2021 Fall Semester Reflection

St. Stephens High School’s Tractor Shed Theatre &

Shooting Stars

Fall Semester 2021

Reflection

Molly Rice

⭐Director’s Note:

After a year and a half of virtual teaching, I returned to face-to-face instruction in my beloved Tractor Shed Theatre. I sported my KN95 on a daily basis and the community and I purchased three air purifiers to help aid in the safety of my student actors during the pandemic.

Donations from our Amazon wish list flooded in to help keep germs at bay with sprays and cleaners and fun items to bring to life our idea of an outdoor classroom. I taught 68 diverse students in two classes of Beginning Theatre Arts and a cast of fifteen Fall Play Production students (an auditioned troupe of actors, singers, dancers, writers, & technicians). It was truly amazing to watch each of these young adults grow. Our first steps focused on social and emotional learning (SEL) with emphasis on Myers-Briggs and Kokology personality tests alongside getting to know you activities. We spent a lot of time learning about motivation, memorization, concentration, and communication. Big concepts such as “To thine own self be true”; “The otherness of others”; “Ars longa vita brevis”; “Approval/disapproval”; “Inner child”; “Erase IDK and IDC”; “If everyone is ridiculous, then no one is.”; “Learn to listen, listen to learn.” among other educational concepts peppered our curriculum. I saw the SEL was needed more now than ever before. Fall Play Production was challenged to design our outdoor classroom space. Never would I have imagined that this project would lead the way to our new Outdoor theatre venue - Shooting Stars! Our annual Halloween Trick-or-Treating Extravaganza would take new shape as well to keep Covid-19 safety precautions at the forefront of our creative work. Drive-in: A horrifying Halloween

Experience will now become our new normal. We were happy to work with Dewey’s Bakery again after a year off to bring these lovely Winston-Salem treats to Hickory. We ended the term with our National Poetry Out Loud Recitation Contest at the classroom level and look forward to sending a SSHS student to the state-level in the spring. I was also chosen to film a lesson plan for teachers on the National Poetry Out Loud website through a firm called Yakety Yak which will also be revealed in the spring. Another exciting bit of news: a publisher contacted me about a book on the Tractor Shed Theatre!

I also have my first full collection of poetry due to be published by Press 53 in fall 2022!

Here’s to the spring full of possibilities to continue to strive!

Slainte.

Beginning Theatre Arts What a joy to lead two classes of beginners through units of theatre/arts study. I was most impressed with their creative writing skills. Classkick supplements our learning management system. Students love the ease and creative element of Classkick which makes their digital theatre notebook personalized. One of my favorite getting to know you activities was Minute of Me. After taking the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator Test, students partnered up with those who shared their personality type then interviewed one another and created slides to speak from. Their slides and presenting their Myers-Briggs friend to the class instantly bonded each group. Beginning Theatre Arts also took on the You Matter movement and spread words of positivity amongst the school. These students learned how empathy is at the forefront of theatre. I will miss this raggle-taggle group of young folks!

I love learning about my students’ passions, interests, and loved ones.

The goal of the You Matter Marathon is to create and enrich positive connections by collectively sharing 1-Million You Matter cards from November 1 to November 30 as an effort to spread gratitude and kindness globally during the Thanksgiving season.

The Tractor Shed Theatre is an ambassador! We have been ambassadors for five years now.

Fall Play Production Honors -

Cast

Caitlyn C Isaiah C Taylor D Melly J Morgan L Evan P Emmalea R

Lillie C Christian E Ash Malone Jonathan M Hannah S Cory T

Jordan S Jayla S

Play Production Project

Outdoor Classroom/Venue

Reinvented space: Shooting Range

Essential Standards Intermediate: I.AE.1.1 Use technical knowledge and design skills to formulate designs.

Advanced: A.AE.1.1 Use technical knowledge and design skills to formulate designs for a specific audience.

Essential Question How can you apply the process of design and production (D & P) to creating or reinventing a space for outdoor learning and performance?

Students will choose a tech and running crew to design and produce sections of an outdoor venue for future use. Within their crew, they will communicate in the Fall Play Production Google Room and their specific crew Google Room to help organize thoughts and ideas, plans, and execution (production) of ideas. Leadership will stem from the honors (Advanced) level students in each group.

First Blush ideas for our outdoor space

Groups of choice to walk the space outside and think about where and how to design an outdoor venue. Students will present their ideas to the class. Check out the first blush ideas from each of these groups:

Christian & Caitlyn

Isaiah, Evan, & Cory

Melly & Morgan

Jordan, Emmalea, & Hannah Taylor & Lillie

Jonathan, Ash, Jayla, & Levi

⭐Classroom discussion after viewing small group ideas

After much discussion of where would be best to create the outdoor venue, we landed with the old rifle range. We asked Mr. Pratt if he was still using the space for a range. And if not, could we have the space. He replied that we could have it. We wrote to Mr. Stocks to seek permission and it was granted with an “absolutely!” We quickly moved forward with a repurposing plan. The work is divided into these design and production crews. Click on each section to see the process of the plan.

Design & Production CrewsSeating:

Jayla, Ash, Lillie, Caitlyn

Awning:

Evan, Melly, & Christian

Flooring:

Emmalea, Levi, & Jonathan

Walls:

Taylor, & Morgan

Tech (Electrical): Isaiah, Jordan, & Cory

Our design and production for our new outdoor

venue was put on hold for another super creative idea for our first show of the school year! Our annual

Halloween show aka Trick-or-treating extravaganza. This troupe understood that gathering at my house as in the past to entertain thousands of children would not be safe.

So they put their thinking caps on and created our first annual DrIvE-in! Super clever and safer way to play! Instead of hosting over 3000 children in NW Hickory, we brought our show to our own patch and designed our show for middle/high school students who love to be scared. The troupe loved bringing slasher horror movie characters to life!

Watch our first public relations trailer here!

See our second trailer here!

The troupe broke into crews to work on all aspects of technical theatre and the logistics of running a drive-in movie theater. They studied drive-through scares, scary trunk-or-treats, haunted houses, and created their own theme for their drive-in haunted experience, settling on the title DrIvE-in: a Horrifying Halloween Experience. An amazing amount of work went into this production. Check out the crew progress portfolios to

see how it all came together (click image for link).

The first annual Deadly Drive-in was a hit! 35 cars filled with all ages came out on a rainy Halloween Eve for some scary fun! Special thanks to Lori Deal-Flynn, Jill Chiles and parents who helped with running the drive-in with ticket-tearing, popcorn-selling, and traffic-directing. Alice Hartley for the lend of props.

Jenny Houser for helping us with our props, set, and costumes. Bruce Boorman and amazing band parents who helped move cars for our playground even though they were in the middle of competition! Thanks to students, parents, and faculty/staff who came out to support the Tractor Shed Theatre. Jackson Shoe Photography #TractorShedTheatre #Halloween

Check out Jackson Shoe’s amazing shots here

So grateful for the Watson family who donated popcorn and drinks to our drive-in! Our parents were amazing as well to sell and welcome the movie-goers even in the pouring rain!

A few videos from a movie goer: Maggie B. Actors’ reflections on characters Techies’ reflections on crew

Dewey’s Bakery fundraiser We were excited to sell Dewey’s again this year since last year we couldn’t raise funds. We love to sell at Christmas so the treats are delivered right before the holidays!

Shooting Stars Once we came down off the high of Halloween, we picked up where we left off on building our new outdoor theatre venue. Ideas kept flowing! Check our inspiration here.

Design drawing by Emmalea R.

With much debate, the class chose CottageCore colors to design the space.

So amazing guiding these young thinkers and doers through the creative process. I give thanks that I’ve been called to be a teacher/director even in these tough times.

We are nearly finished with our new outdoor converted venue. Thanks Alice Hartley for helping us borrow your tools. Thanks Lisa Ormand and Kathy Johnston for some design advice. And much gratitude to Eric Pratt Gunny for giving us the old space and Kyle Stocks for supporting and believing in our vision! #tractorshedtheatre #tstshootingstars

We didn’t like the pink even though it matched our CottageCore palette. Discussion with the design crew and Mrs. Ormand and Mrs. Johnston we decided on a nice green to keep the forest-feel and to blend more with nature. Kept the wood part of the targets and stained them. Glow in the dark stars will add a nice touch when the sun goes down.

Special thanks for our fun couches - donation from Sandy Ridge Baptist Church

by Jordan Finley, the Youth Pastor. Thanks to Emmalea for the hook-up!

Before

After

Before shots in September 2021 Nov. 8th Let’s Get Started!

Nov. 9th Ah, black walls makes a theatre Nov. 10th Let’s stain some wood Nov. 11th Wondering if pink was the right choice?

Nov. 15th Coming right along!

Nov. 17th Working hard to make deadline Nov. 18th Looking lovely Nov. 19th Seating nearly complete Nov. 22nd Awning is difficult Nov. 23rd our wee goal met!

Dec. 3rd our last fall work session!

Design & Production CrewsSeating:

Jayla, Ash, Lillie, Caitlyn

Awning:

Evan, Melly, & Christian

Flooring:

Emmalea, Levi, & Jonathan

Walls:

Taylor, & Morgan

Tech (Electrical): Isaiah, Jordan, & Cory Spring work: Fix awning, build stage, hang backstage curtain, place backstage stage dividers, & seating, hang lights.