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WDP @ PPAS

Since 2010, the Waterwell Drama Program (WDP) has been in residency at NYC’s Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS), offering top-quality in-school theater training to over 200 public school students throug the Middle School Theater Arts and High School Drama programs.

PPAS is the premiere public-school arts conservatory for students from all five boroughs of NYC. It is the special mission of this small, personalized school to develop, refine, and showcase students in dance, drama, musical theater and vocal music while also providing them with a rigorous, meaningful academic curriculum. To learn more about PPAS, visit the schools’ website.

 

WDP at PPAS is a conservatory-style training program with a three year intensive in musical theatre at the middle school level and a four year intensive in acting and theater-making at the high school level. Following a full academic course load, our middle school students take an hour and a half to train in singing, dancing, and acting focusing on a wide array of techniques and styles; our high schoolers devote two hours to acting, movement, voice and speech, and theater studies classes. Additional grade specific after-school rehearsal projects give students of all grades the opportunity to perform with world-class artists and create top-quality productions.

Our curriculum provides students with the artistic and personal skills to be leaders in the field, their community, and in whatever profession they choose to pursue. At both the Middle School and High School level, our training is heavily rooted in our Artist as Citizen ethos, challenging our young artists to think critically about the impact of their work and their role as artists in society.

 
 

On Stage

WDP’s after-school Rehearsal Projects provide an opportunity for our students to connect what they are learning in the classroom to collaborate with trained educators and world-class theater artists on a professionally-run and fully-staged production. Major activities include:

 

  • 6th graders and a professional director create and perform a short play festival of student-generated work.

    7th graders rehearse and perform a concert reading of a score-heavy musical with the help of a director and live band.

    8th graders, a director, design team and stage manager rehearse and perform a full-length play.

    6th,7th and 8th graders, a director, music director and stage manager rehearse and present a mainstage musical.

  • 9th graders and two teaching artists rehearse an evening of two-person scenes from contemporary American drama.

    10th graders, a director and stage manager rehearse and perform a stripped down, actor-centric, heightened language play.

    11th graders and a full production team present a Modern masterpiece.

    12th graders, a playwright, and a full production team create a new play through Waterwell’s annual New Works Lab commission. For more information about our New Works Lab click here.

 
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