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The Upper School theatre program mounts two productions a year, a
straight play and a musical. Our students are taught by teachers who
are professionals within the areas of music, drama, dance and design.
We educate students who are likely to go on to becoming performers,
drama teachers, or active supporters of the performing arts. We do not
just work with obviously talented students, however. Sometimes we cast
students looking for friends; or shy students who want to learn to open
up and be comfortable in social situations. We develop the talents of
students as actors, singers, dancers and stage designers in a small
repertory company, in which students advance from supporting roles to
leads in the course of their high school years. Our choice of
repertoire is determined by the talent of this company, and by our
desire to find material for our actors that they, as well as our
audiences, will learn from and enjoy. We are aware of the fact that our
productions are seen by more people than any other school activity,
contributing significantly to giving the school its profile.
A
selection of our repertoire in recent years will give an impression of
our style and taste, and the issues we have addressed: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, A Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, Othello (five by Shakespeare), The Boys From Syracuse and Kiss Me Kate (two Shakespeare-based musicals), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (musical based on Plautus), The Miser, The Imaginary Invalid (Moliere), A Christmas Carol (Dickens), The Importance of Being Earnest, Blithe Spirit (Wilde and Coward. High Comedy), You Can’t Take It With You, Merton of the Movies, Stage Door (three by Kaufman & Co.), Easter (Strindberg. Spirituality), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck. Social Realism), The Good Soul of Setzuan, The Threepenny Opera, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (three by Bertolt Brecht, Communism), No Exit (Sartre. Existentialism), The Zoo Story, The Lesson, Rhinoceros (Albee. Ionesco. Theatre of the Absurd), Annie Get Your Gun, Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game, Gypsy (Americana), She Loves Me, The Pirates of Penzance
(Operettas). One year a playwrighting class produced a student-written
play, Whatever. The Upper School Art Department teaches a class in
stage design, in which students design and, to some extent, build and
paint the sets for the season.