Advanced Drama students perform "Hamlet: Blood in the Brain"
The Drama department at Oakland Tech is alive with classes, performances, field trips and news!
Classes:
Ninth Grade English/Drama, Beginning Drama, Advanced Drama, and an after-school Production Drama class are all offered for school credit.
Performances:
Each of the drama classes presents at least one production during the school year. Class productions may include student work as well as professionally written plays.
Tech students benefit from the Drama Department’s collaborations with top Bay Area theater professionals such as the California Shakespeare Theater, one of American’s leading Shakespeare repertory companies.
Details on the classes’ performances can be found on each class’s web page.
Field trips:
At Tech, introducing students to a wide variety of theater experiences is an integral part of the drama program. Tech’s drama students take too many field trips each year to list here, going to performances at major and smaller theaters in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland. In recent years, students saw blockbusters like “In the Heights,” cutting-edge new drama like Naomi Iizuka’s “Polaroid Stories,” and performances by the California Shakespeare Theater as well as small, intimate performances. They participated in talk-backs with actors and directors, where they were more than once acknowledged from the stage. Students who had never even been to a professional theater performance before got to have dinner and a night at the theater and then meet playwrights, actors and directors after the performance.
And last but not least, Tech’s drama students have performed on the international stage! Winners of the American High School Theater Festival competition, the OakTechRep performed in August 2010 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest theater festival.
A grand collaborative performance for all Tech students, featuring dance, drama, music and fashion, in the Auditorium.
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The period 6 Drama Class and the Choir present a Showcase on the theme of “Courage.”
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Don’t miss Tech’s astounding Fall production of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, October 24-27, 2012, in the beautiful, newly-renovated Auditorium.
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We need volunteers to help feed our actors and techies!
If you can bring food or meal supplies (paper goods, water, etc.), here’s what to do:
- Go to https://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/
- Click on “Find a Community” (second tab from the right)
- Type 94618 in the location box
- Scroll down to find “OakTechRep” (unfortunately it’s not alphabetical!) and click on “volunteer”
Thanks!
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Technical Rehearsals for the Fall 2012 drama production, Metamorphoses, will run from October 15-23. Details on exact times will be forthcoming. Drama students, please check with Ms. J.; Tech Techies, please check with Mr. Fern.
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You’re invited to the 9th Grade English/Drama Spring Showcase May 31, in the Auditorium. Please see the post for the times for each class.
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What’s more fun than the Oscars? I don’t know … but we’re going to have our very own OakTechRep awards ceremony on June 8, 2012 in the Auditorium, from 4-6 p.m.
Red carpet attire not required for this fun, informal event for the students and families involved in the after-school drama class, the drama production, and the fabulous Tech Techies. Come and let’s recognize our achievements and say a fond farewell to our departing seniors!
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It’s that time again … long rehearsals for what promises to be a fabulous drama production, and that means that our actors and techies need your help to bring them nutritious after-school snacks and dinner while they’re working hard to prepare the show!
We need YOU to join our group of wonderful parent volunteers in bringing food for the students. This year, we are working through the website LotsaHelpingHands.com to coordinate our efforts.
It’s easy to help:
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Ms. Howeth’s students wrote their reflections about their first semester in the English/Drama block. Read and be inspired:
On learning about being part of a group:
“Being in this drama class has taught me how to work with a group. I grew up an only child and although it may seem like that wouldn’t affect you socially, it really made me spoiled and hard to work with people because I’m so used to getting everything I want. Drama is helping me become a better person in that sense because working with others is a fundamental part of life. Drama isÃ��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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Come see Tech’s Spring play, Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” performances April 25, 26, 28, and 29. Discounted tickets available online!
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Mark your calendars for April 17, 2012, the date of an upcoming field trip for beginning drama students to see “Othello” at the Marin Theatre Co. Watch this space for further details!
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Chaperone the drama field trip to ACT and see free theater!
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Students are invited to audition for the Spring play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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Drama students, here’s an exciting event if you’re considering studying drama after high school!
Drama Alumni Panel Discussion: College and Career Choices after OakTechRep (in the Arts and beyond….)
Tech Drama alums, you’re invited to participate and talk about what you’ve been doing since you graduated: Where are you? What college/career choices have you made? How have you been involved in Arts? What have you used from your education at Tech in the “Real World”?
January 11, 2012, 3:30-5 p.m. in the Auditorium
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All current Drama students are invited to a special presentation by a guest artist from San Francisco’s famed American Conservatory Theatre in the Auditorium on January 11, 2012, from 1-2 p.m.
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Join us for an evening of drama to benefit the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo, December 14 at 6 p.m. in Room A3
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Parents and friends, we need your support for our fall drama production.
Every year, our fabulous productions need the unglamorous but all-important help of the people who are willing to feed our actors and techies, give kids rides home after rehearsals and shows, help sell tickets and concessions and help out during performances. Will you be one of our local heroes?
You can see the full schedule here, but we especially need help on Thursday, November 17; Friday, November 18; and Saturday, November 19. If you can bring food to sell���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Parents and students, please mark your calendars: here is the schedule for the final rehearsals and performances for the Fall 2011 One-Act Festival.
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The Ancestor Assembly is a Tech tradition, with instrumental music, voice, dance and drama presentations. Mark your calendars!
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There is ONE MORE opportunity to audition for the upcoming Drama production! This Wednesday, September 28, there will be one more hour of auditions, right after school from 3:30pm-4:30pm in A3. Students auditioning do not need to prepare a monologue, although it is encouraged!
This Fall, the OakTechRep student ensemble is boldly going into brave new territory, as the students become the DIRECTORS. Each student director has chosen a short one-act play to direct, ranging from dark comedies to bold dramas.Students enrolled in Drama classes may be eligible for extra credit if they audition and are cast. Regular rehearsals will���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Exciting new Arts Credit Recovery Program offers 10 units elective credit in after-school program
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Come to Tech’s One-Act Play Festival, November 17-19
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What’s the 9th Grade English/Drama class all about? Get answers to some frequently asked questions.
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Production Drama is a for-credit course and grades are given. These are the components of students’ grades in Production Drama:
Daily participation: 25%.
- self-assessment at the end of each class.
Application of knowledge: 30%.
- performances
- rehearsals and the creation process
Mastery of knowledge: 10%
- line memorization
- quizzes and tests
Reflection: 15%
- written self-reflections
- discussion and critique
- audience etiquette
Leadership skills: 20%
- collaboration
- creative voice
- reliability
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Weeks 1-3: Hero Journey and Physical Theatre Immersion
- September 17, Piano dedication performance
Weeks 4-5: Play Selection, Audition Prep, Auditions, Casting
- Friday, September 23 and Monday, September 26 after school, One-Act auditions
Weeks 5-6: Launch One-Acts: read-throughs, initial blocking, design concepts
Weeks 7-10: Rehearsals, presentations, design construction
- October 9: Rockridge Fair, solo and group presentations
- October 13, parent preview night, solo and group presentations
- October 14, field trip to CalShakes “Taming of the Shrew” (parents, please note: chaperones needed!)
- Late October, TBA: Ancestor Assembly
Weeks 11-12: Tech rehearsals���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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In 2011-2012, Production Drama will be taught by Technical Director Casey Fern, Susannah Wood (Fridays), and Jessa Berkner (on maternity leave for the first part of the year – congratulations to Ms. J!)
Class Goals:
Through art, we seek to explore theh human condition to gain understanding of ourselves, others, and our world. Through drama, we seek understanding, as well. But in drama, we use the tools of our own moving, thinking, feeling selves. Through movement, voice, feeling and live interaction with our audience, we will further our own understanding and the understanding of others.
In this class, it is���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Tech’s students gave a gala performance to thank the Class of ’61 for restoring our beautiful piano.
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Parents, here’s a great opportunity to see some amazing theater – free!
On October 14, the Drama classes will be attending Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” at Cal Shakes. Parent chaperones are urgently needed. The good news is that you don’t need to drive and you don’t need to pay, and you get to see the show!
The field trip will be an all-day event, leaving during FIRST PERIOD and returning during SIXTH PERIOD. Plan to meet at the Auditorium in the morning, walk to MacArthur BART, take BART to the theater, attend the show, take BART back, and���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Do you have any large water-cooler bottles that you can donate? The Beginning and Advanced Drama classes need them to create home-made drums as part of a project in which they will use physical theatre techniques to examine issues affecting the Democratic Republic of Congo.
If you can help, please contact Lindsay Krumbein, lindsaykrumbein@gmail.com or Casey Fern, cfern1005@gmail.com, 808-292-6130.
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Starting Friday, May 13, the Drama rehearsals will be going until the evening, and we need parent volunteers to help bring MEALS for the actors and tech crew. Generally, two parents take on each meal so that one person does not have to buy TOO much. The needs are:
* Friday May 20 – Dinner for Cast and Crew (30+ people)
* Saturday May 21 – Lunch for Cast and Crew (30+ people)
* Saturday May 21 – Dinner for Cast and Crew (30+ people)
* Monday May 23 – Dinner for Cast and Crew (30+ people)Read the rest
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BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY
NEEDS LIST
If you can supply any of these items for the spring production, please contact Casey Fern as soon as possible at cfern1005@gmail.com
—-BACKSTAGE NEEDS—-
Large rolls of White Paper
Metal Rolling Clothing Racks
Clip Lights & Colored Light Bulbs
PLAY IS SET IN 1930s – ITEMS BELOW MUST FIT THE PERIOD…
—-SET PIECES—-
Small Rocking Chair
Cupboards
Large Picture Frame
Metal Clothing Rack (more than one…for backstage, too)
—-COSTUME NEEDS—-
Hats – (1930s…men’s and women’s)
Suspenders
Bow���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Come see Tech’s Spring play, Blues for an Alabama Sky, May 25-27.
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As of April 3, this is the updated rehearsal schedule for Tech’s Spring 2011 play, Blues for an Alabama Sky.
Note: This is the same schedule that came home with students the last week of March. It’s updated from the April 1 post in that it includes performance days, which have pre-performance rehearsal time.
The schedule also includes weekend rehearsals; load-in (May 16), which will includes both students and parents; tech rehearsals (May 18, 20, and 21) and dress rehearsals (May 23 and 24).
Performance dates are May 25, 26 and 27; the Read the rest
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See Tech junior Naomi Zingman-Daniels’ play at the Berkeley Rep School of Theater the first two weekends of April.
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We all know the economy is bad. But did you know that our children are right in the line of the budget axe?
Current budget proposals would eliminate nearly all performing arts from all schools in California.
Watch a video made by student Saskia Levy-Sheon in which Tech Performing Arts students explain what the arts have meant to them, and what it would mean to have performing arts programs cut:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCj43SO_sXE
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Our students produce amazing works of performing and fine art, and the arts fuel their academic lives, but budget cuts threaten the arts in schools. We need your input!
Please join us at a meeting of the Arts Committee, Friday, March 25, at 7:30 a.m. in the Principal’s Conference Room.
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The Advanced Production drama class presents a showcase of scenes from the “Brother/Sister Plays” by award-winning playwright Tarrell Alvin McCraney in Room A-3 on Monday, February 7, 2011.
This presentation is free, but students are requested to bring snacks.
PLEASE NOTE: these scenes contain strong language and mature subject matter. Please do not bring young children or anyone who will be offended or will not be able to watch with respect.
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We will be having a volunteer work day this Saturday, January 8, from 10am-3pm.
Meet at the Auditorium to find out how you can help. Even just 30 minutes out of your day is extremely helpful. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to better get to know others in the community.
We will be sprucing up the Auditorium, organizing backstage areas, and helping with the needs of the Dance Studio.
From 12pm-1pm we will break for a meeting of the Performing Arts Committee. Lunch will be provided! All are welcome to sit in and provide input on the���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Gareth Tidball ’12, who played Dracula in the recent production, reflects on the experience.
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All Oakland Tech Performing Arts students & families are welcome! Light Refreshments, Performances, Question & Answer Period, Performing Arts Committee Drive
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… well, actually, the entire cast and crew need feeding. They’ll be rehearsing long and hard until the play opens, and they need the energy to prepare the wonderful show they’ll be presenting to you soon.
Can you help prepare some food for our hardworking students to eat in the evenings between October 29 and November 6? If you can volunteer to prepare all or part of a meal, or would like to know more, please contact Phyllis Hall at thinman01@mail.com
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An important part of every Tech production is family support at performances: selling concessions (goodies) before the show and during intermission, donating or baking goodies to sell, selling tickets, etc. If you can help do any of this, please contact Phyllis Hall at thinman01@mail.com.
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Dracula wants your … donations!
We’ve had some great donations come in for the production of “Dracula,” which is right around the corner! Thank you to the generous people who have donated costume racks, iron, reading lights, steamers and props. Here’s the current list of what we still need:
Tech Needs:
- Microphone Clips for Stands (Various Sizes)
- Extension Cords (preferably black or dark color)
- Music Stand Lights/Reading Lights
- Clamp Lights
- Black Gaffers Tape
- Eye Dropper (for stage blood)
Costume Needs:
- Single Burner Stove (for dyeing���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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You’re invited to “Back to School Night – Performing Arts Edition.”
Come meet and mingle with teachers, administrators and parents (refreshments served!) in Tech’s beautiful auditorium, find out what your students are doing and what’s planned in Tech’s arts courses, and learn about plans to continue upgrading and renovating the auditorium. And of course, there will be time for you to ask questions and find out how you can become involved in making Tech’s arts education even better!
We need volunteers for this event to bring and set up refreshments. Please contact Performing Arts Chair Sonja Travick at ayanoni@aol.com���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Rehearsal schedule for Dracula, the fall drama production.
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Tech’s Production Drama class is proud to present Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula in an adaptation of Orson Welles’ fabulous radio play.
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Each year, Tech’s performing arts students honor some of the diverse cultural traditions that our student body represents through music, spoken word, dramatic performance and dance in the Ancestors Assembly. The entire student body and all staff and faculty attend this moving and beautiful event.
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All are welcome to the Performing Arts Committee Retreat, Sunday, October 3, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Teachers and parents will come together to talk about our plans and hopes for the Performing Arts Academy, the Drama, Dance and Music departments, and the Auditorium this coming year and in the future.
The Retreat will be held at the Attitudinal Healing Connection, 3278 West Street (corner of 33rd St. and West St.). A light breakfast and lunch will be provided.
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Beginning Drama teacher Lindsay Krumbein is a new face in the Oakland Tech performing arts department, but an old hand in the teaching business. After teaching both English and Drama at Bay Area schools for the last eight years, including Mission High School in San Francisco, Unity in East Oakland, and Impact Academy in Hayward, she had a baby in June of 2009, decided to step out of the classroom and into the domain of professional theatre, and spent 2009-2010 developing a new education program, Rising Stars, at a small, popular theater in San Francisco, the SF Playhouse. Ms. Krumbein���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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Beginning Drama 2010-2011
Instructor: Lindsay Krumbein
lindsaykrumbein@gmail.com
_______________________________________________________________
Through drama, we examine the human condition, exploring thoughts, ideas, emotions, and questions. In this class, we will use movement, sound, and dialogue to help audiences learn, feel, and understand.
This class is workshop based. Your first project involves Physical Theatre – experimenting with new concepts through movement. For the second project, we use what we’ve learned through movement techniques to engage in script study and development, and explore the elements that go into staging performances and writing plays. ToÃ��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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Hello Parents, Faculty, and Friends of the Performing Arts at Oakland Tech.
The Tech Techies after-school program needs your help! We need some tools and supplies to really kick the program into high gear. My goal is to turn the Workshop behind the Auditorium into a functioning work space where students can learn what it is like to design lights, sound, sets, props, and costumes in the professional theatre world. And since Tech Techies’ goal is to better serve all performances at Oakland Tech, any support you give the program will in turn support ALL performing arts at our school.Ã��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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OakTechRep’s cast and crew continue to write about their experience at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival:
This has been the best two weeks of my life. Ms. J had us running around Edinburgh to see shows we never thought of seeing before. It was crazy and hectic, especially tech rehearsal. I got only about two hours to make up lighting design and hoped for the best because I couldn’t and wouldn’t see the result of my hard work until the first day of our show; but the first hour of the rehearsal was just me getting to the know the lightingÃ��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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Drama teacher and Performing Arts and Theatre Director Jessa Brie Berkner is an award-winning professional actor and educator who has performed and taught theatre for the past fifteen years in theatres, conservatories, schools, and training programs in the U.S. and Canada.
In the Bay Area, “Ms. J” has performed with ACT, MTC, SF Shakes, Center Rep, TheatreWorks and San Jose Stage. Professional Awards include an Emmy, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Dean Goodman, and Shellie Best Actress Awards. For the past four years she has been a leader in the development of Theatre Arts in Alameda County and CityÃ��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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Oakland Tech welcomes Casey Fern, our new Technical Director (full title: “Technical Director for the Auditorium and the Tech Techies After School Program” – yeah!)
Casey has recently moved to the Bay Area after studying the dramatic arts in Seattle, Washington. He received his B.A. in Theatre from Seattle University, where he studied stage management, stagecraft, and performance. Casey hopes to bring his skills in carpentry and set construction to Oakland Tech by turning the Workshop behind the Auditorium stage into a fully fledged Scene Shop. The students in the Tech Techies after school program will have the opportunity to���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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On August 23, 2010, the students in OakTechRep sent this description of their travels in England and Scotland as winners of the American High School Theater Festival. Each student describes a slightly different aspect of their trip; read the whole piece to get a flavor of what these extraordinary young men and women have seen, done, and achieved:
Hey everyone, it’s Naomi Zingman-Daniels (Fate; Funeral Home Attendant). I’m typing this from Pollock Halls all the way over in Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s been amazing! It feels like we’ve been here three weeks, not six days, and pretty much everyone wants toÃ��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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Tech’s Advanced Drama students leave for London on August 14, on their way to performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They’ll spend a couple of days in and around London, including seeing a play and rehearsing their own play at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and then it’s off to Edinburgh, Scotland! In addition to performing at the Fringe Festival, they’ll see as many plays at the Fringe as they can possibly fit in, and sightsee in Scotland (ancient castles, but probably not the Loch Ness Monster).
You can follow the students’ adventures on the California ShakespeareÃ��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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Now you can follow the Advanced Drama students as they prepare for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival … and, even better, follow them while they’re in Scotland at the Fringe! You can read OakTechRep member Naomi Zingman-Daniels and other students on the CalShakes blog: just go to http://calshakes.blogspot.com/search?q=oaktechrep, or go to http://calshakes.blogspot.com and enter “oaktechrep” in the search box.
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The Oakland Tech Drama Department is thrilled to announce that Marcus Thompson, who played H in “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” and Count Orsino in “Twelfth Night” during the 2009-2010 school year, is the 2010 recipient of the Steve Silver Foundation & Beach Blanket Babylon Scholarship for the Arts in the Acting Category. Marcus performed a monologue from Blood in the Brain in the scholarship competition, which draws students from all over the Bay Area in dance, voice and acting. One winner in each category is granted a scholarship of $10,000 toward his or her college education.
Congratulations, Marcus!
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The cold and wind took nothing away from the magic as Oakland Tech’s Advanced Drama class performed “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” at the California Shakespeare Theater’s fabulous Bruns Amphitheater on July 26, 2010 – their first performance on a professional stage, before a public audience, and their last performance in California before taking the show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Every seat was full, with an audience of mostly CalShakes subscribers. One such subscriber wrote afterward that the evening was���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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The Beginning Drama Class presented “Script Frenzy,” an end-of-year performance of short plays written and performed by students. By turns moving, funny and inventive, the plays showed how far these beginning actors had come as actors and playwrights. Many of the students have expressed interest in continuing in Advanced Drama and even in Tech’s new Performing Arts Academy.
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The Ninth Grade English/Drama class presented scenes from John Steinbeck’s “Pastures of Heaven,” adapted by Octavio Solis. Students worked with resident artists from CalShakes as part of the Tech-CalShakes collaboration.
The transformation between the beginning of the year and this production was amazing: parents could not believe how much their children had come out of their shells to perform self-confidently. One student who began the year literally unable to talk in class took a significant role in the performance and shone!
Almost all of the students from this class plan on continuing in Advanced Drama next year.
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The Beginning Drama Class presented “Script Frenzy,” an end-of-year performance of short plays written and performed by students. By turns moving, funny and inventive, the plays showed how far these beginning actors had come as actors and playwrights. Many of the students have expressed interest in continuing in Advanced Drama and even in Tech’s new Performing Arts Academy.
When: Thursday, May 27th, 6pm
Where: in the Tech Auditorium, 42nd Street at Broadway
Admission: FREE!
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You are invited to the Period 7 Beginning Drama presentation
BAD HABITS
an original drama about addiction and hope for a better world
based on a script by class member Tashi Guerra
woven together with writing by the rest of the class
This is a soul-searching play about the hard, important, too topical subject of drug addiction. Talking about hard subjects, and performing the behavior that goes with them, doesn’t mean you are approving them – but it does mean that you are exposing hard truths and challenging yourselves and your audience to look at them. ForÃ��Ã�¢Ã�¯Ã�¿Ã�½Ã��Ã�¦ Read the rest
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Who says there’s no good news in Oakland? KTVU-TV (Channel 2) presented a fantastic, upbeat story about the Advanced Drama Department’s production of “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” and the students’ plans to present the play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010.
See the KTVU video
Find out more about the Advanced Drama Department’s plans to go to the Fringe Festival
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The Oakland Tribune featured the Tech Advanced Drama Department’s production of “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” in a terrific online article by Sean Maher on March 30. The article discusses the performance at Piedmont High School, Tech’s triumph at the American High School Theater Festival, and the efforts to bring the performance, and the Advanced Drama students, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2010.
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Tech’s Drama Department thanks Piedmont High for generously hosting a fabulous evening!
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In March, 2010, Tech’s drama students took a field trip to San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre to see a performance of Berthold Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle – the same play that Tech’s Advanced Drama Department had performed the previous year!
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Tech’s Spring Play was a comic delight directed by Scott Marden.
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Drama department field trip to the acclaimed American Conservatory Theater’s production of the Bertold Brecht play that Tech performed in the 2008-09 academic year.
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On Friday, March 5, two groups of Tech drama students performed as part of Oakland’s Art Murmur, the art gallery and performing art event that takes place the first Friday evening of each month.
Students from Tech’s Advanced Drama Department performed an excerpt from “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” at the 21 Grand Art Gallery, and impressed the crowd with their description of their planned trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
And, Opera Piccola’s students performed at 416 25th Street, in an original piece they wrote called “Heroes R” – created especially for this event!
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Tech’s Advanced Drama class participated in a one-day residency at Stanford University on February 24, 2010, performing “Hamlet: Blood in the Brain” in an intimate, 100-seat theater and taking a tour of the campus and admissions office.
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California’s premier Shakespeare festival, Cal Shakes, is collaborating with Oakland Tech’s Drama Department in a new initiative.
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“Hamlet: Blood in the Brain,” by local acclaimed playwright Naomi Iizuka, is a unique re-telling of Shakespeare’s classic tale of murder, scandal, and intrigue. Set in Oakland in 1989, the play features modern language and contemporary settings that are still vibrant today.
We have rated this production “PG-13″ for violence, mild language, and drug references. (Shakespeare’s original works are equally mature in content). This show is intended for high-school aged students and older.
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We did it! Oakland Tech’s Advanced Drama students have raised the money to perform at the 2010 Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. We are so very grateful to everyone who contributed in any way – we could not have completed this enormous fundraising effort without you.
Preparing for the Fringe Festival has already begun to open up new worlds for these young performers. Some will be going to college next year to study theater; some have taken after-school jobs to raise money for this trip; some are looking forward to their first-ever airplane ride. For all of them, performing in���¢�¯�¿�½���¦ Read the rest
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This play was created by the Advanced Drama Class at Oakland Tech, and has earned the students the honor of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, 2010 as winners of the American High School Theatre Festival Award.
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