Drama

Early Childhood

Early Childhood: Drama is integrated into daily activities

At the Early Childhood Campus, "the world is our stage."  Puppets, dress up clothes, and themed play areas encourage children to engage in dramatic play. Teachers support this free and creative play and, when appropriate, may redirect the activity in order to further the children's learning. Teachers also orchestrate more structured drama activities with their small groups to act out a story or engage in a role-play.  

Elementary School

Elementary: Drama is integrated into Music instructional time and classroom activities

The arts are integral to our academic program and curricular units are often complemented with a musical or dramatic presentation.  In addition, all students perform in Fall Festival and Spring Fling, school-wide events that are held each year.  Students may also participate in the chorus and are encouraged to share their individual interests and skills in our annual Talent Showcases. Chorus members are invited to be in the cast of the middle school musical theater production staged each spring.

Middle School 

Middle School Musical:  Five days a week for 45 minutes

Click here to view a photo gallery from this year's production of Beauty and the Beast, Jr.

Click here to view a photo gallery from last year's production of Willy Wonka, Jr.

Dramatic presentations and role-playing are incorporated at many levels in the middle school. Each year the middle school presents a Shakespeare Festival as a culmination of their study of Shakespeare's literature and his times. Middle school students and teachers dress in costumes and relive the Elizabethan times with play performances, a royal court, a royal ball and a student planned Elizabethan carnival. The focus of the festival is the MYP area of interaction, human ingenuity, which explores the act of creation and its consequences. 

Each year, CDS stages a full-scale musical theater production. The middle school musical is rehearsed third quarter, and performed mid-March. Middle school students audition for the principal and supporting roles. Students receive basic drama instruction, choral and solo instruction, and dance instruction. Recent shows have included Cinderella, Jr., Fiddler on the Roof, Jr., Aladdin, Jr., and Mulan, Jr. Middle school students are also encouraged to share their individual interests and skills in our annual Talent Showcase.

The middle school also sponsors a championship Forensics Team. Forensics is a competition where students read from a variety of genres. CDS competes in a league with other Bay area private schools. There are seven categories in which our league competes: Declamation, Prose, Poetry, Individual and Duo Drama, Original Oratory and Impromptu Speaking.

High School

High School: Drama is offered as an elective.

High school students can elect to participate in the drama program. Eleventh and twelfth grade students participating in the IB Diploma Programme are required to take one two-year course in one of The Arts.

In the spring of 2008, CDS Prep was granted a charter to establish a thespian troupe through the International Thespian Society.  Members of the new thespian troupe will compete with other Hillsborough public and private high schools.