MENLO SCHOOL • SINCE 1915

Upper School Drama presents Something Rotten (October 2023)

Upper School Creative Arts

Drama

Live in the Moment!
2023-2024 Drama Season

Spring Musical

Mean Girls


PERFORMANCES:
Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4, 7:30 pm
Sunday, May 5, 5:00 pm
Spieker Center for the Arts

Are you a Queen Bee or a Wanna-bee? Let’s see. Come out and audition for this fiercely hilarious musical from writer Tina Fey (30 Rock). Cady Heron may have grown up on an African savanna, but nothing prepared her for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home: Northshore High School. How will this naïve newbie rise to the top of the popularity pecking order? By taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady and her friends devise a “Revenge Party” to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung. 

 

Participation Form and Show Calendar Character Breakdown Show Synopsis  FAQs


2023/2024 Season:

  • Something Rotten
    October 27-29, 2023
    View Photos
  • Antigone
    February 2-4, 2024
    View Photos
  • Mean Girls
    May 2-5, 2024
    (high school version)


 

Theater is far more than what’s written on the page or performed on the stage.

It’s about joy, balance, harmony, order, design, and composition. Theater is a process, a laboratory where we can experiment with creative expression and storytelling. It builds self-confidence and fosters empathy. Theater gives us permission to have fun and make a difference, even if all we have is a bare stage and a light bulb!

Menlo’s Upper School drama program includes courses in drama and musical theater in addition to producing full-length plays each fall, winter, and spring. Past productions have included Spelling Bee, Mathilda, Peter and the Starcatcher, Little Shop of Horrors, Heathers, Twelfth Night, Cabaret, The Laramie Project, Fiddler on the Roof, The Miracle Worker, Urinetown, The Diary of Anne Frank, Avenue Q, and more.

View Show Archive

Upper School drama presents the Learned Ladies in the Spieker Center for the Arts.

“If all we had was a bare stage with one light bulb, we could still do theater!”

Lou Volpe, Drama Teacher, Harry S. Truman high school, Levittown, PA

Upper School Drama Course Offerings

Grade: 9101112

Drama Off-Stage (2S)

This course is a semester-long course and is offered in the SPRING. This class can be taken along with Drama On-Stage in order to count as a year-long arts class. 

This one-semester course is perfect to take in tandem, with Drama ON-Stage or can be taken as a stand-alone. The focus of this class is to create a deeper appreciation and understanding of everything that happens OFF-Stage in theatre. Through practical application, learn about the wide range of opportunities in the artistic, production, and business categories of the business to put on a successful production! Topics and units include lighting, sound, costuming, theatre management, and general production support. Learn to apply skills and techniques to produce a play holistically while helping to support the Menlo mainstage productions, during class time, in design, management, technical services, dramaturgy, and backstage support. Practical application will be in real-time with real results.

Grade: 9101112

Drama On-Stage (1S)

This course is a semester-long course and is offered in the FALL. This class can be taken along with Drama Off-Stage in order to count as a year-long arts class. 

This one-semester introductory theatre course helps you discover your individual voice through the fundamental elements of all things ON stage. Through improvisation, observation, character development, and performance technique, you will help bring to life stories that are diverse and engaging, including but not limited to, monologues, scene study, and performance-based classroom presentations. By developing a greater understanding and appreciation of what theatre is, along with your unique perspective, Drama On-Stage can help you build confidence as you “bring it all together” in a culminating project.

Grade: 9101112

Musical Theater (1S)

This is a semester-long course is and is offered in the FALL only. 

This class is designed to tell stories through music with the goal of developing an awareness of emotional truth and connection. It is a performance-based course focused on the essential elements of musical theatre - music & drama. We will cover shows from the early days to today’s latest and greatest on Broadway, discovering how its history translates and relates to the hits of today. Students are encouraged to bring their own repertoire while also being open to learning something new. We will perform scenes from musicals and together create an end-of-semester ‘showcase’ to celebrate student’s achievements. Prior experience in vocal music & drama is encouraged but not necessary.

Grade: 9101112

Production: Page to Spieker Stage (1S and/or 2S)

This course can be taken as in either SPRING or FALL as a semester-long course or taken both semesters as a year-long course.

The first hands-on experience exploring and combining design, science, engineering, craftsmanship, art, and presentation inside the new Spieker Center for the Arts, this course is an opportunity to think big. It will cover digital theatrical LED lighting, live sound, production organization and management, set design, tools, construction, scenic painting, costume and prop design. Each student will be encouraged to find his/her own areas of interest. Learn how to safely use the diverse technology and tools of our new theater to take student projects from concept to completion. Students can also learn from working live events, concerts, dance, or theater. We will focus on collaboration, basic skill sets, and creativity. 

Content from previous site pages, can be copied into new design as needed

Menlo Upper School Drama

 

 

The Upper School Spring Play:

Peter and the Starcatcher

Thursday-Sunday, Apr. 28-30
Spieker Center for the Arts
Buy Tickets!

With some ordinary rope, a couple of ladders, a few household appliances, two toy boats, and, most important, one another, a motley group of seafarers and storytellers take us on a journey you’ll never forget!

Adapted by Palo Alto’s own Rick Elice from Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s 2004 children’s novel, this play with music tells the story of how a nameless, angst-ridden orphan became the immortal Peter Pan, how Hook became Hook, how the Lost Boys became lost, how Tinker found her bell, and how Wendy, never gave up hope.

This play is all about storytelling as a lively art, as a comic tale that bounds the tellers and the listeners together like never before. Simultaneously being told and celebrated by a merry band of seafarers and Mermaids, the story is as elaborate, simple, cozy, and scary as the best bedtime stories are. Its elements include an ocean voyage, a shipwreck, a cargo of something called stardust, a blissful Edwardian chorus line of mermaids, and three orphans who have never seen the light of day before.

Find your way to this magical tale of Peter and the Starcatcher, ”For once you have found your way there. You can never, never grow old.”*

* “Never Never Land” from Peter Pan, the musical, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green.

Participation Form and Show Calendar
Synopsis and Character Breakdowns
FAQs

  


Menlo Drama at the Fringe Festival

The American High School Theatre Festival (AHSTF)  selected Menlo Drama to perform four performances at the prestigious Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 30, 2022-August 12, 2022!  Take a look at their incredible experience.

Where we’ve been!

Here’s a look back at the 2021-2022 drama season. It was thrilling to have Menlo Drama return to the stage with students performing to in-person audiences in Menlo’s new state-of-the-art Spieker Center. 

Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee features an eclectic group of six middle schoolers vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. While candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home lives, the tweens spell their way to the coveted title of winner. 

Senior Spotlight

Senior Spotlight—a historical retrospective of Menlo Drama seniors showcasing their talents over their last four years onstage along with newly filmed live performances on the Spieker stage. This video retrospective and recorded-live-performance hybrid celebrates the drama accomplishments of Amay Goel, Kate Richardson, Peter Hanson Tucker Gold, Uma Misha as well as many others.

Matilda

A heartwarming story based on the beloved novel by Roald Dahl about an extraordinary girl who, armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand and change her destiny!


 


Drama Courses

  • Musical Theater (1S)

    This is a semester-long course is and is offered in the FALL only. 

    This class is designed to tell stories through music with the goal of developing an awareness of emotional truth and connection. It is a performance-based course focused on the essential elements of musical theatre - music & drama. We will cover shows from the early days to today’s latest and greatest on Broadway, discovering how its history translates and relates to the hits of today. Students are encouraged to bring their own repertoire while also being open to learning something new. We will perform scenes from musicals and together create an end-of-semester ‘showcase’ to celebrate student’s achievements. Prior experience in vocal music & drama is encouraged but not necessary.

  • Drama On-Stage (1S)

    This course is a semester-long course and is offered in the FALL. This class can be taken along with Drama Off-Stage in order to count as a year-long arts class. 

    This one-semester introductory theatre course helps you discover your individual voice through the fundamental elements of all things ON stage. Through improvisation, observation, character development, and performance technique, you will help bring to life stories that are diverse and engaging, including but not limited to, monologues, scene study, and performance-based classroom presentations. By developing a greater understanding and appreciation of what theatre is, along with your unique perspective, Drama On-Stage can help you build confidence as you “bring it all together” in a culminating project.

  • Drama Off-Stage (2S)

    This course is a semester-long course and is offered in the SPRING. This class can be taken along with Drama On-Stage in order to count as a year-long arts class. 

    This one-semester course is perfect to take in tandem, with Drama ON-Stage or can be taken as a stand-alone. The focus of this class is to create a deeper appreciation and understanding of everything that happens OFF-Stage in theatre. Through practical application, learn about the wide range of opportunities in the artistic, production, and business categories of the business to put on a successful production! Topics and units include lighting, sound, costuming, theatre management, and general production support. Learn to apply skills and techniques to produce a play holistically while helping to support the Menlo mainstage productions, during class time, in design, management, technical services, dramaturgy, and backstage support. Practical application will be in real-time with real results.

  • Production: Page to Spieker Stage (1S and/or 2S)

    This course can be taken as in either SPRING or FALL as a semester-long course or taken both semesters as a year-long course.

    The first hands-on experience exploring and combining design, science, engineering, craftsmanship, art, and presentation inside the new Spieker Center for the Arts, this course is an opportunity to think big. It will cover digital theatrical LED lighting, live sound, production organization and management, set design, tools, construction, scenic painting, costume and prop design. Each student will be encouraged to find his/her own areas of interest. Learn how to safely use the diverse technology and tools of our new theater to take student projects from concept to completion. Students can also learn from working live events, concerts, dance, or theater. We will focus on collaboration, basic skill sets, and creativity. 

About Menlo Drama