Improv Performance

As the school year is starting to get into full swing, two area high schools are putting on comedy improv shows the next two weeks. Brandeis High School will be performing Thursday, September 11 at 7pm. It will be in their Black Box room C165. Department head Mandy Muniz said, "It will be like Who's Line Is It Anyway, including the audience participation." If you are attending, be prepared to be embarrassed. Brandeis High School opened this fall, making this their first public performance. I expect it to be full of the anxious energy that can make these shows go so well. For admission simply bring in an unused piece of clothing or a can of food. The Brandeis Improv Troop (BIT) will be holding additional performances October 9, December 19, January 15, April 23, May 8. Stevens High School will put on a similar production next Thursday, September 18, at 7pm. The event will be held in the Steven's black box, directly adjacent to their main auditorium. Admission is by donation only.
~Christopher

NESA Seniors Deliver

No matter whether you're directing on Broadway or your Sunday School nativity play, the single most important decision a director will make is who to cast. North East School of the Arts (NESA) senior, Rebecca Andrews, in her first directing project, has already proved a deft hand.
Yesterday, Friday, September 5th, the Lee Black Box Theater was filled to capacity. If you want to see the show tonight, I’d recommend coming early. They chose to keep the audience on ground level and elevate the set, a shop for perfume and other trinkets.
It was obvious from the beginning that this space was too small, for these larger than life characters. Hugo (Zach Williams) a French leaning restaurant host, with a cartoonish mustache, and a knack for the pretentious, opened, in character, chiding the audience for having not yet turned off their cell phones.
The energy was palpable from the first moment of the show. Ladislav (Jared Howelton) and Arpad (Ernest Campos) burst through the audience singing “Good Morning, Good Day,” which introduced us to the cast of characters that run the shop, Ladislav and Arpad, Ilona (Paige Marmel) a buxom blonde that looks for love in all the wrong places, Steven (Austin Nimnicht) one of those places, Marcezek (Gabriel Bernal) the shop owner, and Georg Nowack (Daniel Kittrell) the manager. The action begins when Amelia (Emily Prentice) arrives at the shop looking for a job, and despite Georg’s insistence that they aren’t hiring sells a useless musical cigarette box earning praise and a job from Meraczek, and a conflict with Georg. Kittrell (Amelia) and Prentice (Georg) manage to inject their conflict with an anxious energy that reveals it as little more than flirting, though their characters don't realize it yet. We soon learn both Georg and Amelia have pen pals in the “lonely heart club” who they have fallen in love with, but never met. I think you can see where we’re going from here.
The music for the show was entirely piano played by NESA sophomore Charlie Choi. Though the larger than life musical numbers seemed to beg for a larger orchestra, Choi did excellent work. The vocal performances were universally good, headlined by Bernal (Maraczek) and Prentice (Amelia) who’s voices alone are worth seeing the show for.
A playful light design, highlighted by a couple of bold blues and yellows, kept the tone playful. All the facial hair was painted on with cartoonish colors, and the laugh of the night may have come when lady’s man Steven ripped off his jacket to reveal a silk red shirt and drawn on chest hairs. The rest of the costume design seemed spot on, particularly Ladislav’s vest and straw hat, which told stories about him before he even opened his mouth.
This play would have been nothing, however, without the acting. As the leads, Kittrell and Prentice played subtle, well rounded characters, revealing two stars of the program. Admittedly, in their first couple of scenes, Kittrell had a difficult time keeping up with Prentices’ stage presence but by the end of the first act had found his sea legs. The real dynamite of the show, though, was in the character actors. Paige Marmel, Ilona, creates a sincere air head, think Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors, who despite little stage time, makes the audience totally invested in her relationship woes. And in the pitch perfect performance that stole the show, Jared Howelton, Georg’s best friend Ladislav, makes bold character choices and then has the strength to carry them out without straying. Howelton also has the uncanny ability to create instant chemistry with anyone on the stage, his give and take seems appropriate for a much more mature actor, Howelton is only a sophomore.
Though the show certainly wasn’t without its faults, one too many solos involved a character simply sitting a singing away, director Rebecca Andrews has revealed a talent for creating a whimsical ensemble piece. If you see it tonight I’m sure you’ll be as charmed as I was.
Happy Theatre Mask
~Christopher Cunningham

The show will run again tonight, Saturday, September 6, 2008. Curtain 7:30, in Lee Black Box Room 501, at Lee High School 14000 Jackson-Keller Road, San Antonio, TX

UIL Plays

In addition to posting reviews of plays to considerder performing, almost all of the high schools in the area participate in the local UIL one act play contest. So I wil be reading UIL approved one acts to give you a helpful insight into what may give your school the competitive edge. To view the list yourself visit Here

Student Directed Show, Free!

Sorry for the late noticed. I just found out today that NESA will be performing the musical She Loves Me in the Lee High School Black Box Theatre (Room 501) September 5th and 6th. The musical was produced on Broadway in 1963 and was revived in 1993. For those familiar with the film You've Got Mail, the plot should not come as a shock. Rosalie is directing. I plan on attending Friday the 5th and I'll give you the inside scoop tonight on whether or not it's worth attending. Speaking of being worth attending did I mention that since it's a studetn directed show it will be FREE! If there is anything better than live theatre it's free live theatre. Hope to see you there.
~Christopher

The Calendar is Here!

Here it is! The regularly updated schedule on high school theater in the San Antonio area, check the schedule regularly to get the date, time and prices for shows coming up at local high schools.

Manuscript

Manuscript by Paul Grellong


Characters
David-19 year old man, attends Harvard, very good with words, conniving.
Chris- 19 year old man, David's best friend, relaxed, extremely intelligent, attends Princeton.
Elizabeth-19 year old woman, Chris’ girlfriend, will do anything to get what she wants, also attends Princeton.

Synopsis
After their first semester away at different Ivy League schools, David invites his best friend Chris to his New York brownstone for Christmas break, with his new girlfriend Elizabeth. Elizabeth, however, had known David from a summer time writer’s workshop and they had been romantically involved.
Both David and Elizabeth are writers. Elizabeth’s sister is a well established author, and after her first published essay, it seems Elizabeth is on that road as well, though the publishing house is hounding her to finish her first novel, now several months over due. David is upset, however, because Elizabeth’s door opening essay had been written by him.
Chris and David convince Elizabeth that they are close smoking buddies with a fictional, famous, author. When Chris comes back from picking up drugs at his house, he announces that the author was slumped over dead and that in the heat of the moment he had taken the nearly finished manuscript.
David, Chris and Elizabeth argue over what to do with the manuscript. Elizabeth convinces the others to allow her to write an ending and publish it under her name. David convinces her to submit what she has right away in order to appease the publishing house. Only after she submits the manuscript does David reveal that he had convinced Chris to attend Princeton in order to befriend Elizabeth, and bring her to her home. The author actually lives in Wyoming and the manuscript was written by David and already submitted to his agent. With Elizabeth claiming as her own a manuscript that was almost already published, David assures her that her hopes of publishing are ruined.

Themes
Grellong’s play seems most concerned about plagiarism, and stealing intellectual property. David is so deeply affected by the previous plagiarism that he plans for nearly a year and a half in order to seek revenge. David is also only a year removed from high school and still behaves much like a high school student would. By letting the high school audience relate to the victim, it may give them pause before plagiarizing or stealing someone’s work. Also the long term consequences that Elizabeth is going to face because she thought plagiarism was an easy way out may serve as an alarm.
Grellong also explores the theme of friendship and romance, as Chris must deal with making major changes in his plans in order to exact revenge for David, and then wondering how to balance that with the very real romance he begins to develop with Elizabeth

School Board Alarms (Violence/Sex/Language/Drugs/Religion)
The characters in Manuscript all talk about using drugs casually. The staging notes also include drug paraphernalia, however no drugs are ever used on stage. On the other hand, the fictional author develops a drug addiction and dies because of it, though the play later admits this is a hoax.
Chris and Elizabeth make a couple of obscure sexual references.
The characters use exceptionally bad language, however in every circumstance it is simple to write out.
All of the main characters speak in passing of their shared Judaism, but none of the comments are derogatory or proselytizing.
Conclusion: If your school board is sensitive to language some cuts would have to be made. You may choose to stage without the drug paraphernalia as well.

Why you should do it?
Manuscript is ideal for a smaller program. There are only three characters that need to be cast, and while all three have a lot of stage time a weaker actor can be hidden between two stronger ones.
The casting can be realistic as the characters are all close in age to high school students.
The set is limited and could be performed with no more than a bed, but enough details are given that a more elaborate bedroom scene could be constructed.
The theme is particularly on point for high school students, and may ring particularly true with your theatre students, aspiring artists themselves.

Where do I find it?
The play is available through Dramatists for $7.50 and is $75.00 per performance

http://dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3689

The Goal

Have you ever wanted something more thrilling than watching the latest generic Hollywood blockbuster, but didn't have the twenty five bucks to shell out to watch live theater? If you're like me, long ago you discovered that High School theater can be a perfect alternative. The prices are reasonable, usually even cheaper than a movie, and sometimes the final productions can be great. This is where I come in. No one wants to endure low energy, off-key renditions of The Music Man for the seventeenth time. Luckily for you I've decided to watch as many high school plays as possible in San Antonio and the surrounding areas this year. I'll visit the shows on opening nights, or even preview nights when possible and write a review to give you the heads up about what to see and what not to see . Hopefully you find the previews helpful. I will also regularly include overviews of scripts that may be ideal for high school programs to perform. If you are a part of a high school theatre department, I hope you find some of these play suggestions helpful. I will also keep a calendar with the most up to date information on the theatre seasons of every school in San Antonio. I hope to give you insights into the upcomin UIL theatre competition as well, and what you can expect to see from your favorite high school. The following is a list of high schools I hope to cover. If there is a school I am missing in the local area please let me know so I can get in contact with them.
~Christopher

Alamo Heights High School
Boerne Samuel V. Champion High School
Canyon High School
Canyon Lake High School
Smithson Valley High School
East Central High School
Coppini Fine Arts Academy
Coppomo Fine Arts Academy
Kennedy High School
Memorial High School
Harlandale High School
McCollum High School
Tejeda Academy
Judson High School
Wagner High School
Stacey High School
New Braunfels High School
Churchill High School
Lee High School
North East School of the Arts
MacArthur High School
Madison High School
Reagan High School
Roosevelt High School
Brandeis High School
Business Careers High School
Clark High School
Com Arts High School
Health Careers High School
Holmes High School
Jay High School
Marshall High School
O'Connor High School
Stevens High School
Taft High School
Warren High School
Randolph High School
Brackenridge High School
Burbank High School
Early College High School
Edison High School
Fox Tech High School
Highlands High School
Houston High School
Jefferson High School
Lanier High School
Samuel Clemens High School
Byron P. Steele II High School
Seguin High School
Somerset High School
South San Antonio High School
Southside High School
Southwest High School