Embedded Files
Vaughn's theatre arts program was born in 2009, with an after school drama club, which produced Go Ask Alice. Since then productions have included student-directed one act plays, such as Surviving Lunch, Simply Maria, The Bridge Watcher, Johnny Ramirez Really Wants to Kiss Me, The People, and The Game, as well as full-length musicals, such as Beauty and the Beast, Willy Wonka, Shrek, and Quilt: A Musical Celebration, and dramas, such as A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life. Vaughn has grown a tradition of performing Shakespearean comedies like Much Ado About Nothing and Midsummer Night's Dream.
Nottingham Festival Since the inception of Nottingham Festival in 2012, Vaughn has been one of the festival's community outreach partners. The festival sponsors our students with tickets at about 25% of retail value.
In 2014, Vaughn students and faculty traveled to New York city for an arts cultural tour. They studied musical theatre choreography with a musician and performer from Broadway's Cinderella.
Students in Vaughn's theatre program study Shakespeare and Renaissance theatre every year. Since Renaissance LARPing is a popular hobby, Vaughn students learn the art of Renaissance costuming.
In Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (2013), Rebecca Valenzuela brought to life Judy Blume's work with her portrayal of "Fudge," the stereotypical annoying little brother.
Since the inception of in 2012, Vaughn has been one of Nottingham Festival's community outreach partners. The festival sponsors our students with tickets at about 25% of retail value. In 2013, we partnered with the AP literature class to open the experience up to as many students as possible.
In the summer, Vaughn often hosts Chinese Exchange Students for a full immersion summer camp experience, where Vaughn students partner with students from our sister school in Shanghai China, and together they produce short one-act plays and build life-long friendships cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia.
In 2016, students directed one-act "Plays to Make Us Think," including Louise Bryant's play The Game, scene here, a morality play from 1916, which was produced with a modern spin, directed by Carolina Herrera.
In 2012, Vaughn's drama and chorus classes combined to produce the musical, Quilt, which is about the AIDS quilt. In preparation for the production, students traveled to San Francisco to see a section of the real quilt, as well as to visit the AIDS memorial grove. Adriana Gonzalez performed as a character inspired by Elizabeth Glaser.
After other high schools were met with only attempts at censorship, Vaughn International Studies Academy became one of the first high school's ever to produce David-Matthew Barnes one-act Johnny Ramirez Really Wants to Kiss Me. Bardo Vargas and Emmanuel Lopez captured the hearts of audiences.
In fall of 2012, students partnered with California State University Northridge's fashion program. CSUN students met with Vaughn students who would be portraying characters from William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Pictured above is Billy Rodas, Gerardo Plascencia, George Diaz, and Isaac Gonzalez, in their May 2013 production.
In 2012, Vaughn's drama and chorus classes combined to produce the musical, Quilt, which is about the AIDS quilt. Although most lead actors in the show prepared their own quilt piece mock-up for the production, Yaotl Orozco instead worked on an actual quilt piece, in memory of his uncle.
In 2011, Billy Rodas, Ana Rodriguez, and Luis Portillo delighted Vaughn's younger students in a children's theatre presentation, The Wager.
The November 2015 production of Midsummer Night's Dream was the group's first show in the studio theatre.
In 2017, theatre teacher Nicole Mohr worked with alumni and seniors to combine their college essays into a vignette-style play, Personal Statement. In the scene above, students enact a story from Mackenzie Lopez' college essay.
In early 2015, when students begged Jasmin Guerrero and Nicole Mohr to produce a musical, there was no budget for an elaborate production, so they funded the musical Shrek through Donors Choose, with support from many alumni.
Our new studio theatre space is great for intimate productions, such as this staged reading of It's a Wonderful Life, in December 2016.
In June of 2018, the Advance Drama class performed a romantic comedy, Almost, Maine. Thanks to NBC and the RISE America project, they were able to purchase better seats for their audience and professional lights.
Audiences loved both casts of Jingle Bell Mystery in December 2019, which featured carolers from Vaughn's choral music program and a guest actor from Vaughn's elementary campus.
In Spring of 2019, Vaughn's choral music program combined with the theatre program to produce Aladdin: Dual Language Edition, a special version of Disney's Aladdin which utilizes a dual immersion Spanish / English script to entertain both monolingual and bilingual audience members.
Page updated
Report abuse