Lafayette Theatre is always doing many different things throughout the school year, and with four other courses available, it’s difficult to keep up with the events that aren’t schoolwide. The Theater 2 class has various activities like sight-responsive theater, which involves devising a piece in a spot that is specific to it. Invisible theater is picking a public area and acting a scene out, such as arguing, dropping books, or simply leaving notes around a place and seeing how many get passed around.

Theatre 2 also teaches how to make a theater resume with specifics that can better students’ chances of getting a role in a production while letting the casting/directors learn about them. The students also learn about viewpoints. Viewpoints are a method of actor training that encourages actors to focus less on the psychology of their characters and more on their physicality.

The Theatre 2 class is devising group pieces around love consisting of four to five people. The teacher, Ms. Gorrell, has put together each group to ensure everyone works outside their usual group. These pieces will be practiced and performed around our school during each class period until the final. The final will be on Wednesday, the 13th of December, after school at 6:00 pm.

So far, each group has picked out and started devising their pieces. During the class, they received 10-15 minutes to practice their piece and then ‘perform’ it for the course. They then received feedback on things they could add, change, or remove. These were all just suggestions so they could choose to apply them to their pieces or not. These suggestions are not meant to be taken to heart. They are simply constructive comments.

After everyone had gotten feedback about their pieces, they got back into their groups and applied the suggestions to see if it was something they would want to add to their piece. Each group receives the same amount of time, 10-15 minutes, before showing the class the changes and improvements made to their pieces. The feedback given can be crucial to your performance. Taking a suggestion from someone and turning it into something can help your project, especially if the suggestion fits well with it.

Each Theater 2 group has picked spots around the campus to perform in. These spots include the courtyard by the front of the building, the math hallway stairs, the library, and the front entrance walkway. The groups have organized and devised their pieces in their chosen spaces and are working on changes based on the feedback.

So far, the pieces have just been shared with the class in the theater, but seeing as each performance spot has been picked out, in the next class, the students will travel around to watch each piece and how they work in the chosen spaces.

There are two classes before the final performance, Monday the 11th and Wednesday the 13th, and the groups are far along in their devising. Now that each group has shown their piece in their chosen spots, the students and teacher were able to give feedback that is more in-depth and specific, not only about the work but about the space they chose as well.

These students are working hard to get their pieces just how they want them. Some groups use props, while others simply pantomime to convey their ideas. With just one class left before the final performance, everyone is feeling good and confident in their pieces, which is very important when doing theater.

The groups have progressed and are very comfortable with each other and their chosen space.

I interviewed Lafayette Times copy editor and Theatre 2 student Joey Hester. Hester said, “My favorite part about this project is having the creative liberty to explore different ideas and make this piece original and incorporate parts of all of us [the group].” This project seems to give each group and person the freedom to add their beliefs and views on love into the piece.

Hester also said, “The theme of these projects is love, and my piece revolves around the eight different types of love. We demonstrate that through the setting of a road trip. While on the road trip, different songs on the radio remind us of different memories and experiences we’ve had with that type of love.”

Theater can be very creative and fun, but the ability to make up an entire piece simply using your imagination and emotion can prove to be more challenging than it looks. Though the devising activities that the students participated in beforehand helped with this process, executing their ideas the way they wanted was slightly more complex.

Theatre 2 had fun devising these pieces, which were fun to make and perform, even if the process was a little more difficult than some had hoped.