CAIRO- A group of students from Cairo High School recently traveled to Atlanta for a whirlwind theatre tour taking in tours, workshops, and shows. This past Friday, 22 Stage Makers, plus their directors Mrs. Austin Harrell and Mr. Joshua Moore, and parent chaperones, started their two-day field trip with a stop at The Center for Puppetry Arts; here they took in a workshop over puppetry as theatre art and explored the museum. Atlanta is home to the largest puppet museum in the entire country; this included a Jim Henson feature with the Muppets and Fraggle Rock, and a collection from the cult classic movie Labyrinth.
Students were interested to learn that puppetry is older than traditional theatre and can be found in different cultures around the world. They also got hands on trying out “peeper puppets;” a ring that features large eyes and allows a person’s hand to become the puppet. At the end of the workshop, students realized there was much more to puppetry that just holding an inanimate object; the goal of the puppet actor is to bring that object to life through emotion, characterization, and movement.
From there, the group headed to The Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s Tavern and Playhouse where they trained with professional actors to recreate pieces from one of Shakespeare’s iconic comedies. They learned the flow of iambic pentameter, added that to their physical acting, and then performed short scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To round out their afternoon workshop on The Bard, students participated in an “insult clinic,” where they learned the meaning behind some of the more famous quips and then presented them to each other and a guest judge.
“I loved the Shakespeare workshop,” said CHS Senior Addysen Curtis. “Being inside the Shakespeare Tavern was definitely an experience in itself, but acting on the stage while seeing others in the group doing the same felt amazing, especially with the insult contest and reenacting scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
After going to the hotel to freshen up and change, the group headed back to The Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern for an evening show. The Stage Makers director, Harrell, has a strict dress-up policy for any performances the group attends saying that “theatre is an event, and we dress for it!” Students were dressed to the nines as they ate British Pub style food and took in the full length version of Romeo and Juliet.
Junior Morgan Griffin enjoyed the performance saying, “they made Shakespeare easier to understand because of the way they express themselves with their voices and body movements.”
Saturday morning the group enjoyed a private History and Architecture tour of The Fox Theatre, learning about the history of the building, starting just before the Great Depression as a Shiner’s Temple when the group ran out of funding, so movie mogul William Fox stepped in to lease the auditorium to help build his empire. The architecture is modeled after temples of the Far East and even now, almost 100 years later is still opulent in design. The theatre opened on Christmas Day in 1929 and the best seat in the house cost only 75 cents. The building went through many ups and down over the following decades, and changed hands multiple times before falling into disrepair during the 1960s; thanks to a grassroots effort called “Save The Fox,” it was revitalized to its former glory and saved from demolition in the 1970s. Today, it is a historic landmark and an iconic Atlanta venue that hosts Broadway touring productions, concerts, comedy specials, and much more.
Students learned about the many events that took place in different parts of the building, and ended their tour in the grand ballroom, where the most recent Black Panther movie was filmed with a career Q&A session with two of the managers of the venue. They were able to ask questions about career paths in the arts that might not include being on stage; they discussed how marketing and public relations were integral parts of running a theatre, and took notes on ways to start working toward their goals now.
The trip culminated in seeing the much anticipated hit Broadway musical Hamilton. For those unfamiliar with the show, it follows the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton as told through the eyes of those that knew him best. The show features contemporary style music including rap, hip-hop, soul. Writer Lin Manuel Miranda states that this musical is “American then, told by America now”.
Janeisha Burden, a freshman member of The Stage Makers, got to visit The Fox for the first time and see her “dream” show exclaiming, “my favorite part of this trip was seeing Hamilton, this has always been a dream of mine and I’m so grateful to be here. The show was amazing and my favorite character was definitely Thomas Jefferson.” The show was almost sold out and ended with a standing ovation from the packed house.
Harrell has been working on this trip itinerary since September and was excited to put it together for the students saying, “we don’t have much access to professional theatre or workshops in our little area of South Georgia, so anytime I can take my kids to something like this, I’m going to try and make it happen. Last summer we were able to take them to New York, and that was amazing itself, but we can’t always hop on a cross country flight, so having Atlanta within a few hours drive is a wonderful opportunity for our program.”
Music director Joshua Moore added, “taking our students on trips like this exposes them to the many avenues of theatre arts. Students who are interested in a career are able to see that there are many opportunities to work in theatre beyond just being on stage. These sorts of trips deepen our students’ appreciation for the performing arts.”
The Stage Makers directors hope to continue planning trips, workshops, and other additional activities for their high school theatre students to broaden their horizons and expose them to the arts at all levels.