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Middle School
Dramatic presentations and role-playing are incorporated at many levels in the middle school. Students are encouraged to showcase their individual interests and talents.
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 student created play performances, a royal court, a royal feast 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.
Middle school sponsors a Jr. Thespian Troupe. This club is for any student who enjoys both performing arts and competition. Students prepare monologues, scenes, musical numbers, and even technical theatre events and compete at local and state competitions.
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.
Middle School Performing Arts Elective
Students may choose Performing Arts as an elective class where they will explore the process and practice the skills needed to create a successful performance. Theatre history, musical theatre and drama and theatre etiquette are studied as students explore the skills needed to create a character and communicate with an audience. Students will experience how the different aspects of theatre all work together.
The highlight of the class is the Middle School Spring Showcase. Students work in class groupings to create a performance that is presented in a variety show format at the end of the third quarter.