This past March 22, 2012 – March 23, 2012, Gallatin County High School in Warsaw, KY put on The Love of Three Oranges. Even though their run ended a while ago, they just got some media coverage this past week that I wanted to highlight.
First is a review of the show entitled: Gallatin County High School’s ‘The Love of Three Oranges’ sent audiences home in stitches (which always makes me picture the audience bleeding horribly and being rolled out in gurneys.)
The second article, which I thought was particularly unusual, is a collection of brief quotes and reviews from students from the surrounding schools that came to see the show.
I thought this was especially cool because this school district participates in The Cappies, a theatre and writing program for high school students. This program trains its members to be theatre critics for a future in journalism and also gives awards at the end of each year to the actors and production most worthy of merit. The reviews I reference above come from these student critics and I’m incredibly impressed by how well-spoke these reviewers are. What a great program!
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of school districts doing theatre awards at the end of each year but this is the first time I’ve heard about any kind of arts journalism training. I love the idea behind this. What better way to teach students an appreciation of the arts while simultaneously giving them some experience that can lead to a legitimate career opportunity?
Seriously, people, where was all this cool stuff when I was in high school theatre?
But a big round of applause to Gallatin County High School for what sounds like a fantastic production!
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
