Performing Arts
Acting Fundamentals
- Serves both as an introduction to acting for students with no experience and as a continuation of practice for students who have already taken the course
- Explores improvisation, movement, vocal technique, juggling, clowning and physical comedy, script and scene analysis, and the basics of acting technique in a highly physical and ensemble-based environment
- Includes a theatre appreciation requirement for attending theatre in the thriving greater Cleveland theatre scene
Advanced Acting
- Deepens students' practice of theatre and performance
- Involves practice in intermediate and advanced improvisation, movement, mask work, vocal technique, speech, script and scene analysis, acting Shakespeare, film and TV acting, and the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique
- Includes a theatre appreciation requirement for attending theatre in the thriving greater Cleveland theatre scene
Chorale
- Provides its members with a high quality choral music experience-emphasizing the fundamentals of music
- Develops and nurtures a positive sense of attitude, discipline, honesty, integrity, respect, and responsibility
- Includes repertoire from diverse genres and cultures while building skills in sight-singing, vocal technique, improvisation and audiation.
- Includes participation in several public performances and events outside of school
Concert Band
- Develops technical and muscial skills through large- and small-ensemble experiences
- Exposes student musicians to a wide variety of musical styles and expressions
- Develops a greater appreciation for this musical art
- Includes participation in several public performances and events outside of school
Creative Movement
- Enhances self-awareness and develop a process that generates creativity fp student dancers, musicians, and actors
- Utilizes fundamental movement sequences to develop body awareness, improve coordination and enhance concentration
- Invites students to trust their unique ideas and develop theri own creative intuitions through social and interactive methods
- Involves collaboration to create original interpretations of dances and movement sequences
- Explores improvisation, movement, rhythmic study, Plastique Animee, meditation, yoga, and fundamental movement technique in a highly physical and ensemble-based environment
- Includes the creation of original choreography
Jazz Band
- Consists of a select group of students interested in learning how to play jazz
- Offers students th opportunity to play music in a variety of jazz related genres, to become more comfortable with improvisation, and to improve sight-reading skills
- Involves participation in the regularly scheduled Music Department concerts and includes the option of performing at area festivals, concerts, and school-related events
Stagecraft
- Provides opportunities for students to work with the tools and techniques of theatrical production in a practical way
- Enables students to develop fundamental skills in stagecraft and apply them through practical experiences
- Topics covered include set design, construction, CNC milling (“ShopBot”), scenic painting, lighting design and electrical elements, sound design and overall technical theatre operations
String Ensemble
- Provides members with a wide range of repertoire designed to challenge and expand the student's level of expertise
- Includes participation in several public performances and events
Intensive Courses
The Creative Process - Cleveland
- Addresses questions like: What is creativity? What is the intersection between identity and creativity? How do we dismantle traditional and fixed perceptions of creativity?
- Teaches students that creativity is a process that can be learned - and that it extends far beyond the traditional spheres of the visual and performing arts
- Allows students to apply time-tested processes and ample opportunities to engage in and refine their own individual creative processes through a variety of real-life situations and applications that involve problem solving, brainstorming, product creation, and meaningful reflection
- Helps students to generate, name, and perfect their own creative process while dispelling the myths of talent and predestination
- Enables students to explore creative centers in Cleveland and connect with thought leaders to dismantle fixed and traditional understandings of creativity
Music in the City
- Allows studnets to develop and articulate a personal philosophy about the purpose and value of music in Cleveland, Ohio
- Explores everything from how people use and respond to music in our city, to how social and political events of history influence and define the Cleveland music scene
- Includes attendance at several live musical performances, meetings with musicians and artists, and visits to performing arts venues throughout the city
- Provides exposure to some of Cleveland’s great musical and cultural traditions through analysis, discussions of the music within the greater context of our city, and live performances
Comedy and Social Satire
- Explores the power of comedy within society, starting with the nature of laughter and how comedy works, and culminating in a comedy show written and performed by the students, including both live and filmed components
- Explores everything from “what makes things funny” to the ways that satire can steer public discourse
- Includes analysis of existing comedic film, video, and text, and creative comedic writing and performance
- Develops a student’s ability to recognize, understand and describe the processes of music
- Engages students in learning to hear, perform, write, create, and analyze music while interacting with the music technology
- Focuses on melody, harmony, rhythm, scale variations, chord structures, and music reading
- Utilizes Interactive methods that invite students to learn how the mind naturally hears and understands music
- Includes travel to local recording/electronic music studios to record compositions and projects as well as visits to several different venues in Cleveland to showcase students' original compositions
An independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school, toddler through grade 12
Early Childhood, Lower, and Middle Schools, 5000 Clubside Rd, Lyndhurst, OH 44124
Birchwood School of Hawken, 4400 West 140th Street, Cleveland, OH 44135
Upper School, PO Box 8002 (12465 County Line Rd), Gates Mills, OH 44040
Mastery School of Hawken, 11025 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106
Gries Center, 10823 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106
Early Childhood, Lower, and Middle Schools, 5000 Clubside Rd, Lyndhurst, OH 44124
Birchwood School of Hawken, 4400 West 140th Street, Cleveland, OH 44135
Upper School, PO Box 8002 (12465 County Line Rd), Gates Mills, OH 44040
Mastery School of Hawken, 11025 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106
Gries Center, 10823 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106
Directions | Log in | 440-423-4446