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About Casa Grande Drama Department
Instructor: John Rustan, PhD
John Rustan has been the Drama Teacher at Casa Grande since 2008. Additionally he has taught Public Speaking, and is also teaching Digital Media. Mr. Rustan has a BA in Speech/Drama, an MA in Theatre Arts from Occidental College and a PhD in Theatre Arts from the University of Oregon. He has previously taught theatre at the University of Oregon, Gonzaga University, Napa Valley College, and Santa Rosa Junior College. He has acted on stage and done professional film, TV and voice-over work. He has directed plays at all levels of academic theatre. He also has a business, DialectsCoach.com, as a dialect coach for productions and actors.
PLAY PRODUCTION
In addition to the scene and monologue performance opportunities, Casa Grande produces main stage productions each Fall and Spring. These are fully produced plays in front of a paying audience. They rehearse in the afternoons after school, and there are usually six performances. In Addition we have added The 24-1/2 Hour Play Festival, a day of unbelievable theatrical creativity where plays are written, rehearsed, staged, tech'd and performed all in one 24-1/2 period. The list of shows produced since Mr. Rustan took over the Drama Department in 2008-2009 include:
You Can't Take It With You -- Spring 2009 All in the Timing -- Fall 2009 The Attempted Murder of Peggy Sweetwater and Murder Me Once -- Spring 2010 Our Town -- Fall 2010 A Midsummer Night's Dream -- Spring 2011 The Odd Couple and The Female Odd Couple -- Fall 2011 Almost Maine -- Spring 2012 Lord Arthur Saville's Crime -- Fall 2012 The Trojan Women -- Spring 2013 Twelve Angry Jurors -- Fall 2013 The Government Inspector -- Spring 2014 Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge -- Fall 2014 The Theory of Some Things (one-acts) -- Spring 2015 The Learned Ladies -- Fall 2015 Love Deconstructed (An Evening of Student-Written, Student-Directed One Act Plays) -- Spring 2016 24-1/2 Hour Play Festival - Spring 2016 The Fall Festival of One-Acts - Fall 2016. 24-1/2-Hour Play Festival - Fall 2016 Murder's in the Heir - Spring 2017 What Lies Ahead - Fall 2017 24-1/2-Hour Play Festival - Fall 2017 Twelfth Night - Spring 2018 7 Wonders (Student One-Acts) - Fall 2018 Black Comedy and 15 Min Hamlet - Spring 2019
DRAMA CLUB
The Drama Club is a student-governed organization sponsored by the Drama Department which allows students to meet outside of class hours (usually once a week in the Drama Room) to have fun socializing, creating scenes, monologues and improvisations for performance at the school, and for possible performance at high school theater festivals . The Drama Club is represented each year with its own Queen candidate and float in the Homecoming Parade. The club is an opportunity for creative involvement by students who have an interest in drama -- whether or not they can fit the Drama classes into their schedules. For those who have Drama classes in their schedule, it is an opportunity to do even more theatre, develop scenes for performance in other classes around campus, perform in new venues, and participate in the Homecoming parade.
Classes Offered
Beginning Acting Class: incorporates fun improvisation and games, exercises in vocal and physical acting technique, acting theory, auditioning, scene work, and dramatic structure. Along the way students are introduced to the various areas of design for theatre.
Intermediate/Advanced Acting Class: a combined class that explores advanced concepts of acting. It is a course that many people take two or three times. For this reason, an attempt is made to vary the content year to year, and match it to the types of productions being produced during the school year. The content of the class in a given year will include some of the following concepts:
Advanced Improvisation. Theory and development of improvisation skills using techniques of Keith Johnstone, and others.
Media Acting. Acting for the camera, voice-over, film.
Advanced scene work. Longer scenes of more depth.
Directing. Students directing other students in plays.
Dialects. The learning of various dialects often called for in acting (British, New York, Irish, etc.) and performing scenes using those dialects.
Playwriting. Learning how to structure plots and create characters for the stage.
Stage Combat. How to safely develop the illusion of violence called for in a script.
Advanced Concepts in Auditioning. Learning and practice in the U/RTA style audition format used by many college and universities who audition new applicants to their theatre programs.
Style acting. If we are doing a play that takes place in a different time period and style, we may work on style acting for part of the class.
IMPROVAPALOOZA !
Each Semester in all acting classes ends with Improvapalooza, a team improv match! Classes are divided into 4-6 teams, who work together and strategize how they will attack the various selected improv formats chosen for the occasion. Judges (who are roundly booed upon entrance - all in fun) are selected from the teams not currently in competition. Teams sometimes choose, sometimes are given a format and square off against each other and receive numerical scoring (like the Olympics!) on their work. It is a tremendously fun way to put all of the improv skills learned to the test!
THE DRAMA AWARDS
"And the Iggy Goes to..." Iggy is our term for Oscar. It is derived from the name the students gave to the large man-eating anaconda that was built for The Attempted Murder of Peggy Sweetwater, and has since been adopted as the mascot for the awards ceremony.
Each year, the Drama Department has an extravaganza award show. It is done in the spirit of the Academy Awards, with everyone in their best and most elegant attire. Selected students serve as the Masters/Mistresses of Ceremony. We have dinner before the show, and an evening of entertainment (skits, musical numbers, improvisation) provided by each acting class, awards for work in class, and for the production work during the year. The seniors leaving the department get roasted and it is all great fun!
Camera Acting
Beginning Acting students in A Midsummer Night's Dream
Actors doing camera work, main-stage acting, class exercises, and Voice-over at Casa Grande.
Students of Intermediate/Advanced class practice style acting.
Beginning Acting
Voice-over practice in Intermediate/Advanced Class