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  • 1.  Help starting a musical theatre class

    Posted 12-07-2016 19:02

    My choir director and I want to plan a musical theatre class that we can team teach.  Who can help us out there in Thespian forum land?

    First, do you have course outlines, lessons, stuff to share?  Is anyone else doing it in a team teaching system?  How? Do you do auditioning for musical theatre as well in there?

    Second, how do you go about securing rights to perform scenes (spoken lines AND songs)?  I know how to get rights for full plays and for songs only, but is it different for selections, correct?

     

    I know there is awesomeness out there.  Thanks for your ideas and help!

     

    Chris Fallows

     

     


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  • 2.  RE: Help starting a musical theatre class

    Posted 12-08-2016 08:39

    I hope someone can address this, one of the assistant choir directors at my school has wondered about the same kind of class.  Another question, how does it fit (or does it) in the NCAA National Clearinghouse?

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    [William] [Myatt] [Director of Theatre]

    [Pleasant Valley High School]

    [myattw@pleasval.k12.ia.us][563-332-5151][Bettendorf][IA][USA]

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  • 3.  RE: Help starting a musical theatre class

    Posted 12-09-2016 07:54
    I teach a once-a-week elective in Musical Theatre. We meet for 80 minutes. The year is broken into several components: musical theatre history and styles (so we might focus on the golden age, or Gilbert and Sullivan, or some other era), and special projects - we study styles of choreography (I had the kids pick a choreographer to research and present to the class. They needed to know the choreographer's training and style, major shows, etc... then they had to show a clip that best represented that style and teach the class a move that might have been incorporated in one of their dances. We did groups of 2 or 3 (only 11 in the class) and they picked Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, among others like the choreographer of Riverdance-like Heartbeats of Home. We are currently preparing a presentation of We Need a Little Christmas to present to the school just before the holiday break, and preparing for their first solo songs. We've also talked about  topics like auditioning, and I showed them Every Little Step, a documentary about the casting of the revival of A Chorus Line. The class is a blast, but the strangest thing is that despite their enthusiasm for musical theatre, I find that many of my students do not know the canon -- even while they can sing Hamilton and Wicked and Lion King. They've never even heard of Mame, some of them! So, I try to educate them in those, too!
    Good luck.



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  • 4.  RE: Help starting a musical theatre class

    Posted 12-08-2016 12:09

    I have been co-teaching a musical theatre class with our choir director every other year for some time.  We chose to create a class that follows the DVD series Broadway the American Musical that unfolds in chronological order starting with Vaudeville and progressing by eras.  Then students choose from a number of songs (we have chosen beforehand) from each of the eras represented to rehearse and bring to a performance level.  Usually we divide into small groups each learning and staging a different numbers.  We also include a solo unit and one large group number toward the end of the semester.  All the numbers are staged and choreographed by the students with coaching from both of us to fine tune their work.

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    Diane Landis
    Theatre Faculty
    Minneapolis MN

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  • 5.  RE: Help starting a musical theatre class

    Posted 12-09-2016 07:01

    Great minds think alike!  I also team teach a musical theatre class which follows the PBS documentary in chronological order.  We also suppliment with McLamore's Musical Theatre An Appreciation.  Throughout the semester we learn songs from and dances of popular musicals by period. 

    Love the validation in hearing what others are doing!

    Rain

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    Raenell Smith
    Speech, Theatre, English Teacher
    Clark Pleasant Community School Corporation
    Whiteland IN

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Help starting a musical theatre class

    Posted 12-09-2016 18:24

    So, you don't do any dialogue around the singing?  I would like to work on transitioning and how the song fits into the story, too.  

     

    Do you have lessons or an outline that I can see?  Is your class year-long or semester?  Ours would be a year-long course.

     


    The Liberty Union High School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or disability.

    CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This electronic mail transmission, including any attachments, may contain confidential information only for use by the intended recipients. Any privileges or confidentiality afforded under the law are not waived by virtue of this having been sent by electronic mail. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive messages for the addressee), you may not use, copy, disclose, or distribute this message (or any information contained in or attached to it) to anyone. If you received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail or by telephone at 925.634.2166 and delete the transmission. Thank you.

      ­­  



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