Theatre

List of 6 items.

• Introduction to Theatre

  Introduction to Theatre is designed for any level theatre student in grades 10-12. Students are introduced to various aspects of theatre: acting, puppetry, theatre history, voice, stagecraft, etc. Students will learn from a variety of guest speakers who work professionally in theatre. The students will also attend a professional production as a class.

• Theatre II

  Theatre II is designed for the student who has completed Introduction to Theatre. This production-based course reinforces the elements of theatre while advancing skills learned in acting and stagecraft. Students will not only be cast in a one-act play or lengthy scene, but also direct a one-act of their choosing. Students will also travel together as a class to see a professional production.

• Theatre III

  Theatre III students will produce a play to be performed for the public. Students will act and design this production under the supervision and direction of the instructor. Students will also develop a portfolio that will include various monologues, production designs, or whatever aspect of theatre the student wants to pursue.

• Advanced Acting and Auditioning

  This course is for the college-bound student who wants to pursue theatre at the college and professional level. Not only will the student study different acting techniques and apply those techniques to scene study, the student will also develop a college audition portfolio. The portfolio will include at least two contrasting monologues, at least two musical auditions, an acting website, and a well-written resume. Students will also be prepared for film auditions and will learn how to self-tape for those auditions.

• One Act

  2020- "Smoke on the Mountain" Book by Connie Ray/Conceived by Alan Bailey/Musical arrangements by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick

  Smoke on the Mountain tells the story of a Saturday Night Gospel Sing at a country church in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains in 1938. The show features... rousing bluegrass songs played and sung by the Sanders Family, a traveling group making its return to performing after a five-year hiatus. Pastor Oglethorpe, the young and enthusiastic minister of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, has enlisted the Sanders Family in his efforts to bring his tiny congregation into “the modern world.” Between songs, each family member “witnesses” – telling a story about an important event in their life. Though they try to appear perfect in the eyes of a congregation who wants to be inspired by their songs, one thing after another goes awry and they reveal their true – and hilariously imperfect – natures. By the evening’s end, the Sanders Family have endeared themselves to us by revealing their weaknesses and allowing us to share in their triumphs." ~Concord Theatricals 

  
  
  2018: "Around The World In 80 Days" by Mark Brown
  

  Join fearless adventurer Phileas Fogg and his faithful manservant as they race to beat the clock! Phileas Fogg has agreed to an outrageous wager that puts his fortune and his life at risk. With his resourceful servant Passepartout, Fogg sets out to circle the globe in an unheard-of 80 days. But his every step is dogged by a detective who thinks he's a robber on the run. Danger, romance, and comic surprises abound in this whirlwind of a show.  

  
  2017: "The Lottery" by Brainerd Duffield
  Adapted from a story by Shirley Jackson.This unusual play with its shattering last scene has proven so successful it is probably winning more contests presently than any other short play. Published originally in The New Yorker magazine, it produced an unprecedented reaction, and this dramatization captures the story that has become an internationally known classic. Like the story, the play starts as people are assembling for the lottery. What family will it be this time? Which member? Only gradually do we begin to suspect the nature of the lottery as the play builds swiftly to its crucial and moving climax. The tension and thrill of the play are built into its very structure.
  
  2016: "The Dining Room" by A. R. Gurney, 
  The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes—some funny, some touching, some rueful—which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class. The actors change roles, personalities and ages with virtuoso skill as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids. Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a senile grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, etc. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
  
  

  2015: "A Piece of my Heart" by Shirley Lauro 
  This is a powerful, true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.

   

  2014: "The Voice of the Prairie"
  Prep Players will perform this one-act play for Jackson Prep on December 4, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. in the Fortenberry Theatre. They will travel to Mississippi State University the following day to perform in the North Mississippi Drama Festival.

  
  2013: "Crushed" by Don Zolidis
  Prep Players performed in the North Mississippi Drama Festival and received the Peer Award, Best Ensemble and Most Distinguished Play. Sam Boone was awarded Best Actor and Elizabeth Thiel made the All Star Cast. Pictured here are (back row, from left) Leslie Woods, Amy Woods, Sarah Adison Phillips, Nicole McCaa, Mary-Hailey Sinyard, Collin Hoffman, Sylvia Hartung, Solomon Keys, Elizabeth Thiel, Will Meadows. Second row, from left: Morgan Hydrick, Bradley Hydrick,Alex Goldstein, Brianne Powers, Alex WIlks, William Townsend. Front, from left: Director Kenneth McDade, Trey Box, Emily Graham, Kaitlyn Myers, Gracie Hubacek, Nathan Brown, Sam Boone, Daniel-Hayes Brister.

  
  2012: "A Delightful Quarantine"
  Jackson Prep's One Act was one of three schools advancing from Starkville's Mississippi Theater Association competition to the state-wide competition on the coast; Nathan Brown received the Best Actor Award, and Gracie Hubacek's received the All-Star Cast Award.

  
  2011: "Bells of Charlemont" by Don Zilidast
  In 2011, Prep took the play Bells of Charlemont by Don Zilidast to Mississippi State University for the North Mississippi Drama Festival. We won, Overall Theatrical Experience, Peer Award, Two AllStar Cast Awards and Best Supporting Actor.
  
  
  Contact
  Jessica Wilkinson, Drama Director
  jwilkinson@jacksonprep.net

• Spring Play

  Jackson Prep's Performing Arts Department presents an annual spring play.
  
  Spring 2019: Father of the Bride
  
  Spring 2018: Treasure Island
  
  Spring 2017: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
  
  Spring 2016: The Jungle Book
  
  Spring 2015: M*A*S*H
  
  

  Spring 2014: Charley's Aunt
  
  

  Spring 2013: You Can't Take It With You
  
  

  Spring 2012: Alice in Wonderland
  
   

  Contact
  Jessica Wilkinson, Director of Senior High Theatre
  jwilkinson@jacksonprep.net