ABOUT SOUTH
STAGE & SPEECH

SOUTH STAGE is Newton South's Theatre Program, involving more than 100 new and returning students every year - backstage, onstage, in class, after school, in construction, lighting, costumes, marketing, box office, and much more. We produce 8 shows a year, including Shakespeare, the Freshman Play, an all-school musical, royalty plays and original scripts. Each year we host Round One of the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival and have performed many times at semi-finals and state finals. In 2004 South Stage was invited to perform in the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival in Scotland, one of 39 programs in the nation selected for this honor - the experience of a lifetime! South Stage is affiliated with the Newton South Speech Team, home to 8 National Finalists and 2 National Champions in the past five years. No fewer than 8 Speech events are theatre based, offering even more opportunities to motivated students. There are 5 Theatre Classes available for credit, ranging from Acting to Technical Theatre to Dramatic Literature. Major productions are directed by qualified faculty and guest artists, while class projects and a student directed one-act festival offer qualified seniors an opportunity to direct their peers.

South Stage's purpose is to provide opportunity and training in all theatre arts, not just acting, to offer professionally directed high school theatre for the Newton South community at reasonable cost, to foster teamwork and team spirit, and to have fun! South Stage aspires to high theatrical standards while seeking participation from the broadest possible range of South students. Although these goals sometimes conflict, we believe it is possible and necessary to pursue both.