Drama
The award-winning Santa Fe High School Theater Department is recognized as one of the most diverse and active student theater programs in the Southwest. The program nurtures young artists in the various elements of production, performance, and analysis.
Producing an average of five full productions a year, the program demands a great deal of commitment and participation while understanding the need for academic success. Students involved in the department perform in main stage productions of both “straight” and “musical” shows, student-directed productions, state theater festivals, solo performance pieces, and world premieres.
In recent years, SFHS Theater has performed in the Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe Fest - the largest theater festival in the world - taken excellence awards for acting and technical theater at the state one-act competition at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, staged a multi-discipline world premiere in conjunction with the Dance Department (Words Mean Nothing), presented classics of American theater (The Hot L Baltimore), and produced offbeat shows like The Rocky Horror Show and Sylvia.
Collaborations with local theaters (The International Shakespeare Center and The Lensic) have allowed students to be immersed in the professional world while still being centered in an educational environment.
Students are introduced to character construction, improvisational work, stage make-up, stage combat, script analysis, lights, construction, sound, stage managing, and much more.
Available Programs
What We Offer
Drama 1
This is an introductory class open to all students, regardless of experience and grade level. Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to, Character Construction, Public Speaking, Improvisation, Monologue Work, Make-Up, Stage Combat, and Theater Positions.
Advanced Drama
Advanced Drama is open to students who have successfully completed Drama 1, or who have extensive prior theatrical experience. A rotating, three-year "conservatory style" class, students who take all three years of advanced will have a deep, and collegiate ready, understanding of external character creation, internal character work, and script analysis. Advanced Drama is by teacher approval and/or audition.
Students are expected to do technical support for two productions during the course of the show season.
Drama Stagecraft
Drama Stagecraft is an intensive but essential element of SFHS Theater. Students oversee and produce all technical elements of productions. This includes, but is not limited to, lighting, construction, costume management, sound, and stage management. Students annually participate in The Lensic Theater Internship, providing valuable professional experience for further study in college. For highly dedicated students, opportunities to design lights, sound, and sets are also available.
Advanced Film Studies
Another joint class with Santa Fe Community College (accommodating Dual Credit class requirement for graduation), Advanced Film Studies examines major film movements from history, analyses film concepts such as Mise en Scene, Cinematography, and Screenplay. Other movements such feminist filmmaking, World New Wave cinema, and animation are also covered. Class participation and discussion is expected in this class.
Beginning Film Studies
A joint class with Santa Fe Community College (accommodating Dual Credit class requirement for graduation), Film Studies is an introductory Film History course that examines the history of film as an art form, it's aesthetic fundamentals, and milestone films. Starting with the birth of silent films and ending with modern masterpieces, this class is open to all students 10th grade or higher that have an interest in film and film history.
International
Thespian Society
As a member of The International Thespian Society (Troupe #4115), students will gain points through participating in all things theater. Whether they are performing on stage, minding the booth, ushering and house managing, or organizing and promoting the theater itself, students will gain organizational skills and have valuable experience for college and professional resumes.
Past Production Slideshow (click image for full size)
Instruction
Reed Meschefske:
Drama 1
Advanced Acting
Film Studies
Reed Meschefske has been active in theater for over thirty-five years. Mr. Reed spent a large part of the 1990s performing improvisational comedy with both ComedySportz (Green Bay Branch) and Theater Sports (Midwest Branch), as well as developing a love for Shakespeare with the Dancing Moon Theater Company.
He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia-College Chicago and his Master's of Fine Arts Degree from the National Theater Conservatory in Denver, CO. Mr. Reed has performed with The Utah Shakespeare Theater, The Denver Center Theater Company, Attic Theatre Company, Theater Oobleck, and many others. Before becoming a full time educator, he was a member of The Actor's Equity Association. He has been Head of Theater at Santa Fe High School since 2010.
He won the Partner's In Education Teachers Who Inspire Award in 2015.
Contact: Rmeschefske@sfps.k12.nm.us
Zoe Burke:
Drama Stagecraft
Zoe Burke, who has been involved in theatre as an actress since her youth, began studying technical theatre and directing while obtaining her education degree at Newman University. Since then, she has acted in, directed, staged managed, and worked on technical design for productions with a variety of theatre companies, both in her home state of Kansas and here in Santa Fe.
In addition to teaching stagecraft at Santa Fe High, she teaches drama at Ortiz Middle School and has taught drama classes at Warehouse 21.
Contact: Pburke@sfps.k12.nm.us
Upcoming Productions
SFHS Theater Presents:
THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES
By: John Guare
Directed by: Reed Meschefske
Set in Sunnyside, Queens, on the day Pope Paul VI visited New York in 1965, The House of Blue Leaves centers on zookeeper and would-be songwriter Artie Shaughnessy. Desperate to escape life with his schizophrenic wife, Bananas, Artie is having an affair with his flamboyant neighbor, Bunny Flingus.
The ambitious Bunny hatches a plan to commit Bananas and move to Hollywood so that Artie can collaborate with his childhood friend Billy Einhorn, who grew up to be a famous film director. Also on the scene are Artie and Bananas’ troubled son, a deaf movie actress and a trio of excitable nuns. By the end of this historic day, whose dreams will come true?
Contains material not appropriate for children under 13.
Tickets:
$8 - students and seniors
$10 - general adult admission
Performances:
May 4, 5, 6 @ 7:33 pm
Production will take place at SFHS Performing Arts Building - 2100 Yucca St.
