This past weekend we had our first official Theatre Bootcamp!
What is Theatre Bootcamp? I'm glad you asked!
Theatre Bootcamp is a new series of weekend workshops designed to challenge students and focus on the fundamentals of Theatre is a fun setting. But don't be fooled, it isn't called Bootcamp just because. The students are working hard!
For our first Bootcamp we did a challenge called "Play in a Day." I picked four plays written by my Theatre 1 students, directors from my Theatre 3 and Theatre 4 class, and designers, actors and crew from all over the school. In a day (plus a few hours), the students produced a ten-minute play. The actors were off-book, the lights and sound were added and the costumes were "on fleek."
As this was our first Bootcamp, it served as a Beta Test for the program. And as with any beta test, there were some great successes as well as some challenges.
- Successes
- Almost all the actors were completely off book despite the fact that they only had a little over a day to do so.
- Most of our tech people were new and they were quick learners.
- Many students are eager to have the next Bootcamp as soon as possible
- Challenges
- Some drama (and not the good kind). As is always the case, it can easily be avoided with sympathy and communication.
- Parent/Guardian Involvement: Something I'm always striving to improve is getting the parents involved in the project beyond just being in the audience.
- RESPECT! It's a rule in my class that everyone must Respect the Craft. That means respecting the actor, respecting the director, respecting the crew. I have no room for DIVAS in my class or in the afterschool projects.
So Many Designs!
Design is not my strongest quality as a theatre artist. I find it fascinating and would love to know more. When I was my students' age, I was told by a local theatre artist to study all aspects of theatre because it's important to understand as much of it as possible. When I got to college, I felt boxed into the performance aspect of theatre. I wish I had the opportunity to learn more about design. The designers at my school were top notch and they spent four years learning the ins and outs of an incredibly complex art form. Those of us that studied performance spent four years learning the inds and outs of our incredibly complex art form. We were so caught up in our work that we didn't have a second to venture to "The Other Side."
And now, here I find myself, waist deep in design-based lesson plans. I am having tremendous fun and am learning a lot so that I may teach a lot. Today we are looking at some examples of very cool set designs and talking more about final renderings. As I look at examples, my imagination is running wild thinking about the shows I want to do and the sets and costumes that would go with the show. It's all very exciting!
Here are some examples of amazing set designs:
Monday Monday
As the old Mamas & the Papas song goes
Monday Monday, can't trust that day,
Monday Monday sometimes it just turns out that way
Every other day of the week is fine.....me too, Mamas and Papas, me too.
Friday evening, I leave work and I look back at the week and think of how successful (or not successful) the week was. I think of the connections I make with students. I think of lessons and activities that could be better. I think of upcoming projects and how to make them more exciting. And then Monday rolls around and my head is clogged--all the ideas, all the considerations, all the tasks--they pile up and they all come with me to work on Monday.
This past weekend, I spent a good bit of time thinking about the upcoming projects and how excited I am to see the students bring their ideas to life! Sometimes our projects only make it to paper. But with this project, we get to take it one step further.
Keep checking back for some awesome pictures of our upcoming projects!
______________________________________________________________________________
Hello everyone!
Wow, first post...how should I start?
Well let me start by introducing myself! My name is Corinne Tyo and I am the new theatre teacher at Fort Dorchester HS. So far, I have been at FDHS for a little over two months and have fallen in love with the opportunity. The students are awesome, my colleagues are awesome and I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the year unfolds!
