List of Contributions

Susan Speidel

Theater Program Director,
AATE - American Alliance

Contact Details

Theater Program Director,
AATE - American Alliance
Bronze Member

My Content

1 to 20 of 49 total

RE: Telephones for Bye Bye Birdie

Posted By Susan Speidel 01-09-2019 13:55
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For anyone finding this post, we no longer have the phone handsets as part of our stock at Morristown-Beard School.  After renting them out several times in the years since our production of BYE BYE BIRDIE, we gave them to an inner-city school that did not have the resources to rent them.  It helped ...

Middle School Musical Theater Class Rubric

Posted By Susan Speidel 12-31-2018 10:35
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I am creating a new Middle School Musical Theater Class and am looking for suggestions for a rehearsal behavior/expectations rubric.  The class will meet 3 times a week during our second semester and everyone in the class will perform in the musical, which will be presented in May.  We are doing The ...

Middle School Musical Theater Class

Posted By Susan Speidel 11-30-2018 13:20
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I am transitioning this year from an extra-curricular middle school musical, to an actual class during the school day that is dedicated to musical theater and that has the expectation of a full performance at the end of the semester. I'd love to hear how others have structured such a class. Right now, ...

Middle School Projection / Class

Posted By Susan Speidel 05-09-2018 10:48
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SORRY - The title of this post should have been Middle School PRODUCTION class - but I seem to be unable to edit the subject line. Anyway... we are transitioning our Middle School musical production from an after school activity to a class that takes place within the school day and I'm looking for ...

RE: Macbeth- any great cut scripts out there?

Posted By Susan Speidel 04-15-2018 18:32
Found In Library: Open Forum

RE: Macbeth- any great cut scripts out there?

Posted By Susan Speidel 04-15-2018 18:32
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I am attaching a cutting that I did two years ago for my upper school students.   It worked well for us and we had a blast with the production!  Hope you find it useful! ------------------------------ Susan Speidel Chairman of the Performing Arts Department Morristown-Beard School NJ ...

Improv Activities / Prompts

Posted By Susan Speidel 01-11-2018 14:53
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Colleagues - I am going to be teaching a semester-long Intro to Improv class this spring. While improv has never been my strongest suit, I do have an overall plan for the class. However, I'd still be interested in hearing about your favorite improv activity or warm-up so that I can vary what I do with ...

Looking for One Act or Short Play

Posted By Susan Speidel 11-21-2017 20:47
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The 11 students in my Acting Class will be participating in my school's Spring Arts Festival later this year and have expressed a desire to do a play rather than individual scenes and monologues.  So, we are looking for a one-act or short play (30-ish minutes) that has at 3 male roles and 8 female roles ...

Monologue Activities

Posted By Susan Speidel 09-18-2017 10:41
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I am teaching a semester long "Monologue" course this year and am wondering what types of activities others due in a class focused specifically on monologues.  I have a number of things mapped out for performing comedy/dramatic/contemporary/classic pieces, plus writing original monologues.  However, ...

HONK, JR. COSTUMES

Posted By Susan Speidel 07-28-2017 17:51
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Hope everyone's summer is going well. I am planning to do HONK, JR. with my middle school students next year and am looking for leads on costume rentals. If someone has done the show recently at their school, and is looking to sell or rent, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks. --------- ...

Public Speaking

Posted By Susan Speidel 06-13-2017 18:09
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I am excited to be teaching a semester-long Public Speaking class next year, and am looking for suggestions as I put the curriculum together over the summer. I've taught similar classes in the past, but am open to new ideas for resources, exercises, or assessments!  Aside from the basics of organized ...

RE: Virtual Stage Management

Posted By Susan Speidel 06-08-2017 08:14
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I directed a summer theater production a few years ago and the theater asked all the stage managers working that season to use VSM.  My recollection is that the stage manager on my show found it to be a bit redundant and cumbersome.  It took them a good deal of time to set it all up, using existing forms ...

Footloose

Posted By Susan Speidel 03-08-2017 17:11
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I'm contemplating FOOTLOOSE for our musical for next year. We have the students for it and in many ways it feels like it would be a good fit for us. It meets our tech needs/limitations, and fulfills our desire to do something more contemporary after a few years of classic shows. However, while my choreographer ...

Medium Cast Ensemble Musicals

Posted By Susan Speidel 02-14-2017 09:10
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I'm in a small independent school and we have built a moderately sized program over the years. We were once begging kids to audition, and choosing shows with very small casts, and now we routinely mount productions with 20 to 30 cast members and an additional 20+ students working crew. Despite this "breadth," ...

RE: Playbill Ads

Posted By Susan Speidel 02-06-2017 08:29
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We don't sell business ads, but we do sell "booster" ads to parents. The content is usually a congratulations to their child in the production and to the entire cast and crew. Some parents get very creative and use lines from the production in their ads, or special quotations, but they submit copy only. ...

RE: Liberal Arts Colleges with Strong Theater Programs

Posted By Susan Speidel 01-18-2017 07:57
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Thank you all for the great responses! ------------------------------ Susan Speidel Chairman of Studio & Performing Arts Morristown-Beard School NJ ------------------------------

RE: Arts Director/Teaching Responsibilities

Posted By Susan Speidel 01-18-2017 07:55
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I am chair of the Studio and Performing Arts Department at my school (private, grades 6 to 12, 560 students). My contract calls for me to direct all productions (3 per year), advise the drama club, produce 10 concerts per year and teach 4 classes (2 upper school theater classes, a middle school theater ...

Liberal Arts Colleges with Strong Theater Programs

Posted By Susan Speidel 01-08-2017 12:26
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I have a student who is interested in pursuing theater in college, but is also interested in many other things. He is unsure at this point if he wants to major in theater, or pursue another major at a school where he could minor in, or at least participate in, theater. Currently a junior, he is a bright ...

Name for Public Speaking Course

Posted By Susan Speidel 11-16-2016 10:57
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Hello All - I am in a private school and am hoping to introduce a class that will help students develop good presentation skills. The head of our school teaches a class called "The Art of Rhetoric and Leadership," but the focus is on the analysis of famous speeches, not the delivery. In the past, ...

RE: Radium Girls

Posted By Susan Speidel 10-04-2016 08:37
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When I did the Radium Girls a few years ago, I kept the reporters on stage all the time. They sat at the proscenium, observing the action, and then stood and moved into the scenes that they were in. You could extend this idea in your space and have everyone sit on stage throughout - perhaps upstage in ...