Teacher: Stacey Jones

Questions?  Email Ms. Jones at [email protected]

 

Theater at Luther Jackson Middle School takes in two forms:

• Theater Arts Classes
• Theater Arts Productions

Students can take part in either or both forms – you don’t have to be in class to take part in the productions and you don’t have to take part in the after school productions if you are in class! The choice is totally up to you!

 

Theater Arts Classes

Beginning Theater Arts

In Beginning Theater Arts students learn:

Parts of the stage

• Pantomime- How to use their bodies and facial expression to tell a story
• Voice- How to speak clearly, loudly, and with expression
• Improvisation- How to think on their feet
• Basic performance techniques 

Beginning Theater Arts helps give students the basic tools and confidence for getting up in front of their peers. These tools with help them with presentations in other classes as well as at activities outside the school environment. 

 

Tech Theater

Students will be introduced to the basic concepts and skills of technical theater elements, design, and construction through a variety of group discussions and dramatic activities. Students will explore the relationship of plays and musicals to technical elements, design and implementation.

 

Advanced Theater

It is required for students to have completed Beginning Theater Arts or Tech Theater in order to enroll in Advanced Theater Arts.

Students can take Beginning Theater Arts during first semester and the semester Advanced Theater Arts during the second semester of the same school year. There is also a Full Year Theater arts class for 8th graders who took Beginning Theater Arts as a 7th grader. 7th graders who complete the semester Advanced Theater Arts class can enroll is the semester or full year class as 8th graders.

Some things students learn in Advanced Theater Arts are:

• Acting Techniques
• Puppetry
• Shakespeare - both language and history
• Technical Theater
• How to create, produce, and perform their own show

Advanced Theater Arts is for the student who wants to expand on the basics learned in Beginning Theater Arts and take their performance abilities to another level. Students will learn how to prepare different types of texts to go “from page to stage.”

 

Theater Production

Each year, Jackson Middle School puts on two full theatrical productions. Past shows have included Hoodie, Boat, Bedtime Stories (As Told By Your Dad, Who Messed Them Up), Mulan, The Lion King, High School Musical, and Hairspray.

Performances alternate between a non-musical production in the fall and a musical in the spring each year so that students have a chance to do both while at Jackson.

For Students Who Want to Perform: Auditions are open to all students and rehearsals are typically three days a week after school. The week prior to the performances, dress rehearsals can last into the evening in order to get the show in tip top shape! There can be rehearsals on non-school days as well. Information about the play selection, auditions, rehearsal and performance schedules are announced to students on the morning news show. Auditions are typically scheduled eight to ten weeks prior to performances.

For Students Who Do Not Want to Perform: Student not interested in being onstage have ample opportunity to participate by working on the technical aspects of the play. These areas include stage management, lights, sound, props, costumes, make-up, set building, choreography (musicals only), and graphic design. After school commitment for technical students is dependent on the needs of the show and the amount of students involved.

 

For information about Theater events throughout FCPS. check out the FCPS Fine and Performing Arts Calendar

Stay updated with what's happening at Jackson Middle School with News You Choose