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Henry Street Settlement sent us Kristin Stuart, a very
talented drama artist. She worked with four of our
Language Arts classes to produce original plays which
they performed at varying levels during a 10 week
playwriting seminar.
They began work by writing sketches for the main
characters in the plays. After coming up with a deep
understanding of the main characters, the students could
then begin to imagine interesting and dramatic situations
which could be used in the writing of longer plays. Over
a 4 week period students did in-class and at-home
assignments that lead to the completion of their
scripts.
After finishing first drafts students had one-on-one
meetings to get feedback on their scripts and notes for
their rewrites. In some cases they did cold readings for
the entire class who then offered their comments and
suggestions.
Finally, they began to mount their plays in the
classroom. The classroom was transformed into a rehearsal
hall and they worked on acting technique excercises -
including the making of gestures and actions, and vocal
projection. Scenes from various plays were blocked and
rehearsed while placing an emphasis on the expressive use
of the voice and body in performance.
All in all. everyone had a very productive and
interesting 10 weeks. All who were involved discovered
some of their hidden talents while improving their
written and verbal skills.
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