Learning in the theatre is very much experiential in nature. The educational value a student derives from a theatre program is clearly dependent on the level of their involvement. A student must be present and active in the theatrical process to gain the greatest value from it.
Firestone Theatre’s educational philosophy recommends that the student be actively involved in the ongoing production of live theatre in the school. The student is expected to actively participate either onstage or off in two or more theatre productions each year. We rely on our students to populate the casts and crews of our own productions. The student’s artistic and intellectual growth is directly proportional to the level of his or her involvement in our activities. All theatre students are strongly encouraged to pursue the highest level of participation possible.
As a collaborative art form, theatre is dependent on a large contingent of students with a wide variety of skills and experiences. We recognize that the best theatre artist is one that possesses a life outside of the theatre and encourage students to also follow their non-theatrical passions. We likewise recognize the contributions of others and welcome students from outside the arts program and from other arts areas to participate in our activities. The student may choose to pursue excellent theatre experiences outside of school. This activity, while encouraged, should not impinge the student’s ability to participate in Firestone Theatre activities. Students must find ways to balance their commitment to Firestone Theatre with their other theatrical pursuits.
Firestone Theatre’s educational philosophy encourages students to pursue a variety of school activities whether they are artistic, academic, athletic or otherwise. We recognize the educational benefits of additional school activities and respect the discipline and work ethic each develops in the student. We do not encourage theatre activity at the exclusion of all other activities and expect the same from others. Firestone Theatre firmly believes that no student activity should discourage a student from participation in any or all other school activities.
Firestone Theatre recognizes that the student artist is a student first and therefore must maintain a good academic standing. District and school rules related to extra-curricular eligibility are strictly enforced.
maz
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
We Sound Better Thanks to the Kindness of Others
We recently replaced our wireless microphones thanks to several especially kind donations and we already sound better. Due to a recent decision by FCC we had to make plans for ceasing use of the microphones we already owned. Buying new seemed like the best option but we were going to need help.
We are now proud owners of ten (10) new Audio-Technica wireless microphones thanks mostly to these generous organizations: Friends of Firestone (the FHS Alumni Association), FHS Student Council, FHS Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA), and Firestone Choral Dance Theatre Association (FCDTA). Without these kind folks we would likely still be struggling to come up with the money to replace our outdated and soon to be un-usable sound equipment.
We purchased our original wireless microphones about 10 years ago and have been nursing them along for at least a couple of years. Before that we consistently rented or borrowed microphones for our productions. It was always a pain and we decided at that time that it would be better to purchase our own . . . besides, Audio-Technica (located in nearby Stow) told us that we couldn't borrow microphones from them any longer because they were discontinuing their loaning program. So we bought ten units at a fair price and have used them consistently in the time since. Those first mics served us well and it was always an advantage to have microphones of our own to use whenever we needed them.
More recently the FCC auctioned off the frequencies on which our microphones operated and we were made aware that we would have to dicontinue using our system by June 1, 2010. We were not alone as all schools, churches, and theatres that use mics for non-commercial purposes in the 700 mhz band would also be forced to stop or potentially face serious fines or at least significant interference from the commercial use of the frequencies.
I have heard that some organizations have decided to ride out the storm . . . waiting to see if some last-minute reprieve will be offered to schools or other non-profit organizations. We instead took action; we asked several organizations to match our financial efforts to replace our wireless system so that we would be compliant with the new FCC regulation. Not one request was denied and we were able to raise the necessary funds in fairly straight order.
Thanks to the generosity and support of the above organizations we have completely replaced our old and tattered wireless microphones and were even able to integrate some of the new equipment into our recent production of SWEENEY TODD. I am happy to say that the new equipment is a large step forward in quality. The new microphones sound great and provide a more consistent and warmer signal from our singers. These new microphones should also be cheaper to operate because they use AA batteries instead of the 9-volt batteries the old system required.
We now turn our attention to our failing sound board.
maz
We are now proud owners of ten (10) new Audio-Technica wireless microphones thanks mostly to these generous organizations: Friends of Firestone (the FHS Alumni Association), FHS Student Council, FHS Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA), and Firestone Choral Dance Theatre Association (FCDTA). Without these kind folks we would likely still be struggling to come up with the money to replace our outdated and soon to be un-usable sound equipment.
We purchased our original wireless microphones about 10 years ago and have been nursing them along for at least a couple of years. Before that we consistently rented or borrowed microphones for our productions. It was always a pain and we decided at that time that it would be better to purchase our own . . . besides, Audio-Technica (located in nearby Stow) told us that we couldn't borrow microphones from them any longer because they were discontinuing their loaning program. So we bought ten units at a fair price and have used them consistently in the time since. Those first mics served us well and it was always an advantage to have microphones of our own to use whenever we needed them.
More recently the FCC auctioned off the frequencies on which our microphones operated and we were made aware that we would have to dicontinue using our system by June 1, 2010. We were not alone as all schools, churches, and theatres that use mics for non-commercial purposes in the 700 mhz band would also be forced to stop or potentially face serious fines or at least significant interference from the commercial use of the frequencies.
I have heard that some organizations have decided to ride out the storm . . . waiting to see if some last-minute reprieve will be offered to schools or other non-profit organizations. We instead took action; we asked several organizations to match our financial efforts to replace our wireless system so that we would be compliant with the new FCC regulation. Not one request was denied and we were able to raise the necessary funds in fairly straight order.
Thanks to the generosity and support of the above organizations we have completely replaced our old and tattered wireless microphones and were even able to integrate some of the new equipment into our recent production of SWEENEY TODD. I am happy to say that the new equipment is a large step forward in quality. The new microphones sound great and provide a more consistent and warmer signal from our singers. These new microphones should also be cheaper to operate because they use AA batteries instead of the 9-volt batteries the old system required.
We now turn our attention to our failing sound board.
maz
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Theatre Matters
FROM LAWEEKLY.com
By Steven Leigh Morris
Thursday, Mar 25 2010
This past January, a press release arrived at the Weekly offices that caught my interest because it publicized a play written by my former UCLA professor Theodore Apstein. Before coming to UCLA, Mr. Apstein taught playwriting at Columbia University. For 27 years after that, until he died in 1998, he taught the craft at the Westwood campus. Despite an accomplished writing career in television and film, he never taught screenwriting.
I remember how Apstein spoke with affection for the theater, and of the various conundrums involved in having his plays put on in New York. His last play, which remains unproduced, was an autobiographical work named Leaving Kiev. This was the play discussed in the aforementioned press release:
"Theodore Apstein's career extends all the way back to the early days of television, writing for the dramatic series The General Electric Theater, The Alcoa Hour, Mystery Theater, Studio One and Hallmark Hall of Fame. He wrote for such television dramas as The Untouchables, Ben Casey, The F.B.I., The Virginian, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Waltons, Kung Fu and Another World, among others."
Next comes the sentence that stands out for me: "He also wrote some on- and off-Broadway plays."
That's it. Theater. Broadway theater! He also wrote some ... plays. Might those plays have a title?
If only this were some West Coast aberration, but in fact it's indicative of a far more pervasive, waning regard for theater in our culture.
For the record, Mr. Apstein wrote a play called The Innkeepers, which was produced on Broadway in 1956, directed by Jose Quintero, the L.A. City College– and USC-educated stage director from Panama, who went on to become one of the most celebrated directors of Broadway and off-Broadway plays in the American theater. Another of Apstein's plays, Come Share My House, was produced off-Broadway in 1960. But the larger point is the divide between the commonly held low regard for theater and its actual relevance — far greater than most are willing to acknowledge. From that chasm emerge the questions of why do theater at all, in these times, and what makes a good producer. After all, producers need a good reason, an incentive to keep producing plays. Because if they stop, we'll all be less than zero for it, culturally speaking. None of this can be addressed until we recognize the point of live theater, in this tiny corner of history, and in an even tinier backwater of recognized theatrical activity called Los Angeles.
The National Endowment for the Arts recently reported that arts attendance in the United States has hit new lows, with 34 percent attending an arts event once a week, down from 39 percent in 2002. (However, the report also noted a spike in audiences procuring their arts fix through the Internet.)
Add to this the emblematic proposal by the Los Angeles Unified School District to eliminate all elementary school arts teachers by the end of 2012, when statistics show a clear pattern of arts attendance established in those formative years.
This apathy toward the arts, and toward artists, is nothing new in America, but with text-messaging, tweeting, cell-photo–taking and social-networking technologies all tied into the escalating global-corporate control of almost all our affairs — now including unlimited corporate spending in political campaigns under the guise of "free speech," thanks to our Supreme Court — we appear to be surfing on a slow-moving wave toward a kind of globally engineered beachhead. On this beachhead, the sort of independence of thought and language that gets expressed through the arts in general, and in great theater in particular, gets dashed on the rocks.
On this beachhead, there exists a system of economics and communications that, more than ever before, financially serves the few at the expense of the many, while the people who govern this beachhead complain about the "elitism" of the arts. On this beachhead, history is either forgotten, or rewritten, or reduced to a few slogans. Here, the kinds of belligerence and barbarism that have always been part of the fabric of American life are given freer and freer rein, while qualities of compassion and critical thought, which have also always been part of the fabric of American life, slowly wash out to sea. We need look no further than the health care debate to see the kinds of obstinacy and greed that now pass for debate. And so it was in ancient Greece, an empire similarly ensconced in domestic barbarism and military adventurism. Yet it was the theater that reformulated the debates of that era with humanity and intelligence, and put those qualities back into the air that we still breathe more than 2,000 years later.
Do the people who belittle the arts do so because they're too expensive, irrelevant, or because the arts have the capacity to say unpredictable and unpleasant things? This beachhead vaguely resembles the former Soviet Union. They simply took artists they didn't like and either shot them or exiled them to Siberia. We're not killing or dumping artists. We're trying to dump the arts themselves.
Read the entire piece here.
By Steven Leigh Morris
Thursday, Mar 25 2010
This past January, a press release arrived at the Weekly offices that caught my interest because it publicized a play written by my former UCLA professor Theodore Apstein. Before coming to UCLA, Mr. Apstein taught playwriting at Columbia University. For 27 years after that, until he died in 1998, he taught the craft at the Westwood campus. Despite an accomplished writing career in television and film, he never taught screenwriting.
I remember how Apstein spoke with affection for the theater, and of the various conundrums involved in having his plays put on in New York. His last play, which remains unproduced, was an autobiographical work named Leaving Kiev. This was the play discussed in the aforementioned press release:
"Theodore Apstein's career extends all the way back to the early days of television, writing for the dramatic series The General Electric Theater, The Alcoa Hour, Mystery Theater, Studio One and Hallmark Hall of Fame. He wrote for such television dramas as The Untouchables, Ben Casey, The F.B.I., The Virginian, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Waltons, Kung Fu and Another World, among others."
Next comes the sentence that stands out for me: "He also wrote some on- and off-Broadway plays."
That's it. Theater. Broadway theater! He also wrote some ... plays. Might those plays have a title?
If only this were some West Coast aberration, but in fact it's indicative of a far more pervasive, waning regard for theater in our culture.
For the record, Mr. Apstein wrote a play called The Innkeepers, which was produced on Broadway in 1956, directed by Jose Quintero, the L.A. City College– and USC-educated stage director from Panama, who went on to become one of the most celebrated directors of Broadway and off-Broadway plays in the American theater. Another of Apstein's plays, Come Share My House, was produced off-Broadway in 1960. But the larger point is the divide between the commonly held low regard for theater and its actual relevance — far greater than most are willing to acknowledge. From that chasm emerge the questions of why do theater at all, in these times, and what makes a good producer. After all, producers need a good reason, an incentive to keep producing plays. Because if they stop, we'll all be less than zero for it, culturally speaking. None of this can be addressed until we recognize the point of live theater, in this tiny corner of history, and in an even tinier backwater of recognized theatrical activity called Los Angeles.
The National Endowment for the Arts recently reported that arts attendance in the United States has hit new lows, with 34 percent attending an arts event once a week, down from 39 percent in 2002. (However, the report also noted a spike in audiences procuring their arts fix through the Internet.)
Add to this the emblematic proposal by the Los Angeles Unified School District to eliminate all elementary school arts teachers by the end of 2012, when statistics show a clear pattern of arts attendance established in those formative years.
This apathy toward the arts, and toward artists, is nothing new in America, but with text-messaging, tweeting, cell-photo–taking and social-networking technologies all tied into the escalating global-corporate control of almost all our affairs — now including unlimited corporate spending in political campaigns under the guise of "free speech," thanks to our Supreme Court — we appear to be surfing on a slow-moving wave toward a kind of globally engineered beachhead. On this beachhead, the sort of independence of thought and language that gets expressed through the arts in general, and in great theater in particular, gets dashed on the rocks.
On this beachhead, there exists a system of economics and communications that, more than ever before, financially serves the few at the expense of the many, while the people who govern this beachhead complain about the "elitism" of the arts. On this beachhead, history is either forgotten, or rewritten, or reduced to a few slogans. Here, the kinds of belligerence and barbarism that have always been part of the fabric of American life are given freer and freer rein, while qualities of compassion and critical thought, which have also always been part of the fabric of American life, slowly wash out to sea. We need look no further than the health care debate to see the kinds of obstinacy and greed that now pass for debate. And so it was in ancient Greece, an empire similarly ensconced in domestic barbarism and military adventurism. Yet it was the theater that reformulated the debates of that era with humanity and intelligence, and put those qualities back into the air that we still breathe more than 2,000 years later.
Do the people who belittle the arts do so because they're too expensive, irrelevant, or because the arts have the capacity to say unpredictable and unpleasant things? This beachhead vaguely resembles the former Soviet Union. They simply took artists they didn't like and either shot them or exiled them to Siberia. We're not killing or dumping artists. We're trying to dump the arts themselves.
Read the entire piece here.
Friday, April 2, 2010
New Name for Akron Arts Organization
The name changes but the mission stays the same. The organization once known as Friends of Firestone High School VPA is now officially known as Advocates for the Akron Visual and Performing Arts.
The Advocates for the Akron Visual and Performing Arts have raised money for a variety of purposes but has given special emphasis to the awarding of scholarships to selected visual and performing arts students who choose to continue their arts education in college. Eight students have been awarded $4000.00 in the last two years. The latest round of scholarships will be awarded at a recognition assembly to be held at the school on Monday, May 3, 2010.
The Advocates for the Akron Visual and Performing Arts is a 501(c)3, non-for-profit organization organized in 2007. It is dedicated to supporting and promoting the highest standards for arts education and providing the greater Akron community with opportunities to experience and enjoy the Akron Public School’s visual and performing arts programs housed at Firestone High School.
Additional money has also been raised to help pay for private lessons, master classes in all arts areas as well as other guest artists who have collaborated with students in all disciplines.
The name change was undertaken mostly to eliminate confusion with an already existing organization called Friends of Firestone, an FHS alumni association.
Support this organization by becoming a fan on Facebook.
The Advocates for the Akron Visual and Performing Arts have raised money for a variety of purposes but has given special emphasis to the awarding of scholarships to selected visual and performing arts students who choose to continue their arts education in college. Eight students have been awarded $4000.00 in the last two years. The latest round of scholarships will be awarded at a recognition assembly to be held at the school on Monday, May 3, 2010.
The Advocates for the Akron Visual and Performing Arts is a 501(c)3, non-for-profit organization organized in 2007. It is dedicated to supporting and promoting the highest standards for arts education and providing the greater Akron community with opportunities to experience and enjoy the Akron Public School’s visual and performing arts programs housed at Firestone High School.
Additional money has also been raised to help pay for private lessons, master classes in all arts areas as well as other guest artists who have collaborated with students in all disciplines.
The name change was undertaken mostly to eliminate confusion with an already existing organization called Friends of Firestone, an FHS alumni association.
Support this organization by becoming a fan on Facebook.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Fox Announces Open Casting Calls for TV show GLEE
from Fox.com:
Online Submissions Will Be Accepted Exclusively on MySpace
Glee's executive producers are holding a nationwide online casting search for fresh, young, talented performers to fill new roles that will be featured during the show's second season.
Beginning March 30-April 26, amateur and professional performers between the ages of 16 and 26 will have the opportunity to submit an audition video exclusively on MySpace at myspace.com/gleeauditions
Visit myspace.com/gleeauditions for more information, song list and additional rules.
And be sure to sign up for the GLEE newsletter to stay in-the-know on your favorite show.
Need help? Contact MySpace directly.
Online Submissions Will Be Accepted Exclusively on MySpace
Glee's executive producers are holding a nationwide online casting search for fresh, young, talented performers to fill new roles that will be featured during the show's second season.
Beginning March 30-April 26, amateur and professional performers between the ages of 16 and 26 will have the opportunity to submit an audition video exclusively on MySpace at myspace.com/gleeauditions
Visit myspace.com/gleeauditions for more information, song list and additional rules.
And be sure to sign up for the GLEE newsletter to stay in-the-know on your favorite show.
Need help? Contact MySpace directly.
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