Laurel Ripple is the drama club advisor at Galeton Area High School and director of the High School plays. She teaches English at the school and got the position when the former advisor went to a different district, and the students begged for someone to take over. This is her fifth year, and she is just starting to feel like she knows what she is doing, but admits it’s still a learning process.
Her first year, her experience was limited to a theater class in college and a love of the theater. She tried the play Much Ado about Will which included different scenes from Shakespeare. The scenes were short, and she got enough students to participate that there was not much worry about a lot of lines to memorize. She had trouble convincing some students to participate, but in the end they did, and everything went okay. There was little in the way of props and she found costumes in the school “prop room”. The students performed alright, and everyone said it was okay, but the small town did not really have a love of Shakespeare.
The next year she picked an entertaining murder/mystery for the play. It called for larger parts and a bigger cast. She also scheduled the play around athletic seasons to make sure students would be able to attend all the practices since that had been a problem the year before. She got a bigger stage crew this year since there were more props and scenery and costuming. This helped a lot and gave students who were interested in participating but afraid to be on stage a chance to be part of the experience. With other people taking care of giving the actors and actresses their cues, working the curtain and lights, and making sure the props were in position she could actually give direction on line delivery, reactions, and movement. This was when she realized how hard it is to but on a good high school production, especially with 30 students back stage and one teacher supervising them all. However, she also realized that she loved doing it.
A year later the school decided to add electives to the curriculum and her contribution was drama. Ms. Ripple set up the course as an overview of the history of theater with select plays to be read. She also included the various jobs of the theater and acting techniques. Participation in some form of the high school play was mandatory. This year she had the students pick the play, and they chose a parody of American Idol. Another change this year was the students attended a theater workshop at Lock Haven University. This helped the students a lot, and she learned so much from the program. They learned various acting techniques in comedy such as double-takes that they brought back to use in the play. Also, by having time during class to prepare the students had extra rehearsals. Since the majority of the students in the play had been with her for two or more years, everything went smoothly.
A year ago when Ms. Ripple began working on the play many of her actors and actresses had graduated. She once again had to go and beg students to participate. One of the things she likes the most about this position is encouraging students that may be a little of afraid of participating in a theater production to act. The drama club is made up of all types of students in her small school. Every clique has a representative. Also, the biggest surprises have come through open auditions when a student comes forward with talent she never expected.
The drama club has gone from a club no one wanted to advise to a big deal in the school. The students have taken trips to Broadway, participated in theater workshops at a university, and performed larger productions like Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Laurel says she is still learning, and still hunting for new talent, but directing the high school play has gone from a duty to one of the joys of her job.
No comments:
Post a Comment