Jospehine Buccini ‘21:
Following in the footsteps of the visual arts curriculum, the Episcopal theater faculty has added a prerequisite Foundations of Performing Arts course to its roster this year. Theater and Dance teacher Cara Lavallee, Theater Department Chair and teacher Daniel Clay, and Theater and Dance teacher Kelly Leight-Bertucci teach the class.
Foundations of Performing Arts’ breakdown imitates Foundations of Art, which rotates students through 2D art, 3D art, photography, and woodworking. The final project for Foundations of Art is an identity box, where students display the knowledge and skills they learn throughout the course. Similarly, Foundations of Performing Arts rotates students through the theatrical arts of acting, dance, and technical theater. For their final project, students create a three-act play using their new understanding of the performing arts. Lavallee says, “The Foundations of Performing Arts course is to introduce the upper school students to the different art forms that we offer here.” It is a prerequisite for freshmen and sophomores. In order to take other theater courses later in their high school careers, like Improv or Stage Design, underclassmen must now complete Foundations of Performing Arts.
The course begins with exercises and games that immerse students into the world of theater. Student Morgan Bramwell ‘21 says, “We spent a good majority of the first week getting to know each other, and I think that paid off because it was easier to work with each other later.” Bertucci says, “We do a lot of team building, get to know you, and focus exercises.” Students play common improv warm up games like “whoosh” and “pow.” They also begin the semester with insightful activities like watching a play and writing a review on it. Student Maiah Islam ‘21 commented that “[these activities] really opened our eyes to the world of theater.”
Lavallee focuses on the dance aspects of the class. She says, “I talk about movement and dance and how we can use movement and dance to tell a story. That even goes into some aspects of body language and how we communicate a certain theme or idea to the audience through movement.”
Bertucci teaches the technical theater part of Foundations of Performing Arts. “Since this is a new class, it has evolved a little bit,” Bertucci says. Last semester, students created their own “magical” prop. This semester they will build and decorate a periakoi, a three-sided column that the student can turn to reveal different stage designs.
Daniel Clay teaches the acting portion of the course, but he explains that individual aspects come together to form a conducive whole in the end. He says, “They [students]will come to me to rehearse a plan, go to Mrs. Lavallee to work on dance, and go to Mrs. Bertucci to work on the technical aspects.” Each teacher has a group, which begins the semester working with the other groups and breaks apart at the end.
Although the class will provide a varied theater experience for students, some worry that adding another performing arts requirement will deter students from choosing performing arts classes. US Form Dean and Math Teacher Cheryl McLauchlan says, “I’m worried that kids who get their theater fix get it from the plays. To satisfy the requirement just to take Foundations of Performing Arts, they would not take classes because they don’t need them for graduation. Whereas, if they could take any class for graduation, a dance class or a tech theater class, they might find something they really want to do.” Bertucci says the department has “done a lot of discussing” on the matter. She believes that the course will have department-expanding benefits.“We get to meet a lot of students,” she says. “We get to know them and they get to know us. That is a huge benefit to get students interested in what we do… However, we also know that students are incredibly busy and have full schedules, and so I think over a period of time we can see how that plays into what we do.”
Thus far, feedback on the course seems to have been generally positive. As Mary Cipperman ‘21 states, “The performing arts are very important in a school community in building a strong group of people and learning how to express yourself. I think that Foundations of Performing Arts will help our student body get involved in the arts and their various benefits.”