Improvised scene work, scripting pieces and pulling together performances are very process-oriented tasks, so classes like Needs Improvment and Brookline Education Theater Company require time. This year, scheduling conflicts almost threatened that time, but luckily for the students, they were resolved.
Needs Improvment is a drama class in the performing arts department that students audition for. They do not prepare for shows; they come up with all of their content on the spot. Although they do not know beforehand what they are going to do and say in performances, they use class time to build group chemistry and take closer looks at scenes, according to Needs Improvment co-captain senior B Mast.
“It’s all about understanding how to do improv,” Mast said.
BETCO is also a drama class, but it is a different type of drama. According to junior Simone St. Pierre, students bring in themes, events and ideas and put them together into the scripted pieces they perform.
Because the high school is such a large place with so many students, scheduling is often a problem, according to performing arts teacher Mark Vanderzee, who teaches both Needs Improvment and BETCO.
At the end of last year, according to Mast, the administration told students that Needs Improvment and BETCO would be in one block, each one meeting only twice a week instead of four times a week as in previous years.
According to Mast, losing two days of class a week would have been very detrimental to the improv process and to the writing and directing processes.
“With less time in the classroom, we would not have been able to address all of the material that we had been able to historically, and certainly not in as much detail or complexity,” Vanderzee said.
Needs Improvment co-captain senior Kaitlynd Collins said she was stunned when she heard that the time would be shortened.
“Imagine if you were on the soccer team, and you heard you had half as many practices, but just as many games,” she said.
According to St. Pierre, BETCO uses the entire time to create a product. With only two days a week, the class would not have as much time to work together into creating their output.
“It would just be mini plays shot at us. We wouldn’t all be able to be involved,” she said.
Ultimately, the administration was able to fix the schedule to make as many students happy as possible, Vanderzee said.
“Fortunately, for the many stakeholders involved, the current situation does exactly that,” he said. “We were able to keep BETCO and Needs Improvment at four days a week, as well as add a section of Drama I to serve more students.”
Collins was very pleased when she found out that Needs Improvment and BETCO each got their own four meeting a week block, thanks to Vanderzee and the performing arts department administration.
“Honestly,” Collins said, “I am so thankful because they worked so hard to make it a full class again.”
Lily Böhlke can be contacted at [email protected].
