ISTA/Scene March 07

More documents

Recommendations

Info

daughter / parent relationships and friendship to name a few themes. Excellent production notes and how to stage using Brechtian theatre styles therefore great for low budgets. Great roles for girls, but the ‘dates’ are literally cardboard cut - outs. My grade 10’s in Australia directed, produced and designed the whole production and did a fantastic job. They actually cast one of the Mum’s as a Dad and we had 2 male fairies that worked just as effectively and they also used males for the dates, but these are really cameo roles. I would use with Middle Year grade 10 students or as a Grade 11 IB1’s play to analyse Brechtian theatre. It could also be used for an Individual Project for IB2’S to direct and stage. It’s a fantastic issue based piece of poignant play writing! ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell, adapted by Ian Wooldridge, published by Nick Hearn Books, London Approximately one hour, with no interval Overview – ‘George Orwell’s satire on the perils of Stalinism’. Animals take over the control of their farm after ongoing neglect and ruthless treatment by their human farmer, but with the pigs now in control of ANIMAL FARM things appear to go from bad to worse with some animals becoming ‘...more equal than others’. At the time of writing, I am about to audition my Grade 6-8 students for the Middle Years play in February at my present school. The staff at Nick Herne books has been so helpful with regards to obtaining performing rites and sending the plays. I would highly recommend them to all teachers, especially to new Drama teachers. Easy to apply online no matter where your school is. It involves a large cast or you can double up actors to have a cast of 6 if your school is small. IB 1’s are involved in costume and set design as part of their Technical involvement in production and I am going to appoint a dramaturg too. There are helpful production notes included and the students appear to be very excited about ‘doing’ the play! Helen Szymczak - Marymount International School, London I only teach girls, so it can be a real issue finding plays that are suitable. Here is a list of some productions I have done. 24 | Scene | 2006-7 March Issue 3 FIND ME by Olwen Wynmark About a girl called Verity Taylor who at the age of 20 was charged by the police of damaging a chair in the mental hospital where she was a patient. Later, she was committed to Broadmoor ‘from where she may not be discharged or transferred elsewhere without permission of the home secretary’. Using a technique of multiple characterization the play seeks to investigate in depth the personality of the young girl, to ‘find’ her – and at the same time studies the effects of her behaviour on the family, friends and officials in whose care she is placed. I had a cast of 23 actresses, so instead of one actress playing Verity I had 5. IB CLASSWORK I do a lot of short performances with my I.B girls as I usually have small classes – no bigger than 6/7, so combine a lot of skills in one project. One student will direct, another focusing on design, another on technical and the others will perform. Throughout their two years they all have to alternate the various roles. These are plays that have strong women characters, and small casts! KINDERTRANSPORT by Diane Samuels, written in 1992 A full-length play- will need to choose sections to perform. The play is about a Jewish child being sent to live in Britain to escape the holocaust. She has to forge a relationship with a ‘new’ mother and she changes her identity. Later her own daughter finds some letters and asks her questions about them which forces her to confront the truth about her past. Cast (4-5): Evelyn – English middle-class woman in her 50’s; Faith- Evelyn’s only child in her early 20’s; Eva- Evelyn’s younger selfshe starts the play at 9 and finishes at 17 years old- Jewish German becoming increasingly English; Helga – Eva’s mum German Jewish woman in her early 30’s; Lil – Eva/Evelyn’s English foster mother. In her 80’s. Structure is chronologically moving forwards in present interspersed with flash backs to the past as Evelyn’s memories come back to haunt her. Act 1 has some good sections for four actors especially Act 1 Scene 2. MY MOTHER SAID I NEVER SHOULD by Charlotte Keatley (written 1987) A full length play- will need to choose sections to perform. Play about four generations of women in a family, how they relate to one another and how their different lifestyles reflect the changing opportunities for women in society over the last century. Cast (4): Doris Partington born 1900; Margaret Bradley born 1931; Jackie Metcalf born 1952; Rosie Metcalfe born 1971. The set is non-naturalistic - ‘a magic place where things can happen’. The play moves through chronologically interspersed with scenes of all four women playing together as children. Scenes often done in pairs to begin with and later all four characters are together. METAMORPHOSIS by Steven Berkoff from Franz kafka‚s short story written in 1969 Cast (4-6 – depends which section(s) you do): Gregor Samsa, his Mother, his Father, his sister Greta, his boss the Chief Clerk, the Lodger. This play is a physical theatre piece based around the idea of Gregor Samsa waking up one morning to discover that he has turned into a beetle. This symbolizes the way he feels he is treated by his family and boss and seems to represent his mental breakdown due to having to work so hard and feeling the pressure of people relying on him. Opportunities for stylized acting, costume, lighting and set design. THE CONAHUE SISTERS by Geraldine Aron, written in 1990 One act play- will need slight cutting. Cast (3): Dunya, Rosie and Annie (all in 30s). The play is set in Ireland and is about three catholic girls who killed a boy when they were children. They were curious about sex and made him kiss them and then, feeling rapt with guilt about what they’ve done, they kill him. The play is based around the three girls having a reunion and then re-enacting the murder- taking it in turns to play the boy they killed. Michael Thomas – Regent’s School Pattaya, Thailand HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES by Salman Rushdie, adapted by Tim Supple and David Tushingham, published in paper back by Faber and Faber, ISBN 0-571-19693-4 The school is fortunate to have a large space called the Globe and, like Shakespeare’s original, it includes a large balcony space behind the stage which leant itself well to the epic scale
of the text. The Asian setting perfectly matched the actual location of the eventual performance, which took place after 4 months of intensive but enjoyable rehearsal. This was the first large-scale drama production in the school’s history so much time was spent working on the creation of an ensemble through games and improvisation work based on different kinds of story-making tasks. The cast of 35 assisted in the making of the numerous props and elements of scenic design and costume. The play also provides great opportunities for innovative music composition and the students took every chance to experiment with Thai instruments, most of which were eventually included in the final accompanying score. The musicians were situated on the balcony next to the actors who, when not featured in a particular scene, acted as a chorus on the action taking place below. THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken This production involved nearly 40 students in Years 7-9 on stage with an equal number in the orchestra. Most of the students had already heard of the show and, even when they had not, they soon absorbed the memorable tunes. A large design team, led by Year 12 IB Art students worked on the creation of the giant plant Audrey 2 and an IB Theatre Arts student created the choreography for the performance. The rapidly expanding plant eventually took over the audience at the end and so remained faithful to Howard Ashman’s original concept. THE CANTERBURY TALES adapted from Chaucer‚s stories by Phil Woods and Michael Bogdanov, published by Iron Press, ISBN 0-906228-43-3 The plays provide a perfect blend of magic, tragedy and moments of pure bawdy humour, which found an appreciative local audience! In order to involve as many students as possible the links between each tale were developed to include more characters. The plays were all co-directed by IB Theatre Arts students. Elements of Asian drama traditions were integrated into the production including the use of especially deigned masks and Balinese Shadow puppets for the Franklin’s Tale. The play was also performed to students at the local Asian University. Tony Thomas – St Christopher’s School Bahrain AFTER JULIET by Shaman MacDonald, Shell Connections 99 Cast of 15 (5m and 10f) Picks up the story after the death of Romeo and Juliet and takes place in Verona during the fragile peace between the warring families. There are some excellent female roles, especially Rosaline, who feels betrayed by her cousin, Juliet, for stealing Romeo away from her. The piece has an incredible intensity, which builds to a climactic finish. It was very popular with our senior students (15-18). Easy to stage – not too long – has some very powerful and funny moments. RESTORATION by Edward Bond, Methuen Cast of 13 (8m and 5f) This is a very funny and dark piece. It needs a strong cast, particularly for the central characters and you have the challenge of costuming a period piece! It is a brilliant play about the injustices of the class system in the early industrial era. Very Brechtian in style – loads of songs punching home the political message but you could leave them out. It does need cutting to bring down to two hours. But an interesting and entertaining yarn nonetheless. OUT OF THEIR HEADS by Marcus Romer, Young Blood anthology of youth plays Cast of 10 Although this isn’t a big cast, you can double the main characters and have extra actors to people the clubs and pubs that form the backdrop of the play. This is a very exciting modern piece that tackles the subject of drugs in a non-condescending and truthful way. It has a terrific central plot involving a triangular relationship Beijing MS between two guys and a girl and has loads of opportunities to use modern music and spectacular lighting designs. It is quite easy to stage – suits a studio that can become the club using fluorescent lighting and a few moving lights. High energy but thought provoking, especially as the story cuts to different locations very quickly and tells the story nonchronologically. It has a very good twist in the story too, which the students like. Only suitable for high school students really or maybe upper middle schoolers. Jen Tickle – TISA, International School of Azerbaijan (formerly at Bangkok Patana School, Thailand and Overseas School of Colombo, Sri Lanka) All three plays listed below were very much team efforts, and developed through student led workshops as well as co-directed by drama teachers. THREEPENNY OPERA by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill Universal Edition Ltd, 48 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1F 7BB (tel: 020 7437 5205 / fax: 020 7439 2897/ email: deirdre.bates@mdslondon.co.uk or colin.green@mdslondon.co.uk High School students. Needs a few very strong singers for main male and female roles. The orchestration has some quirks and it’s not easy to play but we were able to fit out a band comprised of students and peripatetic music staff. There are a few options for the libretto – we worked with Jeremy Sams’ fantastic lyrics from the Donmar Warehouse version (available on CD through Amazon) that had to be toned down a little but made the whole show so politically relevant for all concerned. We had a cast of about thirty, and created a whole chorus line Scene | 2006-7 March Issue 3 | 25
Page 1 and 2: Scene 2006-7 March Issue 3 THE QUAR
Page 3 and 4: Editorial 2006-7 March Issue 3 ASKI
Page 5 and 6: ng in Schools and then set them abo
Page 7 and 8: Alenka Dorrell - American Internati
Page 9 and 10: narratives throughout the play, tol
Page 11 and 12: for this show, although you can buy
Page 13 and 14: Beijing MS broken on stage guarante
Page 15 and 16: estricting our set to black boxes a
Page 17 and 18: “It was wonderful to see young pe
Page 19 and 20: have suggested to ourselves the wro
Page 21 and 22: community - sometimes they overshad
Page 23 and 24: war is going and terrorize the comm
Page 25: “My tree of knowledge expanded by
Page 29 and 30: Calderdale HS Beijing MS visual art
Page 31 and 32: ISTA PROFILE The ISTA Consultancy S

ISTA/Scene March 07

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?