Lion King
Ryan Scoble
When you
walk into a class and the instructor says that you and 18 other graduate
students are going to direct and choreograph a production of The Lion King, Jr.,
it seems like a rather impossible task. Yet, in Fundamentals of Teaching
Theatre that is actually the goal. Our class has spent the past eight weeks
working diligently with the students at PS 161 to put on this production.
We began the process by working
together in class at City College. We had six weeks to do all the necessary
prep-work before we went into the school for auditions. The time we spent in
the classroom was extremely valuable. We learned how to properly structure and
scaffold our lesson plans, work on character development and ensemble building
with the students, and set up and run an effective audition process.
It was an exciting day when we moved
from classwork into auditions with the students of PS 161! All the graduate
students were a bit nervous and unsure of what to expect. However, the students
were absolutely wonderful! We spent the
next seven weeks blocking and choreographing the show. Each graduate student
was given a scene or song to direct and forty-five minutes to accomplish this
task. After the work we did in class and watching the other graduate students
facilitate their lessons, I felt extremely prepared to direct my scene. My
forty-five minute session came the day before Thanksgiving break, so the
students of PS 161 were a bit rowdy and unfocused. However, thanks to a well-structured
lesson plan, I was able to get them to focus, and we quickly made our way
through the scene. I was so proud of how well they listened and how much we got
accomplished in our short time together.
Once all the graduate students
were done directing their scenes, we moved into tech week. Through our
partnership with the Fundamentals of Technical Theatre class, we all were
assigned to different stage crews. It was a great experience to get a hands-on
approach to all of the different elements of technical theatre. For instance, I
worked on props, make-up, and wrangling the Hyenas backstage.
When you have a show where every
scene is directed by a different graduate student, you would think the show might
be a bit disjointed. However, through the hard work of every member involved,
the show came together beautifully! The students sang confidently, danced well,
and were fully committed to their characters and telling the story. I was so
proud of all of the students who performed, as well as all of the work my
fellow graduate students. My biggest shout out though has to go to our
wonderful instructor, Jennifer Katona. She managed a near-impossible task with
such patience and expertise. With her guidance and the hard work of all of the
Educational Theatre graduate students, the Lion King, Jr. was an incredible
experience I will never forget!
