Theatre Arts
Village Christian’s Theatre Arts is a comprehensive curriculum based on the foundation of Uta Hagen’s “Respect for Acting” and “A Challenge for the Actor.” It is a performance-centered program which strives to develop critical thinking skills in which the actor finds Biblical truth in secular work.
The High School Theatre Arts class gives students an overview of theater performance including monologues, improv, script analysis, scene work, acting for the camera, and how to score a role.
In Theatre 2, students explore classical theater from the ancient Greeks through Shakespeare. Students learn sword fighting and stage combat, theatrical makeup techniques, voice and speech, intro to the Suzuki Method, and perform scene work from Shakespeare and Eugene O’Neill plays.
In the two-year Honors Theatre Production course, which requires the completion of High School Theatre Arts and Theatre 2 with a B or better, students focus on auditioning for the theatre, self-taping auditions for film and television, Uta Hagen Intensive, ensemble building, and Technical Theatre: producing, lighting design, set design, costume design, culminating in producing a full student-led production in the Black Box Theater. This class is for the serious student and is by invitation only.
The Village campus features three performance spaces (the Kendall Pavilion, Auditorium, and the Black Box Theater). Theatre Arts produces two main stage shows every year. The program brings in a production team of working professionals to mentor our students as they participate in high quality, award-winning productions.
MEET THE INSTRUCTOR | THOM BABBES
Thom Babbes, Director of Theatre Arts, has worked as a professional actor and director
since 1979, having trained at The Pacific Conservatory for the Performing
Arts and The Professional Actor Training Program at UWM-Milwaukee. Mr.
Babbes has worked from New York to Los Angeles acting and directing in
regional theater and feature films. At Actors Co-op in Hollywood, he directed
award winning productions of AH, WILDERNESS, SUMMER AND SMOKE, and A MAN
FOR ALL SEASONS.
A screenwriter as well, his scripts have been produced by Roger Corman’s
Concorde New Horizons and others have sold to Samuelson Productions, Apollo
Pictures, and Kings Road Entertainment.
He finds teaching and directing high school students rewarding beyond anything
he could have imagined. His goal is to inspire his students to be at their
creative best by developing their acting techniques and critical thinking
skills and to find Biblical truth in secular work.
At Village Christian, Mr. Babbes has created an environment that brings
together a production team of working professionals that mentor students
and gives them the experience of striving to be excellent in everything
they do, because God deserves nothing less than our best.
Theater is fun. Theater is work. Theater is life changing.
Email | thomb@villagechristian.org
