Theater

List of 3 items.

• In the Classroom

  In class, seventh and eighth-grade students build on the foundation of acting they acquire during the Middle School Arts Program. Upper School students, in Theater Arts and Honors Theater Arts, read and discuss in their entirety at least six famous plays from world literature, as well as rehearse and perform scenes from the plays. In all theater arts classes, weekly scene study requires students to perform, critique, and be critiqued, while regular practice, workshops, and guest artists expose students to the principles of improvisational theater. Students build on and refine their acting technique by analyzing scenes from films and by sampling some of the excellent live theater in the area.

• Performance Opportunities

  Outside the classroom, theater students perform in the yearly musical, December and May scene studies, and the end-of-year Arts performance, which showcases dramatic, musical, and dance talent at Pacific Ridge School. Young thespians also compete in the ESU Shakespeare Festival, a nation-wide high school competition where students perform Shakespearean monologues and sonnets. Interested students from all grades are welcome to join the Drama club, whose work has culminated with performances in the Student Shakespeare Festival at Balboa Park. Pacific Ridge also participates in the Ben Vereen Awards for excellence in musical theater each year, and has twice been represented by our students at the National High School Musical Theater Awards in New York.

• Previous Productions

  Once on this Island, by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
  Peter Pan, Jr., Disney adapatation, J..M. Barrie
  The Wedding Singer, by Tim Herlihy 
  Little Mermaid, Jr., Disney production
  The Curious Savage, by John Patrick
  All Shook Up, by Joe DiPietro
  Zombie Prom, Jr., by John Dempsey, Dana P. Rowe
  School For Lies, by David Ives
  Pippin, by Stephen Schwartz, Bob Fosse, Roger O. Hirson
  Legally Blonde, Jr., original book by Amanda Brown
  Kiss Me Kate, by Samuel and Bella Spewack, Cole Porter
  Seussical, Jr., by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
  From Up Here, by Liz Flahive
  Into the Woods, by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim
  The Boy Friend, by Sandy Wilson
  Singing in the Rain, by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
  Guys and Dolls, by Jo Swerling, Abe Burrows, Frank Loesser
  Grease, by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
  Once Upon a Mattress, by Mary Rogers and Marshall Barer