ISTA/Scene March 07

“It was wonderful to see young people from all over the globe coming together to further their
learning about theatre in a mutually supportive and excitingly enriching environment.”
Paula Mor, Island School, Hong Kong
THE LADY IS NOT FOR BURNING
by Christopher Fry, published by
Dramatists Play Service
Fry’s play is a beautiful lyrical
exploration of life, love, and morality.
This piece can be done in very
Shakespearean style, with a simple set
consisting of only a couple of raised
platforms and a few benches and
chairs. The small cast has several
women’s roles with some meat to
them, and the roles of the chaplain and
town drunk can be converted, giving a
balance of 6 M to 5 F. The play itself
(written in blank verse) is both a verbal
delight and an effective challenge to
students. Our students revelled in the
unusual word formations and, through
working with the play’s intricate
language, gained greater control of
their own vocal mechanisms. Definitely
a worthwhile challenge.
ORIGINAL VIDEOS
Our Advanced Drama class created
original videos for public presentation.
During class, we concentrated on
three basic elements of filmmaking:
directing, writing, and acting. We
looked at both classic films, such as
Citizen Kane and Casablanca, and
more recent gems, such as American
Beauty. The students, in groups of
about five, pitched a script idea, wrote
a draft screenplay that was critiqued
by the teacher, then revised the
screenplay into a shooting script.
Students then created a locations
chart, shot individual scenes, then
edited them together using iMovie.
Students were both their own actors
and directors, and all students
participated in the editing process. We
had a gala presentation evening. All the
students’ videos were shown, and the
audience voted on Best Supporting
Player, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best
Screenplay, and Best Picture. Winners
received little Smurf statuettes. It was
a great way to cap the project, which
we would recommend as a means to
helping drama students connect the
dots between the two media of theatre
and film.
Annie Mcmanners – Frankfurt
International School, Germany
HOMER’S ODYSSEY by David
Calcutt published by Nelson as a
Dramascript
We worked for 2 months on this with
9-12 grade students. 15 girls and 15
boys. The first scene in the play is
slightly dodgy and could take a few
cuts, but it soon perks up. The girls
played the suitors of Penelope in the
first and last scene wearing masks and
robes and then the boys burst in with
a sort of Haka that was virile and
visceral to lead into the rest of the play.
Masses of music and movement
opportunities, dance, mime and choral
speaking. We performed on the floor of
the room with audience on 3 sides and
a series of platforms and steps leading
up to the stage at one end. The
Cyclops was rear projection with a
voice over, but there are other great
production challenges for IB students
to work on.
GRIMM TALES AND MORE GRIMM
TALES by Carol Ann Duffy and Tim
Supple, published by Faber and
Faber
Each of these contains 7 or 8 different
stories with dramatizations. We
selected 8 scenes from the two plays
and put them together as one
performance. We performed on the
floor with audience on three sides with
large painted screens on either side to
provide exits etc. There was a cast of
50, divided into two groups, but it
could be done with 10 actors. In Act 1,
one group performed as the sound
factory for the stories, sitting apart
from the actors, making sound/music
using a variety of traditional and
improvised instruments as well as their
voices. For Act 2 they swapped with
the other group. Each story has a
different set of challenges and we used
Folkmanis puppets in many instances
as well as creating all of the settings
and props using students. The screens
were painted with a scary forest taken
from a book of Walt Disney stills from
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. We
worked for 2 months with students from
grades 9-12.
ARABIAN NIGHTS by Dominic
Cooke, published by Nick Hearn
Books
Rich colour, fabric, carpets, gold and
silver, food platters with real food, belly
dancing, incense burners. This is all
you need to do this show. We had a
large cast of 55 and there are about 40
roles but you could do it with 10, with
doubling. There is a lot of room to
make each story individual and I asked
pairs of IB students to take charge of a
scene, encouraging them to negotiate
with each other to produce an
umbrella design, as well as individual
ideas. The Music department
purchased a number of authentic
Beijing MS
Scene | 2006-7 March Issue 3 | 15