Preparations are currently underway on the Da Vinci Dragon Players' first foray into the wild and crazy world of U.I.L. One-Act Play competition. For those of you that may not be familiar with the contest, which founded in 1927, is the largest high school play production contest or play festival in the world. More than 14,000 Texas high school students in more than 1,200 plays participate in 300-plus contests, which take place from the beginning of March through the three-day, 40-production State Meet One-Act Play Contest. The One-Act Play Contest is supported by more than 300 members of the Texas Theatre Adjudicator and Officials Organization. The League's theatre program is considered by historians to be the foundation of educational and community theatre in Texas. It continues to be a major factor motivating increasing numbers of schools to offer theatre arts as an academic subject.The U.I.L. One-Act Play contest is a competition where similarly sized Texas schools present an 18-40 minute play and may be adjudicated by a panel of three judges or a single judge. The contest is held on a single day and open to the public. There are six possible levels of competition: Zone, District, Bi-District, Area, Region, and State. At each level of competition a judge awards individual acting awards as well as selecting three productions to advance to the next level of competition up to the Regional Level where only two will advance to the State Level. After the awards are announced a Judge gives an oral critique to each of the schools. Because of the wide participation and diversity of plays produced certain rules and guidelines have been adopted by the State One-Act Play Office. These rules are in place to ensure safety, allow for equity, satisfy legal standards, and make the running of the contest practical.
Da Vinci's inaugural entry into the competition will be Sunday Costs Five Pesos by Josephine Niggli.
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Well, hello, and welcome to my first attempt at entering the Blogosphere. It is such a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with my students here at Da Vinci School, as I strive to build a Theatre Arts program from the ground up out of whole cloth. So out of all of the questions I could go about answering for you in my very first post, I have decided to tackle the one that I am sure would keep the majority of those who do not know me or my background who read this awake for many a restless night. That is, of course, "Why Zeppo Marx???" My answer to you is, "Why not Zeppo Marx???"
Okay, seriously, let me explain. Long long ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, in a place called El Paso, a young aspiring actor (that would be me) was wending his way through the Theatre Department at the University of Texas at El Paso as an undergraduate student. Deep in the recesses of the Fox Fine Arts complex, in the bowels of the Theatre Department lay a room filled with chairs, couches, tables, and the prerequisite Coke machine, that would sometimes spit out two cans if you smacked it on the side just right when you made your selection. It was known as the Green Room, the lounge area for Theatre students underneath what was then known as the University Playhouse (now known as the Wise Family Theatre), and adjacent to the Studio Theatre. The room seems almost antiseptic these days, compared to those days back in the early 1980's when smoking was still allowed inside the buildings at UTEP, and a thick blue haze of second-hand smoke permeated the air, at times looking almost like a mini inversion layer over the sofas, and reminiscent of the familiar visual of Cheech and Chong driving along in their smoke filled van (although the Green Room smoke was all tobacco in those days). Tucked away in one corner of the room, amidst all of the Theatre Department posters of an era gone by, was an old-school chalkboard. The chalkboard was used by students in the department to communicate with one another in these days before cell phones and text messages. Lunch plans, rehearsal times, pithy quotes, and one liners could often be found there. On the upper edge of the chalkboard an ancient sign that had been printed on yellow card stock about 8 1/2x11 inches in size, read in a font that was reminiscent of vaudeville simply, "THE ZEPPO MARX MEMORIAL CHALKBOARD". For those of you who are not quite up to speed on movies of the 1930's, Zeppo Marx was the fourth Marx Brother in the act, after Groucho, Harpo, and Chico. His job was simple. He was the straight man, often serving as the foil to Groucho's acerbic wit and wisecracks. He was the glue that held the act together, and made the comedy work. He appeared in the Marx Brothers first five movies, from 1929 to 1933, and then left the act to launch a second career as an engineer and a theatrical agent. The Marx Brothers would go on without him, but I always felt that the act lost that steady presence to cut through all the zany goings on with the other three, and they were never quite the same after that. At least that was my opinion. So fast forward to the present. We have been asked by Ms. Granados, our new principal at Da Vinci, for each teacher to put together a website for their classes. I made the choice to include a blog page, to communicate with parents, student body, theatre students, and friends, to let them know what is going on with our program, and I will later use it to post rehearsal schedules, etc. for my various casts and crews. I could think of no better name for this blog, to call attention to that long-since replaced chalkboard, and a simpler time, than to name it the Zeppo Marx Memorial Blog, bringing the name into the digital age. And as the zanyness goes on around us, I will endeavor to be the quiet steady one in the back, who keeps everything in check, and helps make the magic happen on the stage. So now you know... |
AuthorJust me, Wayne Davidson, your average, run-of-the-mill Da Vinci Theatre Arts Teacher Archives
April 2018
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