New projects

Since wrapping our last performance, we have come back from spring break and begun work on our next project. We are preparing for our spring awards banquet. In all of my brilliant genius I have decided that we will do it as an awards show, complete with short plays. To avoid me directing everything I decided we would have student directed plays. The kids are totally stoked!

One of my senior girls is directing a two person play about a cop with the Teatre Department going to arrest a deranged playwright. It's rather hilarious. This is her directorial debut, and she already shows promise. I am super excited to see how she works.

My other senior director is doing a play about an American man and Arabian woman and the Interpreter that helps them communicate. The play is all in English which makes it even funnier. This is also a direcorial debut by the coolest little hippie student I have. She made me homemade granola. I fucking love my job.

And the final play is a directorial debut from one of my freshman girls. She is so ridiculously talented its stupid. Her play is about two girls making a frined of theirs hold his breath for three minutes while the sun comes up. It's rather silly, but pretty fun.

On top of the student directed plays, I am doing a piece with the remaining students about bullying and teen violence. The group has been doing comedies for the last several years so I think doing something dramatic will be good for them.

I am also doing a special play with the seniors entitled "Antigone's Red". It is a short 10 minute play about the Japanese internment camps of WWII. The kids love it, and I thinnk they are going to able to do amazing things with it.

The kids are really excited about the final performance and so am I! It's going to be a fantastic way to end the school year!!!

Opening Night

When the morning of the show dawned I was excited and restless. I had about 40 billion things to do before we could have a show.

After school my cast and crew showed up and starrting preparing for the show. Backstage was alive with excitement.

The audience took their seats and dinner was served. After dinner the remianing audience that didn't want a meal was seated.

I welcomed everyone and made my thank you's in my curtain speech and then the show started. As the lights came up, it was like a magic spell was cast over the theatre. Everything was pure perfection, not one cue was missed, nor one line dropped. You would have thought that they were on the stage at the Shubert Theatre, not in an auditorium at Morenci High School. I could not believe the priase I recieved after the show.

And then my students came to me after the show with a dozen yellow roses, and a program they had all signed. I cried, it was such a beautiful moment.

No matter where life takes me, or what I do, I will always remember these wondrful students.

Final Dress

I always love final dress rehearsals. They are always so exciting for everyone innvolved. As a director I try to just sit and watch and give notes after.

For this last dress rehearsal it was no different. When my students came into rehearsal you could see the excitement behind their eyes. The techies instantly started setting the stage, lights, and sound while the actors began getting innto costume and character.

Being that our show was a dinner theatre, I had innvited the student group that was catering our dinner to see the final dress rehearsal. My students were ready, and the audience was in their seats. As the curtain opened and the lights came up I could feel the excitement in the room.

By the time the show came to a close I had taken several pages of notes. After the audience I sat down with the kids. You could tell they were upset by the run of the show. We went over what went wrong, and most of the things they had noticed, were things I had taken notes on. Knowing that they knew what the mistakes were I didn't feel it was essential to make them rehearse more.

I then told the kids that I wasn't worried in the slightest. If dress rehearsals don't go well then the show generally is flawless.

With that being said, I sent the kids home to rest, relax, and generally calm down. There is no use in a dress reharsal if you are just going to freak out the night before the show.

Questions

In the midst of a dress rehearsal, a student says to me; "Mr. Dunlap, this show is really great. I think it will be a big hit. This is good theatre." He then turned to me and asked; "What makes good theatre. I always hear it, and never really understood."

I had to take a moment and think. Good theatre? It is such a complex term really. To know what makes good theatre, you have to look at what is to be accomplished with it. Are we putting on a show just for entertainment? Are we trying to change hearts and minds on important issues? Or are we just taking part in something because it brings a light to our life that wasn't there before?

The answer is simple. If you see a show and it does all of these things, it is good theatre. A playwright named Dustin Lance Black recently wrote a play entitled "8" about the federal case against Proposition 8 in California. The show had a brief run on Broadway and recieved amazing reviews.

Just last week a special one night performance was done in California. The amazing thing about this performance was that it was not the Broadway cast performing. The cast was made up of many big name acotrs such as George Clooney, Jamie Lee Cutis, and Brad Pitt.

Acting started with a stage. It was amazing to see these actors return to their roots, not because they were getting paid, but because it was a cause important to them.

I remember when I was in the 8th grade. My best friends parents took me to my first show. We saw "The Wizard of Oz." At this point I had seen the movie a million times. But when those house lights dimed, and the curtain went up, I was transported to Oz. I didn't just watch Dorothy try to get home, I experienced all of her trials right along with her.

From that point on I knew I wanted to be on a stage.

So, what makes good theatre? Good theatre simply, makes you feel.

Finding the fun

So the show is coming up in a little over a week, and I have started working on the program. I asked all of the students to email me a short bio for said program. I gave them a week to work on it, with the threat of "If you don't get it done on time I will write it, and I won't be nice."

So here it is, the day of the deadline, and I am missing several bio's. Now when I say I won't be nice what I mean is, I will make up anything I can to embarrass you. In the midst of writing bio's I have transformed my students into many things.

I now have a Justin Bieber impersonator, a Hannah Montana worshiper, and an actor aspiring to star in a show about...wait for it...Savage Garden.

I have found that it is kinda fun to give my students other lives. It makes my already strange students, seem WAY out there. I know these backgrounds aren't real, but they are definitely fun to make up. It is all about finding the little things in your day to make it worth while.

In other news, spray painting set gives you uber creative ideas, or maybe it's just the fumes...

Opposition

So my leading male has turned in all of his work and brought up his grade. He has corrected his attitude and appologized for his behavior. As a teacher I would love for my bad kids to do that. This other teacher however, has decided that because of one bad incident, my leading male is a bad student. She is constantly hounding him, and getting on to him.

So today I go to make copies, and there she is. So then she decides to talk to me about him. When I explain to her that he has fixed his attitude and grade, like she asked, there is no more to talk about. She then decides to question my teaching abilities. Really?!?! I got him to not only behave, but also do all of his work in her class, and she has the nerve to question my ability as a teacher!!!

It really annoys me that core teachers think that just because I specialized in the arts, I am a terrible teacher.

I made the decision today that, instead of calling her out on it (like she did me) I am going to be an adult. She will see just how awesome my kids are when she comes to the show. And yes, she is coming. She already bought her ticket.

So here is to taking the high road, and to stapling in hem lines right before running on stage.