Five Minutes to Curtain: A Teacher’s Guide for Creating and Staging Original Plays is an invaluable resource for teachers who want to create original productions in collaboration with their students. Burgess provides a step-by-step guide to her unique system for developing devised plays, along with solid advice about all the other aspects of producing high school theatre: directing student actors and working with tech crew, scheduling and running rehearsals, promoting the play, dealing with school administrators, and making connections to the larger community.
Incorporating multiple examples and anecdotes drawn from the author’s twenty years of experience, Five Minutes to Curtain is a blueprint for providing more meaningful and engaging theatrical experiences for participants and audiences alike.
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News & Reviews
“The samples and guidance within this book represent years of layered experience, dramatic discovery, playful anecdotes, and sobering truths—an invaluable tool for all directors who dare to embark on roads less travelled. A must for performing arts teachers everywhere.” —Patti Caplette, from her Foreword
“The best instructional books are written by the people that have lived their subject for many years. Five Minutes to Curtain is such a book. Linda Lori Burgess has not only been able to draw on her experiences but is also able to explain the process of creating original dramas in such a way that someone with very little experience will be able to understand and implement her ideas. Brava, Linda, on crafting this incredibly helpful book!” –Talia Pura, author of Stages: Creative Ideas for Creating Drama
“Linda Lori Burgess’s book is a toolkit full of tips for Drama teachers, both new and experienced! She draws on her own many years running high school Drama programs and offers step-by-step examples and instructions on how to both devise and experience the magic that is theatre. Burgess’s combination of knowledge, honesty, humour, and experience makes for not only an interesting read, but such a practical resource for those taking on the challenge and beauty of creating dramatic art! As one of Burgess’s former Drama students and now a Drama teacher myself, I can say with certainty that Linda speaks from the heart and from a wealth of experience. I felt as inspired reading this book as I did in her classroom years ago. This resource is one you’ll want in your collection!” –Carrie Gillis, Drama Teacher, Past-President of the Manitoba Drama Educators Association
About the Author
Over a twenty-year period as a high school Drama teacher and theatre director, Linda Lori Burgess created dozens of successful, original plays in collaboration with her students, utilizing the process she conceived, developed, and now has outlined in this book. At age nine, she began her theatre education at the Manitoba Theatre Centre School (now defunct,) and continued her formal training at the University of Winnipeg (B.A., Gold Medal recipient for Dramatic Studies), Syracuse University (M.A. in Theatre Arts), and at the University of Manitoba (B.Ed., Drama) She has also worked professionally as an actor in Winnipeg, Syracuse, N.Y., and in Minneapolis, MN. She is proud to count among her former students, successful Canadian actors as well as teachers of Drama. She continues to perform on stage as a singer in the popular Winnipeg retro band REWiND.
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