Course Options

Theatre arts at Nepean high school is a full 4 year pathway offering a full experiential learning environment focused on Theatre and the arts as an essential component to society and our understanding of human nature.   The theatre program here at Nepean provides a creative and expressive outlet for students while setting the bar for learning theatre, performance and the arts as a professional endeavor for the future.

ADA1O (Grade 9 Drama): Taught by Dan Wright and Lee Carter.

An introduction to the world of theatre and theatrical presentation skills.  The Grade 9 drama course is intended to allow students a space to collaborate, create and learn through experience.  By focusing on the importance of collaborative team work through constructive group dynamics, grade 9 students will learn about:

•  Physical and vocal expression through  dramatic performance and script writing.

• Character creation and analysis.

• Leadership, through directing and designing original theatrical works.

• Group dynamics and team learning through small group collaboration.

• Theatre design with an emphasis on costumes, props, sets and lighting/sound design.

• The history of Theatre and it's artistic and cultural significance in society.

ADA2O (Grade 10 Drama): Taught by Dan Wright

The theatre pathway also includes the Grade 10 ADA2O which builds on skill learned in the grade 9 year with an expanded emphasis on: 

• Movement and voice

• Theatrical design,

• Children's Theatre,  

• Theatre history and the performance style of the Italian masked comedic genre Commedia dell'arte, as well as theatre as a method of self expression.

• Character creation and script analysis through scene study,

• Improvisation

ADA3M/4M (Grade 11 and 12 Drama): Taught by Dan Wright

The Grade 11 and 12 students in the ADA3M/4M course are challenged in their studies of theatre as the explore more leadership and advanced performance concepts and styles along with an academic approach to theatre as a cultural and societal tool for change.  Grade 12 students will be responsible for directing fellow students in independently researched and vetted One Act Plays.  Grade 11/12 students will learn collaboratively together about:

• The art of the director

• Practical theatrical stage design and tech,

• Script writing, 

• Advanced acting and performance through practical application,

• Independently studying early ground breaking theatre practitioners who changed the art form. 

ADD2O/3M/4M (Grade 10,11 and 12 Theatre Production) (full year course): co-taught by Dan Wright and Lee Carter.

This full year, locally designed course allows students in grades 10,11 and 12 to explore all of the diverse facets of theatrical production and performance. The course is structured and run as a professional theatre company and is viewed as a "legacy course". This is where senior students mentor and guide junior students in the practical hands-on production of a play or musical which will be performed at Nepean in the spring.  Students will choose an area of interest such as:

•  Set design and construction, 

• costume/makeup design/ 

• prop design and construction, 

• front or house and business promotion with a focus on community outreach and fundraising ,

•  finally, technical theatre/ Light and Sound production.  Students interested in this department will work a member of  our "Ntek" sound and light crew.  There, they will learn about practical lighting and sound and be responsible for running all of the schools technical requirements throughout the school year. 

The Theatre Production Course  exists as a hands-on experientially based course that aims to help students develop a critical appreciation of the professional theatre and all of it components.  Students will be engaged in all stages and elements of a full scale theatrical production from inception to final performance and strike, while making long lasting personal connections.

Extracurricular Theatre Opportunities at Nepean:

• Improv Club/ Improv Team - Canadian Improv Games competition.

• Children’s Theatre touring performance.

• Nepean Spring Drama Production.

 The Nepean High School Theatre Program serves as a multi-faceted global application of theatre as a creative art form that has cultural and societal significance while providing a expressive outlet for all students. 

"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being."

-Oscar Wilde