Drama is infused throughout the Speyer curriculum.
As Speyer students engage in dramatic projects and performances, they develop personal confidence and empathy as well as those skills needed to be a productive team member.
Incorporating drama and theater projects within our curriculum allows our students to take what they are learning and go even deeper, concurrently supporting their social and emotional learning such as building communication skills and fostering empathy. Our Fourth Grade studies the Silk Road in Humanities and the unit culminates in a play written and performed by the students, while our fifth graders perform Greek tragedies as part their final Humanities unit of the year (prior tragedies we have seen include Eurydice, Antigone, and Agamemnon). Our Sixth Grade celebrated their study of George Orwell’s Animal Farm by throwing Napoleon a birthday party where each student embodied a character from the novel.
However, Drama isn’t limited to our Humanities classes: in Science, Middle School students have studied and performed the play Oxygen by Nobel Prize winner and chemist Roald Hoffman and world-famous chemist Carl Djerassi; one year, we had the opportunity to welcome Roald Hoffman to Speyer to watch the students perform scenes from the play and engage in dialogue about its content.
As the Theater District is just blocks away from Speyer, our teachers seek opportunities to enrich and enhance what is being studied in the classroom using New York City as part of the classroom. From attending a performance at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre in Central Park as part of their study of fairy tales in Kindergarten to seeing &Juliet on Broadway in Seventh Grade while reading Romeo and Juliet to Fifth Grade’s annual trip to Hadestown during their unit on Greek tragedies, our students experience the power of theater to provide different perspectives and transform storytelling.
A cornerstone of the Eighth Grade curriculum is the study of one of Shakepeare’s plays followed by a full theatrical production of that play. The students are not only involved as actors, they also create all of the sets, costumes, original music, programs — the full production top to bottom. In conjunction with Speyer faculty, outside professional directors and actors are brought in to support and mentor the students during this unit of study. Past plays have included Macbeth, As You Like It, and The Tempest.
There are multiple afterschool offerings for our Lower School and Middle School to further explore their passion for drama and theater. From improv classes to theater troupe, our In addition, Speyer’s Odyssey of the Mind (OOTM) teams often select to compete in the problem section where they are tasked with developing, writing, and performing a theatrical piece. (Fun fact: two of our 2022 Speyer OOTM Teams competed at the World Championship, with one placing seventh in the world and receiving a coveted Ranatra Fusca Award, given to a team or individual for demonstrating outstanding creativity.)
