Course Overview:  This course will explore Theatre Arts for one semester (and may be continued through the rest of the academic year).  Throughout this semester, the class will focus primarily on three units:  Improvisation and Physicality, Voice Production and Speech, and Monologue Work.  Through group projects, oral presentations, class discussions, scene work, reading and writing plays, performances, and other projects, students will be able to make connections from the Performing Arts and apply these skills to their own lives.  The first unit of the course will be devoted to theater games, improvisation, and short scenes designed to continue developing the performance skills of spontaneity, listening, and creating with a group.  Improvisation activities and scenes will focus mostly on physical work and movement.  Students will spend the second unit working on voice production and speech.  We will be using the text A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen in this unit.  The last unit will be devoted to using masks to help actors further develop characters through the use of their bodies and voices.  In this unit, students will be writing and performing monologues inspired by their own lives.