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Drama Students Embrace Creativity at Senior Drama Night - June 10, 2011
On Tuesday, May 24, Linden's senior drama students riveted the Senior Drama Night audience with variety of solo and ensemble performances.
Our grade 9 students presented monologues they wrote themselves. Our grade 10 students shared a one-act play they developed through improvisation, in addition to a monologue. The senior drama class interpreted several scenes from the plays of George Bernard Shaw, including Getting Married and You Never Can Tell.
To see photos from the evening, check out the Picasa album below:
Acting Out in French - May 3, 2011
On Thursday, April 28, our senior French students shared their language skills with friends and family at our annual Senior French Drama Night.
French students in grades 9-12 prepared and presented a series of short plays and skits for the Drama Night. Here are the performances our audience enjoyed that evening:
- The grade 9 students presented excerpts from Au revoir les enfants, an autobiographical story by renowned filmmaker Louis Malle. In his film, Louis Malle recounts his own experience in a Catholic boarding school where several Jewish children were hidden from the Gestapo.
- Grade 10 students drew their inspiration from La Fontaine's fable La Grenouille qui se voulait faire aussi grosse que le Bœuf, a story about envy gone wrong. The girls worked in pairs to write short skits based on this tale.
- Our grade 11 students adapted portions of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel about the revolution in Iran, and her childhood during those difficult times.
- Grade 12 students have been immersed in Molière in the second term, and they presented excerpts from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Le Malade imaginaire.
To see photos of the girls' performances, check out our Picasa web album:
Drama Clubs Astound Audience with Anne - April 20, 2011
On Friday, April 15, Linden's Junior and Senior Drama Clubs took the stage to perform Anne of Green Gables: The Musical.
The clubs have been working on this show, based on the beloved book by L.M. Montgomery, for several months. On April 15, their efforts were rewarded with a polished production that had the audience riveted from start to finish.
This was the second time the Junior and Senior Drama Clubs collaborated to mount a full-length production. Last year, they put on a very successful performance of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Both productions were a great opportunity for our youngest actors to work with our oldest ones, sharing the experience of preparing for, and performing, a big show.
Click on the picture below to see photos!
Animals, Fables, and Runaway Noses - March 9, 2011
Students in grades 6-8 took the stage en français on March 9 for our annual Junior French Drama Night.
The grade 6 class kicked off the evening with le procès des humains, a play by Canadian author Ginette Proulx-Weaver. Though it may not sound it from the subject matter, this play is a comedy in which several animals, having arrived at the gates of paradise, recount the trials and tribulations they endured on earth.
Next, our grade 7 students performed three fables by French author Jean de La Fontaine. Each group wrote and performed two skits: one representing the original fable, and one showing a modernized version of that fable. Fables included Le lion et le rat, Le corbeau et le renard, and La cigale et la fourmi.
The evening wrapped up with performances by our two grade 8 classes. Our first class chose to perform the popular story of Ferdinand le taureau (the bull). In this play, Ferdinand prefers smelling flowers to fighting, and sits in the bull ring ignoring the matador and spectators. Then, the second class presented Le Nez, adapted from a novella by Nikolaï Gogol. In this shortened version, a barber finds a nose in his muffin one morning; on the same morning, a professor wakes to find that his is missing!
Check out our Picasa web album for more photos of this great evening:
Chilestalks and Rainbows at Junior Drama Night - February 24, 2011
On Tuesday, February 15, Linden's grade 5 and 6 students treated their teachers, family and friends to two wonderful, and funny, short plays.
Our grade 5 class took the stage first to perform "Jackie and the Chilestalk", a sequel to the famous "Jack and the Beanstalk". The main character, Jackie, finds and climbs a chile stalk growing from some magical peppers. When she meets the giant who lives at the top, she finds that he is quite misunderstood - and that Jack may not be as innocent as everyone thinks.
Then, the grade 6 class performed "The End of the Rainbow", an original play about two down-on-their-luck robbers looking for the pot of gold rumoured to be in this magical place. However, some unexpected visitors prevent them from conducting their search and making off with the loot.
The young actors displayed poise, enthusiasm and great comedic timing throughout the two plays, and the audience thoroughly enjoyed sharing the evening with them.
Shakespeare with Grade 7 Flair - February 23, 2011
 Our grade 7 class took the stage on Wednesday, February 9, to perform their rendition of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
It's a tradition for grade 7 students at Linden to perform Dream, and each class brings their own unique perspective to the play and its characters. The result is always a treat to watch, and this year was no different. The actors brought feeling, underestanding and humour to their roles, bringing the play to life for the audience.
Check out the slide show below to see photos of the grade 7 class onstage. (Click on any photo to be taken to the web album.)
Grade 8 Students Share Unique Take on Romeo and Juliet - December 10, 2010
Linden's grade 8 class took the stage on Thursday, November 25, to perform their own modernization of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
If Romeo and Juliet were living in today's world, what might their star-crossed love story have looked like? This was the question put to our grade 8 students by their English teachers, Lindsay and Ruthie. The girls worked for several weeks to write and stage their production, collaborating in small groups to bring each scene to life. The result was a unique and engaging spin on a classic tale that, even hundreds of years later, still managed to surprise.
Take a look at our Picasa Web Album to see photos of the performance:
Making a Scene: Senior Drama Night - May
21, 2010
Linden drama students in grades 9-12 took
the stage on Thursday, May 20, for a wonderful and diverse
Senior Drama Night.
Work written and workshopped by the students
themselves featured prominently in the evening's performances.
Grade 9 students presented monologues that they scripted based
on topics that interested them, while grade 10 students performed
one-act plays that they wrote and edited with the help of
playwright Carol Cece Anderson. Students in grades 11 and
12 performed excerpts from three well-known plays by the prolific
Tennessee Williams: Sweet Bird of Youth, The Glass Menagerie
and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
The evening's performances ran the gamut
from humorous to heart-wrenching, and each was a testament
to the hard work of our senior drama students and their teacher,
Jenn, throughout the second half of this year.
Linden Drama Flies High in Peter Pan
- April 23, 2010
On Wednesday, April 21, Linden’s junior
and senior Drama Clubs came together to put on a wonderful
production of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale, Peter Pan.
The girls began working on the play back
in September, and they all put in hours of rehearsal time
and set design leading up to Wednesday’s performance.
Jenn, Linden’s senior drama and Latin teacher, directed
the production and oversaw the senior Drama Club, while grade
11 student Alannah (who also played the character of Hook
in the production) ran the junior Club. In the spirit of Linden,
the junior and senior Clubs shared ideas, experiences and
feedback with each other throughout the last several months;
each girl supported her fellow actors as they learned lines,
practised scenes and hunted for costumes and props.
The result of their hard work was outstanding.
Strong performances from all of the girls (and a few teachers,
moonlighting as pirates) brought Barrie’s tale to life,
earning hearty laughs and heartfelt tears for the audience.
Although the play is called Peter Pan,
another appropriate name for it might be The Story of Wendy
– for as much as it is about Peter’s life in the
Neverland, it is also about Wendy’s journey into womanhood.
Though Wendy is just as bold and adventurous at Peter Pan,
her compassion and sense of responsibility completely oppose
Peter’s reckless abandon. Though she at first embraces
her role as the “mother” of Peter and the Lost Boys,
she soon realizes that she, her brothers and the boys cannot
hide from the real world – and the hard, yet necessary,
lessons it teaches - forever. Ultimately, though Peter rescues
Wendy from the pirates, it is Wendy who rescues John, Michael
and the Lost Boys from Neverland. Wednesday’s performance
highlighted Wendy’s strength, leadership and nurturing
spirit, emphasizing the developing ideas of women’s roles
at the turn of the 20th century.
Wherefore art thou Romeo? - December
3, 2009
On Thursday, November 26, Linden's grade
8 class took the stage to perform one of Shakespeare's best-known
tragedies, Romeo and Juliet.
After studying the play extensively in class,
the girls worked on bringing the work to life through a dramatic
production. As a team, the grade 8 class constructed a set,
put together costumes and choreographed fight scenes; they
also put many hours into rehearsing and honing their performances.
The result of their hard work was a wonderful evening of drama
- and an even deeper understanding of the play for all of
the girls.
Congratulations to the class and to their
teacher, Lindsay, for a stellar effort, and thank you to all
of the families who came out to support the girls.
Student playwrights in the spotlight at
Senior Drama Night- November 30, 2009
November 18's Senior Drama Night provided
an opportunity for drama students in grades 9-12 to share
both their acting skills and their writing prowess with the
Linden community, as the evening focused on productions penned
by the girls themselves.
Grade 9 drama students used their knowledge
of movement to put together plays where actions - and only
actions - tell the story. Each group selected a piece of music
as the basis for their play, using the mood and tempo of the
piece to develop a story to match. Drama students in grades
11 and 12 added dialogue into the mix, presenting plays written
as part of drama class.
Grade 10 drama students added further variety
to the evening by presenting an excerpt from Death and
the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka, a play based
on an incident that occurred in Nigeria during British colonial
rule. Over the course of the play, British authorities prevent
the ritual suicide of the Horseman of an important chief,
overturning turning and throwing the surrounding community
into chaos.
Congratulations to the girls, and to drama
teacher Jenn, for creating an evening thoroughly enjoyed by
all!
A talking yam and a picky princess: Primary
Drama Night - June 5, 2009
The family and friends of students in grades
1-4 were treated to two hilarious plays and a series of monologues
at Linden's Primary Drama Night, held on Wednesday, June 3.
The grade 1/2 class started the evening
off with their monologues, which focused on their wishes for
a better world; for example, "I wish that everyone in
the world had enough food to eat." They then performed
a play adapted from an African legend entitled Talk, Talk,
in which a farmer, after hearing protests from the yam
he is trying to dig up, discovers that other objects and animals
around him can speak, too. He goes to the people in his village
for help - but they are surprised to find that the same thing
is happening to them!
The grade 3/4 class then took the stage,
beginning their performance with monologues about Mother Earth
they wrote themselves. They concluded the evening by bringing
to life James Thurber's story Many Moons, in which
a young princess takes ill and claims she will only be made
well if her parents agree to pluck the moon from the sky and
present it to her as a gift. The king and queen call on all
of their wisest subjects to devise a plan to get the moon
- but ultimately, only the royal fool can see a solution.
Congratulations to the grade 1/2 and grade
3/4 students for their wonderful performances, and to Lindsay,
Tonja and Christine for their work in putting together this
entertaining evening.
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