Thomas Dale High School - Reflector Yearbook (Chester, VA)

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A Star in the Midst of Us hat is drama? Drama is made up of conflicts and how one over- comes these conflicts. If conflict did not exist in the world, there would be no drama. Therefore, there would not be a place for the new drama director, Roman Alis, at Thomas Dale. Roman Alis is a professional actor and teacher who graduated from Boston University and received his MFA in Theatre arts. He had taught and performed in Boston, Colorado, Practicing for the production of Our Town, Amy Fulcher finds that memorizing lines can be a long and tedious job. Discussing changes in the script, Amy Fulcher and Suzanne Bailey decide that it sounds too funny to be put on stage. 42 Drama Montana, Oklahoma City, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. He works for the ABC Televi- sion Network and has participated in these various roles: Limestreet with Robert Wagner and Mirror Images with the British Broadcasting Sys- tem. He is also directing this year’s fall drama production, Our Town. Dramatic theatre is used to enter- tain and convey various points of views to stimulate reactions from the audiences. Mr. Alis has a special way of teaching students the correct procedures in acting. First, one on one, he takes an individual in a small room and reads over the lines out loud to make the student aware of the meaning of the lines. Once they are understood, the individual reads it as if the scene really is occurring and eventually builds up to their ex- pectations. Mr. Alis’ goals this year with the Thomas Dale actors and ac- tresses are to find motivation in all the scenes, to locate the obstacles and to find the resolution of every plot.

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Music, Music, Music! homas Dale has always been known for successful artistic training in the many spring musicals’ held throughout the years. Students have performed shows that range from ‘made-up productions to sell out Broadway musicals. This year, the music and drama de- partments had decided to make their own show based on the televi- sion show Fame. Unfortunately, due to emergency medical reasons, the show was cancelled. However, much time and preparation had already gone into the show. The ‘‘kids”’ were not about to give up easily, so the decision was made to put together a Braodway review, A Touch of Fame. A percentage of the proceeds were given to the Hunger Relief Program in Ethiopia. The main goal of this review was to give students experience where there was a need for stage dancing and singing. Mr. Farryl Essig wrote an outstanding script. Mr. Scott Per- kins, Mrs. Cezette Barnes, and Mrs. Harriet Schaeffer wrote and ar- ranged the music. Mr. Robbie Baker was the choreographer and made up all the dances. Mrs. Schaeffer says, “The show was a combined effort between the chorus, jazz band, or- chestra, dancers, and artists. | think it went great!”’ Looking forward to future spring plans for next year, the idea is to perform a full Broadway production. The departments are very excited to have Mr. Roman Alis with them in the drama department this year. Mrs. Schaeffer feels that Thomas Dale’s productions offer students top qual- ity training in the performing arts that is unsurpassed in the state of Virginia. A job well done, perform- ers! Warming up for the spring show, Doug Rock tunes up his saxaphone. ee Robbie Baker means business during the fight scene of the show performed at Thomas Dale last spring. Spring Show 41

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If you think it is a rumor that stu- dents at Thomas Dale are participat- ing in a movie that Mr. Alis is involved with, well, it is not. Mr. Alis is filming a movie, Home Front, in Virginia and this movie will be premiering next summer. Eight students from Thom- as Dale are participating in the film. These students are Tim Botset, Wayne Davis, Tony Jordon, Kenny Getting stepped on is the least of Matt Por- Brown, Mark Claiborne, Todd ter’s worries as he tries to learn his lines and Finkler, Chris Fox and Taylor Holt. be comfortable at the same time. Congratulations guys, we will be supporting you 100%. As a star of the drama club’s production, Mr. Alis appears to be generating Christine Womack prepares her lines for the @XCitementin the drama department premiere of the show. that will be felt for years to come. Giving examples of the characters of Our Demonstrating the different techniques of Being watched by the other performers, Mi- Town, Mr. Allis shows them exactly what acting, Mr. Allis gives directions on proper chael Cuomo finds that acting is a long, te- should be done and how to do it. movements and voice projection. dious job that musn’t be taken lightly. Drama 43