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Jillian Lietzau

Lutheran High School

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Lutheran High School
Bronze Member

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RE: spring shows

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 01-27-2023 12:55
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I second The Curious Savage. We just did that last spring, students and audience loved it. And that was the second time our school has produced that show in the last15 years. It's a crowd pleaser. We did Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory this fall. Absolutely amazing show! Highly recommend. This show has ...

RE: Preparing/Supporting Student Directors

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 01-19-2023 16:25
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We've been doing student directed one acts for well over 30 years at my school (I was one at the same school back in the day) so it is a bit of a tradition and the kids line up to apply. Unfortunately, we don't currently have a theatre class dedicated to play direction (I'm working on adding it to the ...

RE: Preparing/Supporting Student Directors

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 01-19-2023 16:25
Found In Library: Open Forum

RE: Sleeping Beauty Stage Kiss

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 01-12-2023 12:25
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I've had to fake a kiss on stage a couple time (although actually is always better and preferred) here's a couple ideas that worked with my kids. Cheat the angle a bit and have them angle their heads to go in for the kiss and have them touch noses instead. When done right it gives a decent illusion ...

RE: Help w/Casting High School Musical Jr.

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 12-13-2022 12:13
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I run into this a lot at the high school level. It's not easy and you have to take into account dozens of factors. My mantra has always been to cast whomever fits the role the best and to make the show as a whole a success. My students know it is never about one individual but rather the show as a whole ...

Cinderella Horses

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 11-11-2022 15:35
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We are doing Cinderella (Broadway version) this year and we would rather use really good looking fake horses (preferably with with moving legs) for the carriage instead of students dressed up as horses. Does anyone have any good ideas about how to build something like this? Or perhaps already have some ...

RE: "Scholar Athlete" Award for Theatre?

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 10-24-2022 10:43
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Hi Lori, We don't have "scholar athlete" awards but we do have the traditional Letter Awards. Just like all varsity athlete's can earn a Letter award (certificate, pin, chenille letter for their letter jacket) for outstanding work, I do the same for my theatre students. At our end of the year banquet ...

RE: Letterman jacket

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 10-03-2022 16:37
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I think it's really entirely up to the individual school. We don't require thespian points to earn a letter as not all of my theatre students are interested in being a member of ITS but we do still want to recognize those that have put in the work with a letter. We keep ITS points/awards and lettering ...

RE: Masks

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 09-06-2022 10:20
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Hi Chad, I'm sorry to hear you are still having to deal with the whole mask issue. How incredibly frustrating! We've been completely mask free since our state mask mandate lifted in May of 2021. Thankfully our students and community couldn't wait to get rid of the masks and we've been completely back ...

RE: small cast plays with fight scenes

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 07-13-2022 12:05
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I absolutely love doing stage combat with my students and have been trained in all the various weapons myself. It's a great way to engage students and entice new students into the program. Kudos for doing it! I have incorporated stage combat into numerous shows, even many that technically don't call ...

RE: Dressing Rooms

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 06-14-2022 11:29
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Hi Karen For our dressing room situation it really depends on the number of cast members you have. If you are looking at building dressing rooms for your school/theatre then I would go for the professional standard as much as possible when designing them. However, I realize not all high schools can ...

RE: Fundraising

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 05-31-2022 11:49
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Hi Molly, Fundraising is always an interesting feat. We tried many things over the years but what has worked best for us is having a donor program with a specific event geared towards potential donors. We've done this for several years now. We "wine and dine" them and perform a variety of one acts (many ...

RE: Performance for the Senior class

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 05-25-2022 10:47
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You may want to take a look at "University" by Jon Jory. I was in this one back in college and it's a great show made up of mini-plays (vignettes) and pretty versatile casting wise. Different characters in different vignettes working their way through college life. You can perform all of the vignettes ...

RE: Making case for full time Theater Technical Director

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 04-28-2022 12:54
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I'm following this thread as my school too is finally discussing the possibility of a full time tech director (we are also a private school). I've been working 12+ years and we've never had a tech director either. The program is getting too big for me to do all the dept. head, directing and tech director ...

RE: Oz leads vs. supporting roles (for Thespian points)

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 04-27-2022 11:00
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We did Wizard of Oz several years ago and for Thespian points we categorized Glinda, Witch and Oz as supporting roles. We also had our show adjudicated for the Bobby G awards (similar to the Tony awards but for high school) here in Colorado. They only consider Dorothy, Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow as ...

RE: When they're supposed to be off book but are NOT

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 02-25-2022 12:59
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I've had this issue off and on over the years. Early on I inherited a theatre program where the director before me was famous for not being strict with lines and attendance. If the students didn't know their lines a week before the show he would just push the show back a week. (Needless to say, audience ...

RE: Clear Masks for Performance

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 02-10-2022 11:10
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Last year when we still had to wear masks we used Clear Mask Pro. They come in boxes of 15 on Amazon. The most flexible and least cumbersome clear masks we could find. -- Blessings Jillian Lietzau Registrar/FACTS Admin/Attendance/Theatre Dept. Head jillian.lietzau@lhsparker.org Lutheran High School ...

RE: Gender neutral musical ideas for 12 - 20 students

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 02-10-2022 11:02
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Godspell is a good one. I've done it twice, great show. You only need two males for the roles of Jesus and John the Baptist/Judas. All the rest of the roles can be either male or female. Lots of flexibility to cater to your strong actors and strong singers. Roles can be divided up any way that works ...

RE: Musical for Large cast high school no real shiners

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 11-12-2021 12:16
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Building years certainly do ebb and flow, I'm going through one now as well. We are doing Annie this year. It has minimal featured roles but plenty of minor characters and chorus opportunities to help grow the younger actors and prepare them for bigger roles in the future. And it is still a big name ...

RE: Repeating a Past Show-How Soon is Too Soon?

Posted By Jillian Lietzau 11-12-2021 11:52
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I agree, you want to wait 8-10 years before repeating. You want the show to be fresh and new to the actors as well as the audience. Repeating something too soon doesn't always go over very well, even with a great show like Almost Maine.  The first production will still be fairly fresh in everyone's mind ...