39^th Annual Boise State University Invitational High School Theatre Festival
Thursday and Friday, April 10 and 11, 2008
 

This year promises yet another exciting and event-filled festival that will feature more numerous and varied workshops, presentations, and workshop teachers. We will also be encouraging and requesting more workshops to be held by you, the high school drama teachers and coaches, for each other. Our wish this year is to continue to expand the number of creative and constructive events for teachers.

This year’s registration cost for each student will be $25.00. All faculty members attend the festival free of charge. To register, please complete the registration form. The reservation deadline is Friday, February 22, 2008.

Our festival coordinator this year will be Valerie Baugh-Schlossberg, a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program. Valerie is very interested in knowing if any of you would like to conduct specific workshops. She can be reached at (208) 426-4618.

We will keep the same schedule as last year, meaning 50-minute workshops throughout the day, although we may combine time-slots for longer events. As we begin organizing the festival, we would love to hear from you about any ideas you might have. We are also taking submissions for One Act Trunk plays. All props and set dressing should fit inside a travel trunk. If you have further questions regarding these requirements, please contact Valerie with your questions. We will be contacting you again later this fall with updates.

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES FOR IDAHO HIGH SCHOOLS

TWO ROOMS by Lee Blessing

The Boise State Department of Theatre Arts will offer two performances of this powerful play for our High School Fest participants: Thursday evening, April 10, at 7:30pm and Friday, April 11 at 10:00am, in Stage II of the Morrison Center. Tickets will be allotted on a first-come-first-served-basis, so send us your reservation forms as soon as possible.

Two Rooms is a powerful contemporary story from one of our finest playwrights. Michael, an American professor, has been taken hostage in Beirut. Back in the States, his wife Lanie awaits word of his fate. Michael is being held and tortured in a small room by Shi’ite Muslims. Lanie imposes her own form of self-inflicted torture in a second room, stripped of furnishings, that was once Michael’s den. Two Rooms is playwright Lee Blessing’s tale of one man’s captivity and the roller-coaster ride of hope and frustration his wife endures half a world away.

Festival Registration Form

Last Year's Workshop Schedule

Possible Workshop Topics 

When you get to the Festival, a list of available workshops and times. Your students will then be able to choose the workshops they want to attend.

Below is a list of past Festival Workshops to give teachers and students an idea of what type of workshops they might encounter during the festival. Please note that this is not a list of workshops that will be presented at this year’s festival but a compiled list of workshops from past festivals.

This list will help give everyone an idea of what to expect.

Mambo Madness- Let go of your inhibitions and learn the mambo with the Mambo Queen Marla Hansen. This workshop is an annual high school festival tradition that gets you groovin’ and movin’ to the Mambo.

Wacky World of Wombats (and other creatures) - What would a wombat sound like? How about a tea-sipping wolf? Learn how you can sound like a whole different person (or animal) by changing your voice in an endless variety of ways.

So you want to do a stage dialect? -  This workshop will introduce a step-by-step process for learning any stage dialect. Participants will listen to samples of dialects, learn the sound changes, resonance, and helpful hints on how to practice and perform in dialect. We will be learning two dialects.

Acting Shakespeare - Learn how to play detective with Shakespeare’s text in order to find clues the Bard has left behind to help actors. Unmask the secrets of the Bard with Gordon Reinhart, a veteran director of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.

A Sense of Direction- This workshop is designed to help student directors prepare their actors for a scene. Students will work with preparation exercises to explore the world of the director.

Total Body and Vocal Warm-up- Realize the full potential of your body and voice through exercises and warm-ups meant to unlock the power of your voice. In addition to warm-ups, learn new articulation and projection exercises so you can be your best onstage.

Vocal Liberation- An overview of stretches and vocal warm-ups for the performer. Learn how connecting the breath with the body frees the voice and unleashes the full use of your voice.

Relate, Locate, Prepare- Uncover the three principal foundations needed to create a scene: relationship, location, and preparation.

An Educator’s Guide to Play Production - Educators forum and discussion concerning Play Production and the “how to’s” of producing a play; everything from budgets, play selection, organization, basic design and construction, casting, rehearsing and much more. This workshop is for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed during the production process.

Acting Options: Avoid a Future Life of Poverty- Get the hard facts on what the “real world” of acting has to offer; discover the job market in different cities, what types of jobs are available, and alternatives in the business that pay your bills. An inside look into what every aspiring professional should know.

The Art of Hip-Hop- This exciting dance workshop explores hip- hop techniques including muscle isolation, proper stretching techniques, and dance hall. Learn several short choreographed pieces and let loose.

The Wright Stuff- Learn to write plays! Impress your friends! Gain fame and fortune.  Get playwriting tips from experienced writers. Please Note that success, fame and fortune may not actually occur.

Get Out of Your Head! - Express yourself with your entire body. Explore how body awareness, rhythm, dance and movement can take you to the next level of performance. No dance experience required.

Acting Objectives- Use the tools that make every performer look like a professional by playing with relationship, location and objective.

Monologue Preparation- We don’t always have the opportunity to work with directors…Learn the secrets to monologue preparation when you’re going solo. Learn how the “moment before” can charge any monologue or scene. This is a fun, on your feet improv based workshop

Design Metamorphosis- Let your creative energy flow- learn how music can help formulate and shape any design- scenic, lighting, and costumes alike.

Preparing to Direct- Everything you need to know about preparing yourself to direct a production. Learn the steps necessary in pre-production to bring any script to life.

 How to Survive Anything: Stage Management- So, your lead actor just broke the telephone onstage that has to ring for another two acts, what to you do? Have no fear; super stage manager is here! Learn how to prepare yourself for any situation, even the worst case scenario.

As the schedule is confirmed, we will be updating the registered schools via e-mail.  That will at least give teachers and students a general heads up on workshops availability and schedule.