Rehearsal for Grade 2 play As part of the Rashi Theater Program students learn the skill of playwriting. This process starts in Grade 2 with their work, "Diary of a Rashi Second Grader." In this process the students learn about monologues and dialogues and how to write in the basic playwriting format. In Grade 2, the diary entries become their monologue. Monologues are a great way to talk about emotions and express what the "character" is thinking. They learn that dialogues are just a conversation. We work on this process together as a big group and we spend time talking about the possible topics for the dialogues and then brainstorm character options, setting options and list a few facts that can become the main part of a character's speech. Students learn that anything can speak in a play, yes even a rock or the Charles River. The best part is watching the "voice" of the character come alive as they practice saying the line and writing what th...
As you heard from the ITS Theater Officers recently, Rashi is a member in good standing not only with the International Thespian Society (ITS), but also (METG) which is the Massachusetts Education Theater Guild. METG has been around for a long time and was originally just a High School Organization that ran the HS Theater Festival in Massachusetts. Over the years it has developed a Middle School Division that runs workshops, Theater Contests and MS Festival as well as a Boston Initiative and the MET (musical) Awards. You may hear the students talking about "Festival" which we run out of In School MS Electives program. Middle Schools from around the state hold a 2 day festival at 6-7 host sites and each school presents a 40 minute play that is adjudicated by professionals. The students earn All-Star Awards as well as Bronze, Silver or Gold Medals for the school. It isn't as competitive as the High School Festival where schools move on from Preliminaries to Sem...
Eleven Rashi Middle School students will be participating in the Massachusetts State Middle School Drama Festival this weekend. The Festival is held at 6 different sites across Eastern MA. We will be at the Dover Sherborn Middle School site on Sunday, May 7th at 2PM. Our one Act Play, "Skidmarks, A Play About Driving" by Lindsey Price was chosen by the Middle School Festival Elective as one of three possible choices. The entire elective is student run with Bonny, the Director and Mike, the Tech Director acting as advisors on the process. The students choose the show, cast the show, design the show and stage the show. The students have learned how difficult it is to a choose a show that has enough to do for all the actors, designers and technicians. Many of the Grade 8 students have leadership positions such as the Stage Manager or the Student Stage Director, but even some of the Grade 6 or 7 students have taken on the job of coordinating costumes and ...