Drama at The New School

 

Pre-K - 4th Grade Productions

The purpose of The New School drama program is to encourage young people to play and create through cooperation and collaboration. Our classroom curriculum and productions on stage help students experience empathy, self-discovery, expression, communication, problem solving and confidence.

We begin in Pre-K and Kindergarten by inviting the children to explore the world of “Farnahan’s Circus,” an original musical written by Andrea Romine and Betty Butcher, the original founders of The New School’s drama program back in  1972. Early Education music teacher Mr. Troy introduces the songs, characters and ideas of “Farnahan’s Circus” throughout the fall semester. The wild cats, acrobats, super kids and clowns parade through the school to remind us of the work and play in progress. Mr. Troy and drama director Ms. Jonny direct the show together on the big stage, and performances will be at 10am and 6:30pm on Thursday, February 3, 2022.

First and second graders continue the long tradition of transforming our stage into a winter wonderland with “The Magical Forest.” Featuring Betty Butcher’s original music, the story of a blizzard almost preventing Santa from delivering toys comes to life year after year. Performances will be at 10am and 7:00pm on Thursday, December 9th.

Our third and fourth graders will perform in a brand new production of "The Wizard of Oz" in the spring! Performances will be at 10:00am and 7:00pm on Thursday, March 17th, right before spring break.

All New School performances take place in our beautiful auditorium and are free!

 

Middle & Upper School Drama with Jonny Schremmer

Adolescents can find it difficult to express their emotions, and drama provides a great outlet for young people to explore a wide range of feelings including delight, anger and unhappiness. We hope to create a fun and safe space for our middle school students to collaborate with their peers, gain confidence in who they are, and develop empathy for others through games, exercises, writing and performance. Fifth graders take a semester-long drama class and explore basic acting techniques through drama games, exercises and small performances. The 6th grade drama class meets in the spring and will do two one-act plays that will perform during Arts Month on Thursday, April 28th at 10:00am and 7:00pm.

Intro to Drama is offered to students in 7th grade and up. This class is year-long and explores acting techniques, character development, scene work, technical theatre and theatre history. These students assist with the lower school productions as well.

Advanced Drama is offered to any upper school student who has taken Intro to Drama. This class expands on the acting techniques learned in previous drama classes, performs a class play in the fall semester and assists with lower school productions in the spring. The Advanced Drama class play will perform Thursday, November 4th at 7:00pm and Friday, November 5th at 1:00pm.