Theatre Arts
Theatre Arts at SVHS
There are multiple ways to get involved in theatre for actors, tech crew, and aspiring directors, choreographers, and designers.
- Weekly Drama Club meetings
- Year-long theatre classes for all levels (beginning, intermediate, advanced) with a broad curriculum primarily focused on play production and acting
- DTASC Fall Festival - the annual competition for high school performers and designers in Southern California
- Fall Murder Mystery - acting roles are limited to students in the Theatre II class; crew roles are open to all students in the Drama Club
- All-School Spring Musical - open to all SVHS students
- Patchwork - a spring showcase featuring student performances from Theatre I/II
- Dramathon - our annual Awards Night and Talent Show in the spring, open to all students who have been involved in theatre throughout the school year
Why Theatre?
The value of theatre in education is greater today perhaps, than in any time since its inclusion in the standard secondary and post secondary curriculum. Where the academic themes of past years have been lodged in the work “specialization,” today the need is for a learner who has the capability to assimilate many realms of seemingly unrelated meaning, evaluate them against a new set of variables, and then, through a process of synthesis, embark on a new course of action which might be totally new and untried. This is a valuable skill in the ever-changing diversity of the United States. Flexibility, broad levels of competency and the ability to strategize learning in a plastic, fluid manner that keeps open all options, is the profile of the successful learner of he 21st Century.
Of all the arts, theatre is most concerned with the study of human personality. The process of acting requires an ability to step outside of oneself and value the perspective of another human being. This single skill is perhaps the most important reason for educational theatre. The ability to get along with those who are different; to understand and resolve conflicts without resort to violence; and to value the individual in an era of mass media: these values are imperative for our social survival.
Theatre is the most collaborative of the arts. It must be created by and for groups of people working together. Theatre classes teach cooperation and teamwork, and especially teamwork without gender discrimination, perhaps better than most team sports.
Theatre also validates individual self-expression, unusual ways of behaving, dressing, and speaking. The high school theatre class is often a place of refuge for creative students who might otherwise be social outcasts. Acting encourages them to understand and express their full range of feelings, not only those that are acceptable in the classroom or in their teen peer groups.
Moreover, the study of playmaking is a social laboratory for high school students, whose prime developmental concern is the formation of personality. It allows them to exercise their curiosity about adult behaviors. They can `'try out" various relationships with no risk of real consequences. They can satisfy their curiosity about how one can behave.
The College Entrance Examination Board, in its document titled “Academic Preparation un the Arts”, notes that “there are certain skills learned in the arts that are learned nowhere else in the curriculum and if our children wish to be well-educated they need those skills.” It was also stated “…that students who took more than four years of music and arts [K-12] scored 34 points higher on the verbal sections of the SAT and 18 points higher on the math sections…”
Living Skills Learned In Theatre:
Self Discipline- the ability to work alone independently
Cooperation- the ability to work congenially within a group - putting the group above oneself
Responsibility- meeting deadlines on time
Sense of self-worth, poise and confidence- the realization of one’s importance within the group
Punctuality- theatre can’t function unless everyone is present
Effective communication - one of the fundamentals of theatre activities
Dedication- commitment to an activity and its completion
Respect for authority and peers- learning to take direction (orders) and sharing a goal with fellow actors/technicians
Concentration- the ability to carry through a task without distractions
Acceptance of disappointment- realization that the effort of the process is more important than the product
Time management- getting chores and homework completed while participating in additional activities
Theatre Arts
Productions & Competitions
2020-2021
DTASC Fall Festival
Fall Play: Shoebox Theatre
Spring Musical: Now. Here. This.
Scenefest '21: Sock Puppet Shakespeare
2019-2020
Mystery Dinner Theatre: WCKY
DTASC Fall Festival
Spring Musical: You're a Good Man Charlie Brown
2018-2019
Mystery Dinner Theatre: Money or Murder?
Spring Musical: Chicago - High School Edition
2017 - 2018
Mystery Dinner Theatre: Murder at the Pie Auction
DTASC Fall Festiival Showcase
Winter Production: Dystopia!
Spring Musical: Little Shop of Horrors
Patchwork 5: Our Favorite Scenes
Dramathon 2018
2016 - 2017
Mystery Dinner Theatre: Dinner at Eight, Dead by Nine
DTASC Fall Festival Showcase
Winter Production: The Grimm Brothers Spectaculathon
Patchwork 4: Respect
Spring Musical: Disney High School Musical
Dramathon 2017
2015 - 2016
Mystery Dinner Theatre: Who Killed the Director
DTASC Fall Festival Showcase
Winter Production: The Ukrainiacs
Classic Theater: The Taming of the Shrew
Spring Musical: The Nifty Fifties
Patchwork III: Relationships
Dramathon 2016
2014 - 2015
Mystery Dinner Theatre: Three Doors to Death
DTASC Fall Festival Showcase
Two One Acts:
Ray Bradbury's Kaleidoscope
Much Ado High School
DTASC Shakespeare Festival Showcase
Spring Musical: Back to the 80's
Dramathon 2015
2013 - 2014
Roomers, a comedy in one act
DTASC Fall Festival
Two One Acts:
Vonnegut's Who Am I This Time?
Dickens' A Christmas Carol
Patchwork, performances on the theme of Love
Dr. Suess Day
DTASC Shakespeare Festival
Read Across America (SV Public Library)
Spring Musical: Good News!
Dramathon 2014
2012 - 2013
Comedy Sportz Game Con
Holiday Show
The Crucible
Actor's Festival Ojai
DTASC Shakespeare Festival
Simi Valley Library Day: Celebrate Literature
Spring Musical: On The Town
Dramathon 2013
2011 - 2012
DTASC Fall Festival
Spirit of Hispania
Actor's Festival Ojai
DTASC Shakespeare Festival
Simi Valley Library Day: Tales from Latin America
Spring Musical: Guys and Dolls
One Act Festival
Dramathon 2012
2010 - 2011
DTASC Fall Festival
Waiting for Lefty
Actor's Festival Ojai
Spring Musical: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Simi Valley Library Day:
Jungle Stories
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum
Dramathon 2011
2009-2010
Murder Most Fowl
DTASC Fall Festival
Canterbury Tales
DTASC Shakespeare Festival
Spring Musical: Wonderland
One Act Festival
Dramathon '10
2008-2009
The Clumsy Custard Horror Show
and Ice Cream Clone Review
DTASC Fall Festival
Actor's Festival in Ojai
DTASC Shakespeare Festival
Spring Musical: Wonderful Town
Dramathon '09
2007-2008
Stop the Presses! - Melodrama
DTASC Fall and Shakespeare Festivals
Antigone
Dr. Seuss Day - Horton Hatches an Egg
Spring Musical: Back to the '80's
Brown Bag Theatre
Becoming Bianca - One Act
2006-2007
Lost in the Bermuda Triangle - Dinner Theatre
DTASC Fall and Shakespeare Festivals
The Skin of Our Teeth
Comedy Sportz Improv Team
Dr Seuss Day - The Cat in the Hat
International Thespian Festival
Spring Musical: Bells are Ringing
Dramathon
2005 - 2006
Murder at Homicide High
DTASC Fall and Shakespeare Festivals
Midsummer Night's Dream
MacBeth Condensed
Dr. Seuss Day - Go, Dog, Go!
International Thespian Festival
Spring Musical: Everything I Needed to Know
I Learned in Kindergarten
2004-2005
DTASC Fall and Shakespeare Festivals
Comedy Sportz - Rebecca Stoner - manager
Pride and Prejudice
Spring Musical: Hello, Dolly
- Kristina Stieffel - choreographer
Dramathon
Mystery Dinner - Brandon Flick –Director
2003-2004
DTASC Fall and Shakespeare Festivals
Mystery Dinner - Remains to Be Seen
The Outsiders - Kyle Robertson - Director
Twelve Angry Jurors - Caylin Jett -Director
Thespian Festival @ Fullerton Colleges
Comedy Sportz - Kenny Dietz, Armand Greene - managers
Spring Musical: The Pajama Game
2002-2003
DTASC Fall and Shakespeare Festivals
Playboy of the Western World
Comedy Sportz - Beth Cooper - manager
Thespian Festival
Dramathon
2001-2002
DTASC Fall & Shakespeare Festivals
My Fatal Romance
ComedySportz Meets
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Dr. Seuss Stories
The Canterbury Tales
Romeo and Juliet
Spring Musical: Flapper
Dramathon
2000-2001
DTASC Fall & Shakespeare Festivals, B/C divisions
Mystery Dinner Theatre: Who Killed the Director
ComedySportz Meets
The Tempest
Is It Soup Yet?
Spring Musical: Bye, Bye, Birdie
Dramathon
1999-2000
DTASC Fall & Shakespeare Festivals
The Front Page
Barefoot In The Park
The Devil and Daniel Webster
Alice In Wonderland
M*A*S*H
Bang, Bang, You're Dead
1998-1999
DTASC Fall & Shakespeare Festivals
As You Like It
Wagon Wheels West
The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
A Christmas Carol
One-Act Festival
Much Ado About Nothing
Spring Musical: Into the Woods
The Night of January 16th
