Theater Courses

Theater

From classic dramas to contemporary musicals, the Abbey Players provide ambitious students with an exciting outlet for creative expression through three productions each year. Working on either side of the curtain, students learn about the immediate but indelible nature of this most collaborative of the arts.

The Tempest

DRAMA WORKSHOP
With a playful, hands-on approach, this class introduces students to all aspects of theater, including acting, directing, and playwriting. Participants engage in many performance-based activities, including improvisation and mask work, as well as rehearsing and performing monologues and scenes from classical and contemporary plays. Through physical and vocal warm-ups, the students develop a technique for performing, one that will serve them in all public speaking situations. The class also sheds light on the rich and varied history of theater from around the world. Students read plays, research periods of drama, and create presentations that connect the past to the present. Each term, the class attends a live performance at a professional theater in Rhode Island, with artists often vising the class afterwards to share their experiences. Overall, students learn about the vital role that theater can play in our communities.    

DANCE
The Abbey dance program combines the basic goals of both the athletic and performing arts programs: to increase the strength, flexibility and coordination of the student, to refine social interaction, and to cultivate the capacity for presence and aesthetic sensibility. Dance is offered as part of our co-curricular activities in the spring. This program explores modern dance, ballet, tap, jazz, and student choreography, along with strength and flexibility training such as Yoga, Pilates, and Zumba. The program culminates in a performance for the Abbey community at the end of the term. Students also have an opportunity to dance in the winter term by participating in the musical.