Hello from the Theatre Geeks!
Welcome to theatre geeks where four writers give different outlooks, opinions, and viewpoints on theatre. Our mission is for students, teachers and theatre lovers to gain more knowledge of life as an actor or a technician in high school.
How our theatre department works:
Since our theatre department is fairly new, we are still growing and learning many new things. We do only three main-stage shows a year. The process starts with a meeting where we get information about the show. After about two weeks, the audition and tech crew interviews start.
The actors will audition by singing or doing a monologue depending if it is a play or a musical. The technicians will have a five minute interview with the stage manager or assistant stage manager. After auditions and interviews the stage manager will helps Ms. Morris our theatre teacher will make a cast and crew list.
Later that week, Ms. Morris, our theatre director, will host another meeting about the design and a read through of the show. When we finished our read through we will start rehearsal. During this time, technicians will have meetings with their crew and set up meetings to prepare for tech week. “Tech week,” also know as “Hello Week,” is when all the technicians come in and do run throughs with the actors about two weeks before opening night.
Next, is show week which is when we perform in front of an audience! Right after the last show, we have strike. Strike is when the cast and crew take apart the set.
When we are finished with strike, we sit down and share are “pow” which is one thing we did not like about the show and our “wow” one thing we loved about the show.
This whole process will repeat until we are done with our season and have our theatre awards banquet. The theatre awards banquet is like the Tonys, everyone dresses up and some win awards. This is also when our new thespians are inducted. Ms. Morris also announces the show next season; this is a great way to finish off the year!
Meet The Team
Abi is our artistic designer. She makes or approves all of our pictures used in our articles. When Abi was little she wanted to be an actor on The Disney Channel it has always stuck with her. Then in middle school, Abi was considered for all the lead roles the first time she had ever auditioned for a play! In the end she wound up playing a pirate. Ever since then, Abi had been hooked to theatre. Recently, she was a Little Stone in Eurydice and was a chorus member in Wizard of Oz. As a freshman, Abi was Hope in Almost, Maine and was a Gabrielle for Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. She no longer wants to be an actor on Disney channel but she would like to do theatre outside of school. Outside of theatre Abi is a devoted student, cheerleader, and is in the green tech academy. Next year Abi looks forward to auditioning for more plays and musicals. She also will be joining the repertory theatre class. Abi is currently writing about what theatre means to people around our school. Abi’s favorite food is french fries. Abi’s dream role is Veronica from The Heathers.
Our next member of the team is Andrew. His role is the Liaison. Andrew is in charge of the scheduling deadlines and keeping everyone on task for the blog. This is Andrew’s second year in high school theatre. He has been on run crew and lights crew for the plays. For both musicals, Cinderella and The Wizard of Oz, he was in the chorus. Andrew was also in the school’s new works festival in the spring. In his spare time, Andrew is a part of the marching band and the school’s green tech academy. His favorite musical is Newsies. Andrew’s best theatre memory is “Playing super smash bros with my fellow cast members in the boy’s dressing room during Wizard of Oz.”
Next is Brandon, our editor for the project. He also has been both an actor and a technician. Brandon is the secretary for our dram club. Brandon is one of the most decorated thespians in the theatre department!
He started theatre in middle school. When Brandon was a freshman, he played Sebastian in Cinderella and Pete in Almost, Maine. Recently, he appeared as the Wizard in Wizard of Oz.
Brandon is also involved in the public safety academy. Next year, Brandon will transition to only participating in the technical side of theatre and he will no longer act. His favorite thing to do is spend time with friends.
Finally, I am Lauren the social media adviser. I run the Twitter and Instagram for the theatre geeks!
My theatre journey started when I moved to Kansas after my mom got a job here. I was lucky enough to attend a school that opened it doors my freshman year.
Everyone was new and I was ready for a new beginning. Towards the end of August I began seeing posters for the fall musical Cinderella. I went to their website and signed up for a tech interviews. As I walked in to the room for my interview, I was very relieved that the stage manager was very welcoming. She and I talked for about five minutes and I went on my way. The rest is history.
This year I was a board op for Wizard of Oz and the Kansas all state show: Bring it On the Musical. My favorite theatre memory is when she found out that Bring it On is performing this summer at The International Thespian Festival. When not working on productions, I enjoy listening to music especially Ed Sheeran, who is Best Singer of all time (in my opinion).
Thank you for reading this we hope you come back next month!
-Theatre Geeks
Our team has wants to be in touch with our audience so we set up an email for suggestions on future articles. Please email theatre geeks at: theatregeeks@gmail.com
Our social media will include mini interviews, polls, and Q and A’s, via instagram and twitter.
Photo credits:http://www.owtheatre.com/production-info.html
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