It's been awhile....

Hi Beaumont Families,

It's been a bit since I've posted. There are so many amazing things going on here and I want to make sure to include them all! We've officially chosen our cast for The Reindeer Whisperer. 2nd and 3rd grade classes continue to work on the music for our performance. We also will be reading a spooky reader's theatre play and talking about our voices, and how they convey the character, in the upcoming weeks.

4th and 5th grade have been working on a pretty intense project - designing a treasure map, brainstorming a storyline to go with it, and finally (this week), designing a storyboard to show the plot of their story. I will post pics as soon as they're completed! We've also had time for a little fun, learning to use our bodies to tell a story. Check out the pics - hard at work, then hard at play

In K and 1st, we've been comparing and contrasting movies and musicals using The Lion King. Check out what we've watched below:

The Reindeer Whisperer

Letters and permission slips for the after school auditions were sent home yesterday to select students who have demonstrated excellent behavior, work ethic, and performance ability during theatre class since the beginning of the school year. The permission slips are due back no later than Monday, September 19th. The auditions will take place on Thursday, September 22nd from 3 to 4:30pm. On Friday, the students will be notified of our final selections for the cast.

If your student wasn't chosen to audition, we'd still love for them to be in the show as a member of the chorus. The time commitment isn't as large but we would still expect them to come to exhibit night on Nov. 17th and to the full performance on Friday, Dec. 2nd. I will be sending more info. home about the chorus after auditions are completed next week. Please don't hesitate to e-mail me with any questions you have!

The Reindeer Whisperer - 2nd and 3rd grade

We are doing an "in class" audition for our holiday musical, The Reindeer Whisperer, this week. I will be sending home invitations for students who have demonstrated great work ethic, behavior, and a commitment to learning in my classroom, to come after school and go through a formal audition process. Those invitations will go home next Wednesday, Sept. 14th. 

The audition and all practices will take place on Thursdays only. The students will be performing a vignette on exhibit night (Nov. 17th) and performing the whole show on Dec. 1st (and possibly Dec. 2nd if we have enough interest). Once the show is over, 2nd and 3rd will be finished with after school rehearsals for the year, for my class. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at amanda.taylor2@knoxschools.org

September Thespian of the Month - Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald

Check out Audra's personal website here - http://www.audramcdonald.net

Writing a Review - Week 3

This week in theatre we're finishing watching "Annie, Jr." in grades 2 through 5 and the students are writing a review or critique of the performance. These reviews are important, as they allow me to showcase each student's growth over the year. This first one is a benchmark, to show where they were with their knowledge at the beginning of the year. We will learn more about them and work on them over the course of the year and complete more as the year goes on!

The first grade students watched a clip of "Step in Time" from Broadway's "Mary Poppins" and focused their performance reviews on the characters of "Mary" and "Burt." Please watch the video below! It's a great moment!!!

Our K classes talked about what it is to be a good audience, and then practiced those skills while watching the "Matilda, the musical" performance from the Tony awards. It can also be found on youtube!