2020 Musicals

ACTIONS:
1.personal learning of a song from The Threepenny Opera- what helps non-singers learn a song?
2. Performing Arts dept got 80 books from the National Library and have them displayed in the teaching spaces; we made a non-fiction book review form so students could find information and vocabulary.This is a useful activity- as a lesson starter even the easy books [level 2-3 curriculum]  have vocabulary eg- on dance styles, and can be written about on blogs, with illustrations; the more academic, such as an academic text about Oklahoma has genereated a teacher resource for History of Musical.
3.RESEARCH - I have been building resources on musicals; listening to soundtracks During "lockdown" walks- have done about 8 hurs so far
4: We have brought a number of musical books - storys such as "Wicked", "Dear Evan Hanson" and "Be More Chill" as well as non-fiction works so students can enjoy reading about performing arts.
4: Junior Drama Option: wanting more dancing so we're looking at Grease [1978] which lead to some discussion on gender roles."Having some good discussions: what are expectation and orientations.

Expectations of how people should behave according to gender; eg: girls wear pink and are polite. boys like trucks and have short hair. The roles in musicals are often quite stereotyped, and love stories of boy meets girl are common plots. In particular we are looking at a musical about high school - there are cliques: sporty boys [Get your head in the game], cheerleaders; nerds/geeks, goths, fashion. Have things changed from the pink ladies to pink clad mean girls or the the Heathers [in Heathers- musical? In recent movies we have more range of characters, perhaps like Janice and Damian "amost too gay to function". Focus on musicals set in High Schools. https://www.broadway.com/buzz/194096/the-fans-have-voted-your-favorite-10-musicals-set-in-high-school/  "

The Musical Theatre Bechdel Test

62% of the musicals (59% of 20th Century musicals, and 75% of 21st Century musicals) include 2 or more named female characters* who sing for at least one minute about something other than a man.

86% of the musicals (88% of 20th Century musicals, and 75% of 21st Century musicals) include 2 or more named male characters** who sing for at least one minute about something other than a woman.