Matt
Walker and Galatee Cabanne practice their “reader’s theater” script.
Jasper James
St. Andrews International School, Green Valley hosted its
first-ever, annual St. Andrews Student Spotlight (SASS) Drama Festival on
Saturday, March 19. The SASS Drama Festival was created to heighten
awareness and interest in theater education and to highlight student
excellence in this curricular area.
Students make “newspaper costumes” and act out!
SASS event founder and chair, Christopher Parsons further
explains, “Participation in this event allows students and teachers to
utilize their talents and challenge themselves to integrate the performing
arts into a hands-on learning experience that will stimulate imaginations
and encourage the skillful art of risk-taking.”
Two Primary Schools took place in this year’s festival:
St. Andrews International School, Green Valley and Garden International
School. The aim of the event was to start off small and expand each year as
the festival gains momentum.
Mr. Parsons once again explains, “We wanted to use this
year as a stepping off point. Starting out small has allowed us to see what
works and what needs to be improved. For next year’s festival, we already
have 6 schools (from both Bangkok and Pattaya areas) that have expressed
interest in participating and anticipate that others will soon follow. We
hope this will grow into a nationwide celebration of performing arts
education.”
Students
create characters with the aid of creative costuming.
The daylong event consisted of two main parts: drama
workshops and a drama competition. Workshop topics covered many aspects of
the stage, such as character development, set design, costuming, voice
projection/annunciation, reader’s theater, musical theater and voice
training.
Each school was responsible for creating and rehearsing a
short play (15-45 minutes in length) and were judged on various different
criteria including (but not limited to) direction, creativity, set design,
sound effects, lighting, vocal prowess and character development.
Some
students learn the fine art of set design.
In the end, St. Andrews School, Green Valley took home
the honors winning the much-coveted first place trophy with their production
entitled “The Dragon’s Den.”
The concept behind this festival is noteworthy - it
allows students and teachers to utilize their talents and challenge
themselves to integrate the performing arts into a hands-on learning
experience that will stimulate imaginations and encourage the skillful art
of risk-taking. Bravo SASS Drama Festival!
The
official 2011 SASS T-shirt design!
Official
SASS Banner.
