Here
at Memorial we offer a four-year, fully developed season for all students at MHS. The
department consists of four levels of acting/production classes and includes advanced acting training in both contemporary
and classical theatre. We also offer musical theatre as a part of our curriculum.
Our students typically perform in two to five productions a year and are committed to learning the technical elements
of theatre production by serving on a variety of different crews that work monthly at our Saturday Workdays to keep productions
on schedule.
We
also offer a four-year technical theatre program for students that wish to pursue the darker side of theatre. In this part of the program, students gain basic knowledge of all areas of technical theatre and then may
choose to specialize in an area for their design work during the junior and senior years of study.
All students that participate in our program and plan to pursue further training in
the college/university setting leave MHS with an understanding of theater and have training that serves them well—earning
them scholarships, roles and jobs at the next level of theatre development. For specific honors and awards we invite
you to look at our recognition page but we would also like to mention that some of our students graduate to pursue theatre,
musical theatre, music and RTF training at Colleges and Universities all over the US and can be found at: NYU, OU, UCLA,
USC, UT, Oklahoma City University, Baylor, SF Austin, Trinity, St. Edwards University, Southwestern University, Missouri, LSU, Texas State, Texas Tech, and more. Additionally our students
have also been seen in movies, television and regional stages across the US.
Over the past
few years, we have set goals as a department and have worked diligently to achieve them. In 2006, we wanted to send
all of our students who qualified in Individual Events to National Competition in Lincoln, Nebraska. We buckled down
and raised over $15,000 to do just that! In 2007, the goal achieved was to advance out of Zone in UIL OAP, get our musical
nominated for a Tommy Tune Best Musical Award and qualify students for Nationals. We also wanted to take
home a Thespian Scholarship. We set our minds to it and did just that. In 2008, our goal was to be selected to
perform a show at Nationals. Then we made it happen in three months. We pulled together and made it happen. We
had two 18-wheelers, a 25 ft. truck, 2 54-passenger buses and a plane of parents and musicians that came together in
Lincoln, Nebraska to make magic. It was an incredible experience across the board to be selected, but to be asked to
be the opening number for the International Festival was even more amazing! In 2010 we had 15 students qualify
for Nationals, won 4th place in the technical contest, racked in more college and university callbacks which became scholarship
opportunities for our student and had a student compete in the Jimmy Awards (National High School Musical Theatre Awards) on
Broadway! ...but we are also thinking about going a bit further. Will you be a part of the next challenge or goal?
We head to Edinburgh Scotland for 2011 and want to know if you will be on the plane with us? We already qualified 10
for Nationals. We cannot wait to share more good news!
For additional
information about our program or to meet with our director please email her at nicole.morgan@springbranchisd.com. She is happy to meet with any potential students and set up a tour of our facilities and talk about how you too can
be part of this amazing group of students working in this wonderful space here at Memorial High School.