Students in the Martin Middle School Theatre Arts Department won a number of honors at the North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC) Regional Middle School Play Festival on March 21 at Winston-Salem. Students in Martin’s Drama Production, Technical Theatre III, and Playwriting classes earned a Superior Rating for their production of their original piece, “Serpent of Stone”, as well as Theatre Arts awards for Excellence in Puppetry, Excellence in Choreography and Excellence in Directing. In addition, student Lauren Bullamore’s one-act play was recognized for Excellence in Playwriting.
This collaborative production piece, featuring a 40-foot-long silver Chinese dragon (body made by the Drama and Tech Theatre students, with the dragon head by Maggie Bennett’s Visual Arts sculpture class), was inspired by an all-school collaboration with Cisco engineer and mountain-climber Chip Popoviciu, who climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest last spring. The Martin Drama Production students wrote a poem to commemorate his climb, and local composer Marshall Thomason wrote an original composition for the school’s Honors Chorus (directed by Ramona Jenner) using the poem as the basis for the lyrics. Playwriting student Lauren Bullamore wrote an original one-act that was inspired in turn by the music. The musical portion of the production was included in this year’s WCPSS/Wake Education Partnership production of Pieces of Gold.
Teachers leading the group are Judy Dove, theatre director, and Kirt Landry, technical director.
Martin Middle students created this 40-foot-long silver Chinese dragon. The Drama and Tech Theatre students created the body and Maggie Bennett’s Visual Arts sculpture class created the head.
Martin Middle is a magnet school with the gifted and talented theme that seeks to identify, value, nurture and reward the gifts and talents that students possess.
Thanks to Judy Dove for sharing this information through GotNews