The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Ted Waddell

MONTICELLO – “In real life we guard our emotions, but on stage you have permission to explode,” said Jeff Lackey to his Intermediate Acting class the other day at Monticello High School.

Monticello High is unique in the county as it offers a drama and dance program as a regular curriculum offering, rather than as elective.

“Dr. Dirth (director of music) and Dr. Michel (superintendent of schools) and all the great teachers here understand that drama can be a very important part of the core curriculum,” said Lackey. “We use it to teach writing, critical thinking and we use it to support social studies and math.”

When the program started last year, the school offered introduction to performing arts and intermediate acting classes, and for the 2009-2010 school year added basic acting and elements of dance and drama, a course Lackey teaches with dance certified dance instructor Krista MeMaio. Amy Philips, a music teacher, helps out by teaching an intermediate acting class in the morning.

Now in it’s second year, student enrollment has more than doubled, with approximately 12 kids taking basic acting, 8 in intermediate, 15 in elements of dance and drama, and 10 in intro to performing arts. In the overall music/drama program, every eight weeks students can select a different module, from technical to chorus, or from dance to instrumental music.

“It gives them a chance to try something they’ve never done before, before settling into something,” said Lackey.

Just the other day, he sat down with a few of his intermediate acting students to ‘set the stage’ for the lesson of the morning, which had them review a script in preparation for getting up on stage to audition for parts in an upcoming production of “The Witch Hut”: Mary Warren, “a servant girl…defiant at times, in this scene is courageous but afraid,” Abigail Williams, “a loose girl (morally for the times), rebellious, manipulative. Sly,” John Proctor “an honest farmer with a secret,” Elizabeth Proctor, “like the others accused of witchcraft” and Jude Daforth, “pious, authoritarian.”

“One more word, and you’re going to jail,” said Lackey in helping the students set the tone of a confrontation between the judge and an accused, “If you can capture these characters with your voice, them you’re acting.”

The basic acting class students have a full script as they are preparing for several performances before Halloween; (Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Raven”) while the introduction to performing arts kids gear up for “The Jabberwocky,” Lewis Carol’s nonsensical poem about slaughtering a hideous monster.

In preparation for a haunting series of productions, the drama class is converting the dance studio into a minimalist black box theatre. “You don’t have costumes and sets to distract from the actor’s technique,“ said Lackey of the black box theatre concept. “It’s up close and personal, it’s more like film acting with people on three sides and with the actor in the middle.”

*Photos captions from top to bottom: Lead photo – Janeene Gambino, Olivia Shope, Liza Macentee, Kelly Pfeister. 1 – Jeff Lackey, drama teacher. 2 – Joseph Davis goes over a script. 3 – Janeene Gambino, Olivia Shope, Liza Macentee, Meghan Yearwood.

To view more photos or to purchase prints from Permission to Explode visit the Chronicle on Zenfolio.