DSA Theatre endeavors to provide students with a middle/high school theatre arts program that examines theatre as a creative and multidisciplinary art form. In middle school, students begin to experience the multiple facets theatre training affords as well as exposure to various theatrical genres and styles. In high school, we offer a program of study geared for the serious high school student of theatre. Students experience disciplined, challenging training as exemplified in conservatory theatre training programs normally found at the college level.
The program emphasizes individual growth and personal discovery as well as an ensemble approach to acting. Our objective is to prepare each student to continue her or his career or educational goals in the theatre, be it in college, university, conservatory, acting school, or an apprenticeship program. However, by creating good work habits, study skills, and cooperative learning experiences, the student is better prepared to establish a career in any field of endeavor. Theatre students graduate not only as trained actors, but critical thinkers, arts leaders and advocates for the theatre arts.
Vision Statement: LEARNING | ENSEMBLE | ACCOUNTABILITY | DISCIPLINE | ENTREPRENEURSHIP | RESILIENCE
- Create a nurturing environment that encourages creativity and the elevation of the human spirit through the arts
- Maintain the highest standards of academic achievement, consistent with requirements for college entrance
- Foster cultural diversity by emphasizing art forms from all cultures and ethnicities
- Build and maintain a large and diverse student population
- Offer a multitude of arts experiences, including exposure to professional artists, which will prepare students for life long participation in the arts, from audience to artist, creator to knowledgeable arts consumer
- Involve the community in the life of the school and incorporate the activities of the school into the life of the community.
Goals
- Enter into a pre-professional career within an art form
- Enroll in higher education
- Utilize their art as a lifelong leisure activity
DSA Aesthetic Standards
These are standards in which the DSA arts and academic curricula are guided:
- Explore/define/pursue difference between subjective and objective opinion.
- Explore/define/pursue impact of art on history and history on art.
- Explore/define/pursue the concept of truth and beauty through art.
- Explore/define/pursue art’s role in a diversity of societies and cultures.
- Explore/define/pursue controversial art and censorship.
- Explore/define/pursue legitimacy of personal emotional response to art.