We recently sat down with Mrs. Sherfy, the staff drama leader for Shell Knob School. We asked her what made this year different from other drama presentations.
This year was the first year of being in charge of drama. I really wanted it to be something that the kids would be proud to be apart of . I first picked five plays that would have an easy set and had around 15 actor/actresses.
I then had everyone who was interested, cast their vote on which play we would preform. Majority ruled. They chose “The Enchanted Bookshop.”
I had a student that didn't really want to be on stage but wanted to be apart of the program. She had leadership skills and is a really good student all around. So, I decided to make Hailey Walker director of the play. I passed messages, papers, and ideas off of her that she communicated with the drama club. She read lines with the students, kept students on track and when performance time came she fed the cast lines if there was a brain freeze.
For backstage, Easton Ross was lead prop maker. He kept everyone on track made sure things got done and stayed late for practice every single time to get our props done for the play.
I gave them all creative freedom to an extent. The cast looked through the costumes and picked out what they thought their character should look like with guidance.
We had challenges on who could remember their lines! Twenty dollars of Charger money was on the line. We had so many remember their lines we went into a rock, paper, scissors match for 3 winners.
We also had a student, Audrey Benson, work right along another teacher on the sound and light board. By the second practice of mic use and using the lights, she was basically controlling the whole show.
On our short practice days we played games that would help with acting, bonding, and getting comfortable with themselves and others that they would be working with. Charades, repeat after me; duck, duck, goose, and their favorite, the big parachute. These students took pride in what they were working on. I believe it showed in their performance and I am extremely proud and honored to have had this as a first year drama teacher.