I have a few questions for any actors or theater fans out there...???

1. What other states besides Texas have Drama/One-Act Play Competitions in public high schools?

2. I really want to work with my high school next year to improve our drama program and our One-Act Play. What high schools throughout the U.S. have notable programs?

3. What good books can you guys recommend that talk about Theater?


Peace,

...

that was a couple of decades ago. :shrug:

... the kids at my old high school (I'm only 22) has some very talented actors; I really think we can put together an exceptional drama program... What can I do?

What, exactly, are you envisioning? Do you have a theatre? A space? Is there available money? Does your area FUND drama? Do you have access to a TRAINED acting teacher?

Google is useful:

<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Teaching+drama>
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=High+school+one-act+play+contests>

in my High School on Long Island. I have a Best Actor trophy!

long, long ago. I believe Forest Hills High School in New York City has an outstanding arts program. Alas, I can't recommend any theater books.

as for #2, i'm in a Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) gifted program here. We've got some good people (Rockford, Illinois Public Schools, dist. #205) We do student directed one-acts, usually in a two night festival. How it works is the junior class (Adv. Acting/Directing and (non-CAPA) Drama 7-8) divides into teams of directors and stage managers, puts together a proposal for a play, and then hosts a general audition for sophomores (Basic Acting Styles and Drama 3-4 and up). Each director/stage manger team is assigned a techie, and has all the responsibilities of an actual production staff. If you PM me, i can give you more information, or give you our teachers' contact info.

#3, i got nothing, but i can ask around.

meaning, whether you want "practical", step-by-step guides, or "deep as shit" academic stuff, if you want the latter, grab some books and articles (do a web search, and also go to your library) and get books and articles by Robert Grimes but much more importantly, Richard Scheckner, a professor at NYU who's long had an experimental theater group, and is a WORLD-REKNOWN expert and thinking about ritual/performance studies.

I also had the incredible luck of seeing him at a panel discussion last night about ritual and performance (with Robert Grimes and Tom Driver), and wow! Great stuff. Real Shrub hater. But better than that, has an absolute dedication to thinking about performance - and far beyond theater. He was talking at one point last night about how he's not only offended by what the military did in the torture chambers, etc., but want off on a brilliant tirade against Shrub and media for the ABUSIVE ritualistic way in which they (the media and Shrub's administration) presented the photos. The guy's a frickin' genius.

if you're in performance, and you aren't reading Scheckner, then there's a problem.

That is, both "Scheckner" and "Sheckner" (without a "c" in the beginning)

http://www.asf.net/listentoasf.cfm

scroll down to January 23, 2003

Interview with Richard Sheckner from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Frickin' brilliant.

Talks about the performance of going to the doctor's office, and the uniforms as "costume" and the loss of power as a patient, as a person waiting for the doctor, as someone told to take one's clothes off, and how it relates to a courtroom performance or theater performance, etc.

If one is going to teach them theater and performance, teach them best about theater and performance that you can.

No sense dumbing it down just cuz they're in high school.

But more importantly, the more the TEACHER is informed in theory and is exposed to a wide variety of ideas, especailly taking the idea of performance out of the box of the stage and apllying it - rightly - all over the place, the better that teacher will be. Even if the teacher never says anything directly to the youth abouit it, the knowledge will still inform the teacher's actions for the better.