Theater is an incredibly deep and difficult art, which requires not only patience and strong involvement but truthful understanding of the play or show you are performing in, because then the actor understands who he is on the stage? And what he is going to tell the audience.That helps actors build a connection with the people who are watching, because isn’t this the whole point of theater? To translate feelings and emotions to people.
Of course, actors are not the only part of theater; theater is a large structure made up of many different people. The director, of course at the top of the ladder, organizes and directs everything that is going on and with these different people helping him: actors(obviously), costume designers, technicians or set designers. So, roughly speaking this is what people call theater production and that’s what I’m going to tell you about.
Theater in education is very much discussed among scientists. Education Theater Association wrote that “Theatre in schools creates a sense of community, enhancing students’ sense of belonging and motivation” and this is a great point because in modern reality a lot of students could feel lonely and abandoned in school when work on common project can unify people, but of course in this sense theater is
Only one option out of dozens of activities. According to the Arts in School Report by the New York City Department of Education, “Approximately 67% of NYC schools provide theater programs.”
And iSchool is no exception – in our school we have a wonderful class named “Theater Production.”
Ms. Morick, who teaches Theater Production, also teaches iLearn, but she considers theater as one of her great passions.
Around 18 years ago, the class was created for the purpose of “making sure our students are interested in theater,” Ms. Morick said.
Even though she doesn’t specialize in theater, this class quickly became one of her favorites“because I’m a loud personality, the course really speaks to me.”
Theater is very important as a tool of free expression of yourself not through paper or paintings but in the present, right now in the moment:”I love because in a lot of classes you being asked to write while here you letting yourself freely express” through your speech, movements and just the way you feel your character or the way you feel people around you because theater is a collaboration in the first place so everyone have to help everyone.
The importance of understanding your character has been highlighted by everyone I spoke with during the interview: “you need to connect yourself with a character” and I would say that while you’re on stage, in character, you need to become the person you are playing, I think every actor would agree.
There is even a system created by a theater director called: method of Konstantin Stanislavskis, who had a great influence on theater. According to him, an actor always needs to stay in character, even outside of the performance, or at least use the “if method” in real life: “How would my character act if he or she were in this situation?”
As you can already understand, feelings are what the whole theater is built on. I do not mean only basic emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, or happiness. I mean a deeper understanding of why your character says what they say and why they do what they do. If a play is good, these cause-and-effect relationships will be there, because actors on stage do not just pretend to be another person—they understand why things happen. They ask questions like: Why is this happening? For what reason? Otherwise, people are simply not going to believe you.
Right now, the Theater Production class is working on the play 12 Angry Men. It is a play written by Reginald Rose in 1955. At first, it was created as a one-hour teleplay, but later, in 1957, it was adapted by Rose himself into the classic movie 12 Angry Men, directed by Sidney Lumet. The film received three Oscar nominations in 1958, and even though it did not win any of them, it is still considered one of the best movies of all time, and theaters continue to stage the play.
The play tells the story of a jury of twelve men who must decide the fate of an 18-year-old man accused of murder. Interestingly, almost the entire play takes place in one room, and this is exactly why Ms. Morick decided to produce it: “I’m excited about this play because there are just twelve people around the table.” This means that the actors cannot rely on anything except their acting.
The choice of a play affects not only the content of the production but also the students’ wishes. “I want my students to be happy in my class,” she says, so the process of choosing a play always depends on the students’ preferences, their number, and the class’s material capabilities.
Usually, the course starts with familiarization with the text. Students watch a movie based on the play or, if there is no movie, a recording of the play itself. Next, students get to know each other. Ms. Morick thinks this is especially important for this class: “They need to feel connected in this class. It should feel like a safe space.”
Ms. Morick said that sometimes the class helps students stop being shy in real life, and this is not just information from nowhere. During one of my interviews, a freshman from iSchool, Zaiden Santos, said that this is exactly what happened to him.
Later, students get to know their characters. After about one week, Ms. Morick can already understand who can play which character, and when the introduction week is over, they jump right into rehearsals.
Some other students, who have taken the class, also spoke about it, like freshman Marie Roman: “Sometimes it was a little cringey, but I could express myself very easily, and it was kind of fun.”
Marie says that for her theater is “passion, expression, identity, and freedom,” and during the interview she expressed her love for the play Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
This is a musical written by Stephen Sondheim in 1979, was shown on Broadway and won a Tony award. There is also a movie with Johnny Depp by Tim Burton, so Marie considered that this musical led her to the theater in the first place.
While Zaiden said that the class really helped him find new friends and stop being shy, both students also talked about some challenges, such as stage fright. One of them said, “Preparation was difficult not only physically but mentally too — I was terrified. I had to calm myself down and remind myself that it wasn’t that bad.” They also mentioned other difficulties: “It is hard not to laugh and stay in character.”
But overall, they seemed glad that they had been part of the program. One student said, “I really started to appreciate theater more after that,” and they also spoke positively about their teacher: “Ms. Morick is so cool.”
In the end, theater production plays a big role in a well-rounded education. Theater fills a large gap in creativity in education that is often missing, so it is great that we have something like this at iSchool. It is also exciting that our class is working on such a difficult play as 12 Angry Men. I am looking forward to seeing what they will present at the premiere.
Now, in the era of AI starting to get into acting and movies, with AI actors and things like that, it turns out that theater is one of the last arts that is not tainted by AI technology—at least so far. Of course, who knows? Maybe someday they will create robot actors with very advanced skills and a high level of emotional expression, so that performances could be perfect.
But is theater an art that aims to achieve perfection? Well, yes—but it is also about touching the viewer somewhere deep inside and telling a story not perfectly, but truthfully. Theater is “a powerful tool for cultivating empathy,” and I don’t think that anything other than humans is able to truly achieve that.
Eventually, Ms. Morick and the Theater Production class finished their performance and showed it for 2 days, so if you got lucky if you got see it.
I visited the first performance of the play.
When you’re just walking in the room, you can immediately see the simplest decorations: one long table with documents and papers scattered on it. It’s the only decoration in the whole show, besides this and a few things characters bring in. I think it was a good decision to follow a minimalistic style in the play so we could concentrate on the dialogues and characters.
It’s clear that all the people in the class worked hard on this play. For me, it stood out how good actors were moving on the stage from point to point while they were talking, going to the bathroom or just smoking by the window, it all looked alive as if we were witnessing actual juries deciding how someone’s life was going to be. Also all characters were, if we can call it that, in kind of the costumes, almost everyone at least had a shirt or jacket on. You could have even felt the hot summer day atmosphere in the moments even though it was a cool evening.
The actors did a good job. Memorizing this amount of text isn’t easy. Although it was clear that they had their scripts on the desk, I think it was more like a support of confidence and just why not? Periodic glances at the text were very organic, like if juries were double-checking facts from the documents. But everything else was good, especially the main character, she said huge monologues without hesitations, and main argument between him and jury number 3 was very good so actors did amazing.
Ms. Morick shortened the play so the class was able to perform it in an hour. I can’t say it was a bad decision; they eliminated some good moments, but in this version, the play seems more fresh.
Interestingly, actors were present on the stage in case someone forgot their lines. If someone forgot lines, others immediately tried to help them and pretended like it’s all going like it’s supposed to be, and I can’t say they weren’t successful in it. Long pauses were adding tension to the atmosphere and whispers and coughing looked like juries just hesitating and doubting.
Overall, I think the theater production class produced a good show. I would give this show an 8/10. Honestly, I thought it was going to be worse, but good thing I was wrong.
