Drama & Dance

The Upper School program offers both curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students to explore Drama. Through performing, students learn to use their voices and bodies expressively, to analyze and enliven a text, to think and create on their feet, to physicalize abstract ideas, and to present themselves confidently in front of an audience. Recent alumni have continued their performing in college, where their theatrical adventures have included acting, directing, designing, and stage-managing in productions as well as completing majors and minors in theater performance and production.

Two year-long acting electives are offered each year in the Upper School. Introduction to Acting is offered every year; advanced acting electives rotate so that students can take a four-year sequence with a different emphasis each year.

Extracurricular offerings include two major dama productions each year and an Instant Theater Festival.

The extracurricular Upper School drama program seeks to

• involve interested students in a variety of aspects of the drama;
• expose its audiences, actors, and technicians to a wide range of dramatic styles, periods, and playwrights;
• expand the range and develop the skills of its participants; and
• promote drama as an enjoyable and thought-provoking art form.

Productions

Two “mainstage” non-musical plays are produced in the Upper School each year, though some of the productions incorporate music and dance. In addition to performing, students build the sets, participate in design decisions, hang lights and configure audio equipment, and run the show during performances, with a student stage manager calling all of the cues. Rehearsals and tech sessions are held after school and on occasional weekends. Recent productions have included works ranging in style from Shakespeare to science fiction, with cast sizes ranging from ten to 25. Holley Hall’s flexible performance space provides the opportunity for stages customized to each production, including varied stage configurations and design styles.

Instant Theater Festival

Each May, starting in 2003, Rutgers Prep students have produced and organized an Instant Theater Festival (ITF). The ITF is a fast-paced adventure compressing the entire play production process into a little more than 24 hours. Student playwrights are assigned to write a script for a small group of student actors. After scripts are submitted one Saturday morning, directors and actors arrive to begin rehearsing. A team of students finds and makes props and costumes as others configure lighting and sound effects. That evening several world-premiere short plays, all related to the festival theme, are performed for an exhilarated audience.

Recent Achievements

Recent drama productions include “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Much Ado about Nothing,” and “Almost, Maine.” In 2015, Rutgers Prep produced a world-premiere adaptation of “The Two Princesses of Bamarre” by Gail Carson Levine, who attended a performance. Students from Rutgers Prep have performed in McCarter Theater’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” and as part of the Show Choir at Paper Mill Playhouse.

Faculty Professional Development Activities and Achievements

Department Chair Cora Turlish was a Directing Fellow in the 2014 Directing Workshop for Theater Educators at The Juilliard School. Her recent workshops include acting intensives with the Fiasco and Red Bull Theater Companies as well as “Making Theater without a Script” with Elevator Repair Service. She has also studied Improvisation with The Upright Citizens Brigade and Playwriting at Primary Stages.