The high school drama bulletin board is a way to keep students informed about upcoming plays, the historical context of a play being produced or to display creative work.
High school drama offers students the chance to learn about the human condition, literature within a historical context, and art history within the context of theatre, as well as giving students a chance to creatively express themselves. One of the integral parts of any high school drama program is the drama bulletin board, which serves as a method of communication between drama students and their instructors, an outlet for student creativity and a place to announce upcoming productions to the school at large.
Audition Information
The logical place to post an audition notice for a school play in on the drama bulletin board. Included in this should be a list with a break down of the characters, copies of the script, reviews of the show if it's been performed someplace else before and artwork related to the show. Additionally, there should be a sign up sheet for auditions as well as audition times, dates and locations. Once the show has been cast, the actors who received parts can be notified via the drama bulletin board as well.
Rehearsal Information
As the current play progresses, it's nice to keep the students and faculty of the school updated about the play's goings-on. This could include rehearsal photos, casting calls for rehearsal nights or volunteer sign-ups for set construction. This sort of information becomes especially important if the students involved in the productions are not students in the regular drama classes.
Reviews and Analysis of Plays Being Studied
An integral part of the learning process for students of drama is to read and study a variety of plays. One of the ways to make the lessons more interactive is to post reviews that have been published throughout the years about different productions of the show, but with different actors. If it's possible, photos of other actors playing the parts, an analysis of the play by several scholars and architectural sketches of the theatre (in the case of Shakespearean plays). Additionally, information about the historical context of the play is often helpful, because works of art are products of their times. It's an effective way to teach history to students who might not be interested otherwise.
Students' Creative Work
Part of the learning process for drama students besides reading plays and learning lines is to design the show. Plays need costumes, sets and props to be designed and made. This process begins with research about the historical period of the play (if it's not modern) and then is followed by some or all of the following: design sketches of the various costume, set or props to be drawn, set models to be constructed or masks to be designed and built. Design drawings with brief explanations can be posted on the bulletin board. For the three-dimensional work, photographs paired with an explanation of what the piece of work is can be pinned up on the board.
