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Heather Brandon

Bakersfield High School

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Bakersfield High School
Bronze Member

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RE: Booster Groups

Posted By Heather Brandon 05-02-2019 17:04
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I had a phenomenal booster club at my last school and just got one started at my new school. It's wonderful to not have to wait for the school to pay for certain things and never worry about concessions or anything. I have never had a bad experience with parents trying to take over, and the only goal ...

RE:Dueling Drama

Posted By Heather Brandon 11-27-2015 22:52
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I'm so sorry you're dealing with this and that the other teacher wasn't more mature about it. I've always said that if I were ever to decide to teach English, there is no way I would stay at the same school because of lingering loyalties. When I left my old school, a few kids contacted me and complained ...

RE:New to it all! HELP!

Posted By Heather Brandon 09-13-2015 15:08
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There are some playwrights out there that have great material for high school kids that fit your needs. Jonathan Rand, Don Zoldis, Lindsay Price, Jonathan Dorf and Stephen Gregg come to mind as they all have plays that are fun, simple, flexible casting and feel relevant to kids. There are several others ...

RE:Suggestions for HS Play/Production!

Posted By Heather Brandon 08-15-2015 23:13
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If you want the high profile title like Grease, but with more advocacy, I would suggest Hairspray. You get the double platform of racism and body image. My favorite musical to direct in recent years was In the Heights. My kids LOVED it. The contemporary music got them into it, but they also loved ...

RE:Warmups

Posted By Heather Brandon 08-02-2015 21:43
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Thanks! I love this idea and think it is a great alternative to a warm-up. ------------------------------------------- Heather Brandon Bakersfield CA ------------------------------------------- Sent via Higher Logic Mobile

RE:Warmups

Posted By Heather Brandon 08-01-2015 21:34
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Can you describe some of your "acting challenges." I am intrigued by this idea. ------------------------------------------- Heather Brandon Bakersfield CA ------------------------------------------- Sent via Higher Logic Mobile

RE:Know anything about Sideshow, the musical?

Posted By Heather Brandon 07-30-2015 11:03
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Did a selection from it last year and it is definitely difficult. As others said, it is sung through and the vocals are pretty demanding. If you have the singers, it can be a beautiful piece to do. It's also pretty heavy in content. My kids found the whole story incredibly sad. ------------------ ...

RE:Theatre Classroom Website

Posted By Heather Brandon 07-16-2015 00:23
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I have been using weebly rather than google sites because it is much easier to design from, looks nicer, etc. However, my district server blocks weebly sites (why?) so, I'm switching over to google. If you want to take a look at my old site for ideas, it's falcontheatre.weebly.com ------------- ...

RE:Communication during play production

Posted By Heather Brandon 07-11-2015 21:48
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Any email can be sent as a text, you just need the email for your phone number. For example, I can send an email to my 10digitphone#@txt.att.net and I will receive it as a text. I think this list is pretty exhaustive: http://www.emailtextmessages.com/ ------------------------------------------- ...

RE:Total rehearsal time

Posted By Heather Brandon 07-07-2015 01:13
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I rehearse 6 hours a week for about 8-10 weeks. I bump it up to 4-5 hours a day for tech week. My schedule requires shorter rehearsals because I have young children, but I find I waste less time with such a short amount of time each day. I do double up on things whenever possible to max out the time ...

RE:Parent meetings

Posted By Heather Brandon 07-02-2015 15:59
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I understand your perspective, and you have my total respect. I feel like this is a largely cultural (and I do not mean to imply that there is any racial distinction in this, merely a structure of societal norms) situation. My first school that I taught at had very very little parent support. If I had ...

RE:Communication during play production

Posted By Heather Brandon 07-01-2015 17:09
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I believe it is only available on iPad. Here is the link to the App Store. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/direct-it/id621487837?mt=8 ------------------------------------------- Heather Brandon Bakersfield CA ------------------------------------------- Sent via Higher Logic Mobile

RE:Communication during play production

Posted By Heather Brandon 06-29-2015 15:33
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Google Classroom is a good way to go if your school is going that direction. It gives them the opportunity to ask questions, you can add attachments, links, etc. I also use the Direct It app from Colorado Thespians. Most of them give me their texting email address (your phone number has it's own email ...

RE:12 Angry Jurors

Posted By Heather Brandon 06-19-2015 02:11
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The thing about the show is that it is a steady build of logic; leave part of it out and the logic breaks down, as does the dramatic build. It is a shortish play with a run time around 1 hour 15 minutes. Are you looking at it as a festival piece or a full performance? ------------------------------------------- ...

RE:Drama for primarily women

Posted By Heather Brandon 06-01-2015 23:21
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Twelve Angry Jurors! Great character work, can be done with basically all women, familiar but not overdone and very dramatic. ------------------------------------------- Heather Brandon Bakersfield CA ------------------------------------------- Sent via Higher Logic Mobile

RE:Fall Play & Spring Musical suggestions

Posted By Heather Brandon 06-01-2015 22:49
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There isn't a Twelve Angry Jurors script exactly. I got my cast Twelve Angry Men and bought one coy of Twelve Angry Women and changed the line to the more gender appropriate when necessary. It worked beautifully. For instance, there is a part at the end when Four threatens Ten and the phrasing sounded ...

RE:Maternity leave

Posted By Heather Brandon 05-27-2015 20:42
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I did that a few years ago and it was toughest on the beginning students since I had to retrain them when I returned. If you can find someone with at least a little bit of theatre experience, that is best, since they will "get it." The advanced class did ok since they knew my expectations and some had ...

RE:Female Musical Duet

Posted By Heather Brandon 05-26-2015 19:53
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Side Show has several, although with the recent revival it may be done more now. ------------------------------------------- Heather Brandon Bakersfield CA ------------------------------------------- Sent via Higher Logic Mobile

RE:Fall Play & Spring Musical suggestions

Posted By Heather Brandon 05-23-2015 20:42
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I did Twelve Angry Jurors this year and it is FAR from boring. My actors were exhausted at the end of each performance because of the high emotional intensity and most of my audience described watching it as keeping them on the edge of their seats. We did it in the round, so the audience was incredibly ...

RE:Rehearsal time frame

Posted By Heather Brandon 05-22-2015 21:35
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For a musical, we rehearse 8-12 weeks depending on the amount of dance, since that takes the longest to learn. We rehearse 6 hours a week up until tech, at which point we rehearse 4-5 hours/day for 3 or 4 days. We are never there past 7:00. I do have a dedicated theatre space, but it frequently gets ...