Danielle Kalivretenos

Intern/Mentor GT
Period 6
Works Cited
Carlsen, Kathryn. Personal interview. Sept. 2016.
Ms. Carlsen is the theatre arts teacher at Centennial High School. She has been working
at Centennial for eleven years. She is an alumni of University of Maryland, College Park, and is
currently a member of the Baltimore Improv Group. Ms. Carlsen has been my theatre teacher for
three years. As a freshman I took Theatre I, as a sophomore Musical Theatre I, as a junior
Musical Theatre II GT, and now I am interning for Musical Theatre. Ms. Carlsen invited me last
year to intern for her this year. Before the school year ended we reviewed some of the projects I
would be doing. When the seniors graduated last year, she taught Ben (her other intern) and me
how to work the PA system so we could say the announcements in the mornings. She explained
to Ben and me that we would each be assistant directing one of the main stage productions this
year. I will be assistant directing the spring musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. We discussed
what I should start working on over the summer: reading the book on directing that she gave me,
and beginning to work on my ensemble number. The first thing I would be teaching to the class
was an ensemble number (vocals, dance, etc). Near the end of the summer, Ms. Carlsen, Ben,
and I had a meeting to discuss the school year. We reviewed the timeline for our work. I would
be starting the ensemble number (September), then choreographing and teaching the class songs
for Winter Spectacular (November), I will teach a unit of my own (December-January), and
finally I will direct a junior musical (February-April). So far I have finished teaching the
ensemble number to the class. Ms. Carlsen was very helpful with the teaching process. She gave
me advice on teaching methods, things I should review with the class, and ways to treat the class.
When I was struggling with keeping the class on track, she immediately stepped in for help. I am
very appreciative for both everything she has taught me and for giving me the opportunity to
intern for her.
Informational Dance Video: 60s Dances. By Brian Greene. Youtube. N.p., 10 Sept.
2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_WBsBBtFE>.
This source is a video named 60s Dances, which is found on YouTube. The woman
narrating the video introduces different dance moves from the 1960s and demonstrates how to do
each dance move. The dance moves she included in her video are the twist, jerk, monkey, pony,
swim, shimmy, mashed potato, skate, Egyptian, hitch hiker, temptation walk, and locomotion.
She used a catchy beach song as the background audio. This video makes 1960s dance quick and
easy to learn.
This source was very helpful for me while I was choreographing my ensemble number to
teach to the class. The song I choose was, You Cant Stop the Beat, from Hairspray, which
takes place in the 1960s. You Cant Stop the Beat is a high energy, exciting, and big dance
number. I wanted to keep the dance true to its time, so it was important to me that I included
signature 60s dance moves. Not only did this video make it easy for me to learn the dance
moves, it made it easier for me to teach the dance moves.

Rodgers, James W., and Wanda C. Rodgers. Play Director's Survival Kit. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995. Print.
Wanda and James Rodgers, Play Directors Survival Kit is a complete guide to
directing a play. It explains all of the aspects of directing a production from picking the play to
having it performed for an audience. The process of directing a play/musical starts far in
advance. It is important to choose a show six months to a year in advance, and find
designers/stage managers at least three months in advance. The book illustrates many important
parts of directing a show such as how to select the right play, unravel a plays meaning, lay out a
rehearsal schedule, work with a designer, understand technical aspects (costumes, stage, lighting,
sound), conduct auditions, make intelligent casting decisions, block the play, work with actors,
direct plays/musicals, understand ticket sales, advertise the show, make programs, and interact
with the audience. The last few chapters of the book are glossaries for theatre terms. The sections
for these chapters include acting/directing terms, odd names for technical things, theatre spaces,
stages of the production process, a list of theatrical forms, terms about parts of plays, and players
in a commercial theatre organization.
This source will be helpful for me later in the year when I am assistant directing the
spring show, The Drowsy Chaperone, and directing a junior musical (show has not been
decided yet). Before reading the book, I hadnt realized quite how many things went into
directing a show. Something that is nice about the book is that there are checklists at the end of
most chapters to keep the director on track with their show. The chapter that was the most
beneficial for me was How to Lay Out a Rehearsal Schedule. I know that in the past the most
struggling part for directing the junior musical for musical theatre has been planning and sticking
to the rehearsal schedule. The difficult part about rehearsing for the junior musical is that it all
takes place during the class period. The only rehearsals that do not occur in school are a few
dress rehearsals a few days prior to the show. My goal is to start teaching the junior musical as
early as possible so that we can have as much rehearsal time possible.

Kenrick, John. "How to Write a Musical." Musicals 101. N.p., 2009. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.musicals101.com/write.htm>.
In this article, John Kenrick explains many important aspects of writing a musical. He
begins the article by explaining four famous lyricist-librettists approaches for writing musicals.
The lyricists include William Gilbert, Larry Hart, Arnold Jay Lerner, and Oscar Hammerstein.
He then goes on to discuss how musical has to have need, the characters must need something
desperately, and it has to be challenging them to satisfy that need. He then listed many things to
keep in mind. These include seeing as many shows as possible, study musical that you like and
dislike, find an inventive story, and be ready to devote at least five years of work for this
musical. He concluded with the eight rules for writing musicals. These rules are show, dont tell,
cut everything that is not essential, know the basics of good story telling, tell a good story in an
entertaining way (do NOT teach or preach), find the song posts, open with an effective musical
number, book, score, and staging must speak as one, and sing it OR say it, never both.
This source will be very helpful for me when teaching my unit to the musical theatre class.
My plan is to have them write mini-musicals with certain restrictions. This is all information that
I would include in a powerpoint for the beginning of my unit. The sections that are most helpful
to me are Things to Keep in Mind, and The Eight Rules for Writing Musicals. This source
was easy to read and comprehend, which hopefully will make my lessons easier for my students
to understand.
"A Short History of Theater and Drama." The Norton Anthology of Drama. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nadrama/ content/review/shorthistory/antiquity18c/india
n.aspx>.

This website contains information on the origins of theater in different countries. The
specific page cited is for Indian Theatre. The sections of this topic are classical Indian theater,
Origins of Indian Theater, Audience, Playhouse, and actors, Theory of Performance:
Raja and Classical Indian Drama. Each section uses historical terminology, and provides a
description for each.
This website is extremely useful to me because I am doing a project on the origins of
theater in different countries. My project will be presented on one of the bulletin boards in the
theatre room. This Website has information on almost of all the countries I am researching. This
project is very interesting to me because aspects of all of the countries are connected to make
modern day theatre.