Rebekah D. Wilson

 

The Beacon School

Manhattan, NYC

 

School/Environment Overview:

        The Beacon School is a college-preparatory public high school, located on the Upper West side of Manhattan, near Lincoln Center, Columbus Circle, and Fordham University. As a school, Beacon provides a solid common core and liberal arts education program, which focuses on alternative, inquiry-based, and arts-infused learning. Beacon prides itself on the principles of shared learning and exploration, rigorous, yet exploratory performance-based assessments, and open-ended philosophies, exceeding the standards set by the New York State Regents. Because of this curriculum exceeds these standards, students are not given state standardized tests; instead, they are evaluated for eligibility for acceptance into the school and for graduation through performance-based projects, which are assessed by an esteemed panel of teachers and school administrators.Serving students in grades ninth through twelfth, this school provides a core curriculum and an optional Advanced Placement curriculum of common core subjects, such as English and Language Arts, Foreign Languages, Math, Science, and History, as well as a diversified arts program. This arts program contains a plethora of classes dedicated to specific disciplines, including: Visual Art, Music (Band), Music (Percussion only), Photography, Dance, and Drama.

      In a first year students’ arts curriculum, classes run on a “band” rotation that shifts after each quarter. By the years’ end, students are exposed to at least four of the six arts disciplines offered. From the second through the fourth year of high school, students are free to choose their own arts classes each year, preparing students for the college course selection process.In the Drama Department, first-year students are given a required introductory course that exposes them to the basics of Drama, focusing on basic theatrical skills, such as ensemble building, character building, and stage mechanics. At the discretion of the Drama Department, second-year students who would like to continue in their studies of Drama graduate from the first-year drama class to Theatre Arts I or T1, which explores more complicated aspects of Drama, including advanced scene and character study, varied acting techniques, and monologues. If students wish to continue their artistic development on the Drama track, they are transferred to the Advanced Theatre Arts class, which serves as a preparatory course for students who wish to audition for college or conservatory training post-high school. In this course structure, students in their second through fourth years who wish to continue learning Drama are free to take either another year of T1 or move on to the Advanced Theatre Arts class.

 

Age, Demographic, and Developmental Overview:

 

       The intended audience for this particular curriculum is one class comprised of second-year students in the Theatre Arts I or T1 Course. Students who experience their second year at The Beacon School are in the tenth grade, with their ages ranging from fourteen to fifteen. This Drama class contains 25 students, with 60% of the population identifying as female and 40% identifying as male. Although the majority of students identify their ethnicity as Caucasian, there is a diverse population of multi-ethnic and international students, including students of African-American, Afro-Latino, Latino, White-Hispanic, Asian, and Eastern European descents. As it relates to the developmental aspects of the population, some students are granted an IEP based on learning disabilities; others are regarded as Gifted and Talented in a specialized area of the arts. All of the students in this particular class speak English at a proficient level; however, there are few students who identify English as their second language. Despite this class having a wide variety of reading levels, students seem to show a strong knowledge of the difference between reading for a traditional English class and reading for the stage, evident through their work in the Freshman Drama class.

 

Space:

 

The space which houses the Drama Department is a Drama Studio, scaled as a large black-box and equipped with a platform stage, risers for audiences, a full-scale lighting and sound system, a projection system, and varied set pieces, including acting blocks, benches, and chairs. This space is flexible; it serves as a studio classroom, a black box theatre, a rehearsal space, and a Attached to this black box studio is a back room, which serves as storage for all of the departments’ props, costumes, and additional set pieces, which can be used for both classes and main-stage shows. Between the stage and the risers, there is a large open space, which is generally used for classes.

 

 

Previous Knowledge:

 

This particular curriculum serves students who have previously taken Freshman Drama class. In the Freshman Drama class, students have been exposed to basic theatrical skills, such as ensemble building, basic stage mechanics, and basic acting techniques. With the study of ensemble building, students participated in activities and games that focused on the ideas of trust, teamwork, and risk-taking. In building skills for basic acting techniques, students have been exposed to and have exercised the Stanislavsky and Meisner-based ideals of a character’s Objective, Tactic, Obstacle, and Goal in a scene. In building skills for basic stage mechanics, students learned about the parts of the stage, the basics of stage directions, spatial awareness, and how to give proper constructive feedback.