Dates for 2019-2020

Here are the show dates for next year. Still don’t know what the shows will be, but at least we know when.

October 17, 19 and 24: Competition One Act

November 15 and 16: Fun Act

December 10: Advanced Drama Play

January 30 & 31, February 1: Musical

February 27 and 28: Advanced Drama Shakespeare Play

March 12: Drama I Showcase

March 19: Drama II play

April 30: Advanced Drama Play

End of the year!

Now that the school year is officially over, it’s time for a year-end review!

In many ways, this was our most successful year ever. Student Body placed second at the regional one act competition and won awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. More importantly, representatives from Southern Crescent, AV Pride and our own SRO spoke before each performance about underage drinking, social hosting laws, and sexual assault. Through ticket sales and donations, we raised over $1700 dollars for Southern Crescent Sexual Assault and Child Advocacy Center.

Will and Josh, the student directors, and the cast did a hilarious job with the Fun Act, Brothers Grimm Spectacularthon.

Little Women continued our streak of excellent musicals. It had a smaller cast, but all of the performances were astonishing (sorry, I had to)!

Advanced Drama put on four(!) plays and two ten minute plays, including Bobby Trap, where we raised $500 for Healing4Heroes.

(As a side note, over the past four years we have raised over $10,000 for local charities, including Promise Place.)

The tech theater class went through all of the old year books and as far as we can tell, there has never been this many theater productions at McIntosh.

It will be hard to top this year, but we are already working on making next year even better!

Little Women: The Broadway Musical!

You will laugh, you will cry, you will fall in love with the extraordinary girls of the March Family in this musical version of the classic story. Little Women is February 1 at 7pm and February 2nd at 2pm and 7pm. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students. They can be reserved by emailing info@mcintoshtheater.org, and can also be purchased at the door.

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Drama I assignment for January 15

If you would rather answer the questions on your computer, you can copy the questions below into a google doc.

 

Character Worksheet

Actor’s Name:_________________________ Character’s Name:_________________

Some of your answers will come from the script and some you will have to decide based on what you know about the character. For instance, it would not make sense for Travis’s favorite type of music to be classical music; rock or country music would be a much better fit.

What grade are you in and how old are you?

Describe your family life. Include who you live with and where you live (house, apartment).

How would you describe yourself? (i.e. moody, temperamental, calm, passive, quiet, etc.)

How intelligent are you and how do you do in school (look at the language your character uses)?

What is your social status? Are you wealthy, poor or middle-class?

What is your best trait? Your worst trait?

Who are you closest to in the play? Who are you friends with and who do you not like?

What do you love to do?

Who or what bugs you the most?

What about yourself are you most proud of?

How would you like to be remembered?

What frightens you?

What do you want more than everything?

What are your life goals?

What is your favorite song or type of music?

What is your favorite movie, TV show or book?

What type of animal are you most like? Explain.

 

Advanced Drama Assignment for January 15

You should look for war poems and war songs. A google search of “war poems” will list lots of sites. Ideally we would have poems from many different wars. You may want to check with Ms. Hodge as well – the media center probably has a few For war songs, look for ones that somehow fit in with Booby Trap – “War Ensemble” by Slayer would not work.

You should create a doc for the poems you think we should consider.

If you have time, you could also start designing a poster for the show.

Student Body

It has been an absolute honor to work with this cast and crew on Student Body. They gave everything they had, and gave their best and rawest performance at the competition. I could not have asked for more from them, and they were incredible, leaving many in the audience in tears. Ava was named Best Actress, Iain was named Best Actor, Grace was named Best Supporting Actress, and Emma and Lydia were named to the All Star Cast. We all would have loved to advance to state, but they can hold their head high knowing they gave everything they had, and knowing that they touched many lives through their courage and willingness to take on such an important and relevant topic. And, through their performances at school, they raised $1700 for the Southern Crescent Sexual Assault and Child Advocacy Center. This has been an experience of a lifetime, and I am humbled by the casts’ talent, commitment and compassion.IMG_0909

Student Body – October 18 & 20

The McIntosh High School Drama program is proud to present the high school premiere of Student Body  by Frank Winters on October 18th and 20th at 7:00 pm in the McIntosh Auditorium. Tickets are $5 for students and $8 for adults. Tickets can be purchased at the door or reserved by emailing info@mcintoshtheater.org. All ticket sales will be donated to the Southern Crescent Sexual Assault and Child Advocacy Center, a local non-profit working to reduce sexual violence.

In Student Body, a group of students gather to decide what to do with a video that appears to show a fellow student sexually assaulting another student. In one intense night, friendships will be broken, secrets will be revealed, and no one’s life will be the same.

In addition to the performance, there will be a presentation by the Southern Crescent Sexual Assault and Child Advocacy Center detailing the services they provide, and a presentation on underage drinking and social hosting laws.

While the play is not graphic, it deals openly with sexual assault and may not be appropriate for younger audience members. “Student Body deals with situations that, as a teacher, I would like to think don’t really happen, or wouldn’t happen here,” said Ken Buswell, the drama teacher at McIntosh. “But we know these things do happen, and they can happen here. As long as we pretend they don’t, things will never get better – the problem of underage drinking and sexual assault will not get solved, and the victims of assault will continue to suffer in silence.”

Student Body has been performed by college and professional theaters, but McIntosh is the first high school ever to perform the play.  Student Body was originally written for college students, but the playwright, Frank Winters, re-wrote the play for high school students. “We read a lot of plays at the end of last year, and Student Body was the unanimous choice among the students,” said Ken Buswell. “This is an incredible script. Frank gets high school students – he gets how they talk and think, and he doesn’t sugar-coat what they have to deal with. Yes, it is difficult to watch at times, but it is also incredibly relevant and important.”

“The play tackles serious situations that, even though we don’t want them to be, are very current. But this cast is so supportive and loving – we push each other to do our best and to focus on telling this powerful story,” says senior Grace Kilgore, who plays Daisy in the play.

Senior Katherine Mitchell, who plays Natalie in the play says, “This play is extremely topical, and I feel like this is something everyone should see. The show is really thought provoking. It makes you think about what you would like do in this situation and how that might differ from what you actually would do.”

“Most shows that you read about high school students can be very stereotypical with a cast of characters that are far from authentic; however, this one was different,” says junior Lydia Campbell, who plays Maggie in the play. “All the characters are raw and truly unique. They don’t fit any clichéd high schooler mold and that is what makes this play so powerful. It has real characters that tell a story that needs to be heard.”

Thescon!

The Georgia Thespian Convention will be February 7, 8 and 9 in Columbus. For those of you new to Thescon, it is a conference attended by over 5000 high school students from all over Georgia that features over 100 different workshops and performances. Many students say that Thescon is the highlight of their year. Students will miss all of school on Thursday and Friday, and will return Saturday night. For more information on the conference, please go to their website: https://gathespians.org/conference/

The first payment for ThesCon is $125 and will be due by October 5. The $125 covers only the cost of registration and is non-refundable. The remaining payment will be due in January, and will be $125 – $150, depending on the cost of the hotel and bus. All meals will be included.

I realize this does not give you much advance notice, but we need to register as soon as possible. In the past two year, the conference has had to turn away schools due to running out of space, and we have also not been able to attend the opening and closing numbers due to registering late.

Along with registration fee, you must turn in the Agreement Form by October 5th.  https://gathespians.org/2019form/ After filling out the form online, you will receive an email with a pdf that you will need to print out and sign.  

We currently have a few chaperones lined up, but we could always use more. If chaperones want to attend the workshops and performances, they will need to pay the $125 registration fee. If you want to chaperone but are not interested in attending the workshops and performances, you would only need to pay the $125-$150 to cover the hotel room and bus.

If you have any questions, please email me at buswell.ken@mail.fcboe.org.

Little Women Cast!

Thank you to everyone who auditioned. Ms. Potter and I saw what we needed to see and there will not be callbacks. If you would like feedback on your audition, please see each of us.

Jo: Emma S / Understudy: Lydia

Marmee: Lydia / Understudy: Diana

Beth: Emily Grace / Understudy: Natalie

Amy: Anna S / Understudy: Allie

Meg: Lauren S / Understudy: Tiffany

Aunt March: Diana / Understudy: Ava

Mrs Kirk: Ava

Female ensemble: Tiffany, Natalie, Allie

Professor Bhaer: Iain / Understudy: Ryan

Laurie: Clay / Understudy: Jack H

Mr. Laurence: Ryan / Understudy: Jack C

John Brooke: Colton / Understudy: Ryan

Male ensemble: Jack C, Jack H