PERFORMING ARTS DRAMA ACADEMY
REQUIREMENTS & COURSES

All students who have been accepted into the Performing Arts Academy are required to take 4 periods of their performing arts major, along with 4 or 5 periods of academic classes per day. No exceptions.

The Drama Department is a professional training program for students talented in acting. The vocational purpose of the training is to develop the student's instrument and to teach skills and techniques on which the actor can rely. The focus is on Theatre preparation through courses in acting, voice and diction, physical techniques, Theatre history and script analysis, in order to prepare students for professional careers in stage, film and television, as well as entrance into Theatre, Speech and Communications Departments of colleges, universities and conservatories.

•Pass all of the required courses

•Drama Comprehensive Exam: Passing grade

Courses:
All of the following courses are required and sequential

Active and consistent participation in class work is essential for completion of each course. Most courses require performance projects as well as written research/analytical assignments or projects.

Note: After school rehearsals are required for all performance classes.

Acting
Acting provides techniques derived primarily from the principles developed by Stanislavski. Students must complete and pass the full-year course of Acting in order to be promoted to the next year's level.

Freshmen
Acting 9AB
Students explore and develop their instruments. They learn basic acting technique, beginning with work on self. These techniques are then applied to plays in scene work involving characters close to self.

Voice and Diction 9AB
Voice and Diction training gives the actor an instrument capable of producing and projecting sound in a healthy manner, as well as articulating clearly in performance.

Physical Techniques
Presents a series of exercises adapted from various styles of dance movement that are natural to all body types and designed to facilitate the execution of specific actions that require increased range of motion, considerable strength, and moderate coordination. A basic vocabulary of movement is introduced in conjunction with definite rhythmical patterns to expose students to a practical method used in obtaining knowledge of dance. The first year establishes a foundation for a basic technique in contemporary dance and tap dance.

Improv 9 AB
Improvisation stimulates and develops imagination, spontaneity, creative risk-taking, responsiveness and ensemble skills through individual as well as group Theatre and problem solving improvisation exercises.

History Of Theater
This class is a chronologically sequential regarding Western theatre then ends with a study of non-Western theatre. This class includes lessons in each of several important areas of world theatre history. Various aspects are covered including social historical importance, physical theatres, costuming, masks, improvisation,

Sophomores
Acting 10AB
The Sophomores acting class introduces the concept of extension of self; students must go outside of self for the source of creating character. Students work on character stretches that are far from self, in scenes from modern Theatre, children’s Theatre, classical Theatre, absurdist Theatre, and farce.

Voice and Diction
The Sophomore class includes all of the above, adding articulation of new consonants and shaping vowels and diphthongs. Students are introduced to Eastern Standard Speech (to expand their character options in addition to working on clarity of speech when using their own regionalisms).

Physical Techniques
Furthers the student's experience of dance through the implementation of modern, jazz and rhythm tap dance

Improv 10AB
Improvisation stimulates and develops imagination, spontaneity, creative risk-taking, responsiveness and ensemble skills through individual as well as group Theatre and problem solving improvisation exercises.

Stage Craft
Stagecraft is an overview of Theatre for actors. Students become acquainted with the workings of professional Theatre. They learn actor and Theatre terminology, history of the development of acting principles, lines of authority in the Theatre, periodicals, books, and other source material about the field, professional Theatre organization, and an introduction to the business of Theatre. In addition, they learn to begin to think about plays as actors preparing for rehearsals or auditions. In the sophomore year, students acquire an overview of Theatre history that connects purpose, physical design, acting style, and plays performed throughout the ages.

Music Theory - Theory 1
This is the first in a series of three courses covering aspects of music theory and harmony. Topics in this course will include all major and minor keys, diatonic triads and their inversions, and the V7 chord and its inversions. Students will also begin four-part writing and composition, analysis, and harmonic dictation in the above topics.

Juniors
Acting 11AB
The Junior acting class introduces the concept of extension of self; students must go outside of self for the source of creating character. Students work on character stretches that are far from self, in scenes from modern Theatre, children’s Theatre, classical Theatre, absurdist Theatre, and farce.

Voice and Diction 11 AB
This course will develop the student’s vocal instrument so that it’s capable of producing sound in a healthy manner. It will also develop the student’s vocal instrument so that it is capable of projecting sound in a healthy manner using the natural, free voice.and develop the student’s ability to articulate clearly in performance using the natural, free voice.

Physical Techniques
Develops classical techniques, which promotes strength, flexibility, control, endurance, coordination, and artistic expression as well as expand one's knowledge of movement terminology and ballet terminology. Junior class concentrates on techniques that will help portray expressive movements that exhibit a performer with versatility and style. Students learn approaches to interpretation and identification with certain musical qualities. Focus is on Theatre Dance as a means of gaining experience with floor, spatial, and rhythmical patterns as well as design, character, and showmanship.

Play Analysis for Character Study
Play analysis teaches the actor an approach to analyze scripts for playing characters. Students learn how to: distinguish text from subtext, distinguish between literary analysis and acting analysis, analyze scripts as actor's "homework" to prepare for work on roles, find textual clues about characters, find textual clues for actors in Shakespeare verse and in farce/comedy scripts.

Make-up
Make-up teaches the principles of facial anatomy, color, shading, as well as techniques for applying corrective, middle age, old age, character, and expressionistic make-up. Students learn to apply make-up on themselves and on classmates.

Voice - Musical Theater
Musical theatre surveys the history of musical Theatre featuring behind-the-scenes work on Broadway musicals. Students learn the basics of sight-reading, breathing, and vocalizing. Students sing songs in groups, trios, duets, and solo from musicals to learn to apply all acting techniques to songs. Students work on at least one duet, one upbeat song, and one ballad during the term to learn to act a song.

Seniors
Senior acting is the production year where the student actors apply their three years of acquired skills and techniques in working on scripted material with a director for invited audiences and public performances. Students learn ensemble acting and how to maintain a "life" on stage when they do not have lines. They work on large group scenes (four or more on stage at a time), in a fully mounted/professionally designed production, and on scenes for Showcase presented to invited casting directors and agents.

Senior class prepares the vocal instrument for public performance. Breathing, projection, and support are done for specific scripted stage work. Work is also done on accents and dialects for characters. In addition, each senior prepares a voice-over tape (in conjunction with Audition Technique class).

Audition Technique
Audition technique introduces and teaches practical application of the techniques necessary for successful auditioning for commercials, industrials, film, voice-overs, musicals, and stage. In addition, the actor learns how to work with the camera.

Career Management
Career management equips actors with skills and knowledge as to how to be working actors. Students are introduced to various job opportunities in Theatre, film, and media where they can apply the skills and techniques they have learned in our program. Students acquire practical professional information about unions, agents, resumes, pictures, interviews, and their options after graduation. Students meet visiting working professionals from Theatre, film, television, and radio, who speak about their fields and answer students' questions.