The most advanced theatre class at Homestead High School is not like the rest of the theatre courses offered. There is no hand holding, it’s fast, dirty, and tiring. Plus the students decide what happens: from the crew students who design the set and plan all the lighting and sound to the students who have to take ownership of a play they are rehearsing. This year we have taken the class a little further and the students have total control. This year, the 2016 One Act class wrote their own play, developed the blocking and movement sequences and now run the class. Their teacher, Ms. Figg-Franzoi gets to watch. Yes, she helps out sometimes, gives ideas or flat out tells the class it’s physically impossible. The last one rarely happens, since she herself expects impossible things in her own plays and traditionally the students deliver.
Sometimes class devolves into a kindergarten room with too many opinions, but they reach back to their elementary school days and move forward. Phillip Zuccaro, a senior, showed us a little white polar bear, “This is the talking bear, if you have the talking bear you can talk, if you don’t have the talking bear, you cannot talk.” Sometimes it’s a shouting wrench or a speaking marker, but the students create an environment where all opinions can be heard.
Emma Zander, another senior explained, “In this class most of us are seniors, people who are going out into the real world soon, so this class helps us learn how to do things for ourselves and work with people that have different views than us.” It can be frustrating at times, but that’s also true for life.
Please, watch what we’ve created so far!
Act Out 