Advanced Theater Arts Students Present 'A Mad Breakfast'
On February 7, Grade 9 students in the yearlong Advanced Theater Arts course staged the classic one-act farce, A Mad Breakfast. Written in 1929 during the Vaudeville era by Isabel McReynolds Gray, the comedy takes place at a boarding house where two boarders - practical jokers - convince a wealthy visitor that the house is actually an asylum where the other guests, or "patients," each evidence unusual beliefs or obsessions.
Populated by characters such as a melancholy maid, a stenographer/actress, a faux spiritualist, a deluded painter, an incessant eater, and a querulous cook, the boarding house inevitably comes to seem much like the asylum it's purported to be, with the wealthy visitor - there to "study" the insane - eventually fearing for his safety and departing as hastily as possible.
Shore's Advanced Theater Arts course is a transformative year of creative investigation on the stage. A comprehensive, high school level course that stretches across three trimesters, it is a unique opportunity whose only prerequisite is a willingness to take creative risks and embrace collaboration.
"Over the year-long course," says instructor Sarah Carlin, "my students and I explore vocal and movement training to develop self-expression and confidence, and study specific acting techniques such as those of Stanislavsky, Meisner, Le Coq, and Spolin."
In the fall, the students presented monologues; in the spring, they will stage a one-act drama at the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild Middle School Drama Festival.
See the video and more photos of A Mad Breakfast below.
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Populated by characters such as a melancholy maid, a stenographer/actress, a faux spiritualist, a deluded painter, an incessant eater, and a querulous cook, the boarding house inevitably comes to seem much like the asylum it's purported to be, with the wealthy visitor - there to "study" the insane - eventually fearing for his safety and departing as hastily as possible.
Shore's Advanced Theater Arts course is a transformative year of creative investigation on the stage. A comprehensive, high school level course that stretches across three trimesters, it is a unique opportunity whose only prerequisite is a willingness to take creative risks and embrace collaboration.
"Over the year-long course," says instructor Sarah Carlin, "my students and I explore vocal and movement training to develop self-expression and confidence, and study specific acting techniques such as those of Stanislavsky, Meisner, Le Coq, and Spolin."
In the fall, the students presented monologues; in the spring, they will stage a one-act drama at the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild Middle School Drama Festival.
See the video and more photos of A Mad Breakfast below.
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An uneasy smile from the wealthy visitor
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The dramatic stenographer
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A deceptive boarder with the maid
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The proprietor
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The artist
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The touchy chef
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The glutton has the final word.
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Shore Country Day School’s mission is to provide an education that inspires a love of learning and encourages children to embrace academic challenge. We seek to build character, cultivate creativity, and value diversity as we help our children become healthy, compassionate citizens of the world.
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