Theatre Academy

The Theatre Academy offers students a variety of classes that develop skills in acting and directing through a well-defined, four-year acting program. The scope and sequence of each year’s curriculum is designed to propel students into higher levels of acting achievement, regardless of initial experience.

 

Based in the California Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards, the depth of study in each grade level has been shaped to include work that begins with basic techniques in discovery of self through classes that study how movement, voice production and a freeing of the inhibitions of the mind and body in Improvisation classes can enhance performance.

 

Our beginning acting classes connect the discoveries made in technique by focusing on the creation of characters using works that lie close to the age group of our younger artists.

 

As students advance in grade level, so too does the extension in the range of characters and genres. In our advanced acting classes, we encourage students to approach works that are standards of Modern American drama, as well as those written by the ancient Greek and English playwrights. Varying from realism through farce and existentialism, the ages and social levels of characters that are researched and studied begin to expand.

 

Our directing program takes advanced students into a new realm of awareness. Starting with scene work, our directing students work to create worlds that include the research of cultures and time periods to create their own visions realized in front of other student artists. The second year of our directing program allows students to further hone their approach of working with actors and begins to include awareness of the technical aspects of a theatre presentation.

 

Evidence of our students’ skills and confidence levels can be seen in the Concert Hall stage and Black Box Theatre productions, as well as numerous successes in local and national competitions.