a chance to get out and explore the life and excitement of professional theatre for my students, and I get just as excited with the anticipation of the trip as my students do. :-)
One of the great things about this bi-yearly trip is that we flip-flop the itineraries, so that our HS students get to experience a full range of the theatre world over the course of both trips. (On the last trip, for example, we went to Ellis Island, toured backstage at the Apollo Theater and a college tour of NYU, went to the Top of the Rock, and visited Madame Tousseaud's Wax museum -- in addition to 3 Broadway shows and awesome professional theatre workshops, of course!)
On this year's trip, highlights include: visiting the Tenement Museum and exploring the Lower East Side, the Guggenheim Modern Art museum, backstage tours at Radio City and NBC Studios, tours to Julliard & Columbia Universities, and 3 more Broadway shows (different ones from the last trip, of course). This year, students will also prepare & perform their own original scenes, incorporating stage combat techniques that they will learn from professionals in NY, too!

Only a few days before departure and we can't wait!