SSES ARTS ACADEMY

AUDITIONS

2025 Fall Show Information

Auditions will be held in the Auditorium 9/10 @4:30

Students will be required to have memorized their own chosen monologue that fits the character they are auditioning for OR have memorized the monologue provided by Mr. Hopkins.

Proof

by David Auburn

Monologues for Auditions

HAL: Someone needs to go through your dad’s papers. There are a hundred and three notebooks. Someone should read them. I don’t even have time to do this but I’m going to. If you’ll let me. I loved your dad. I don’t believe a mind like his can just shut down. He had lucid moments. He had a lucid year, a whole year four years ago. A school year. He was advising students… I was stalled on my Ph.D. I was this close to quitting. I met with your dad and he put me on the right track with my research. I owe him. Look when your dad was younger than both of us, he made major contributions to three fields: game theory, algebraic geometry, and nonlinear operator theory. Most of us never get our heads around one. He basically invented the mathematical techniques for studying rational behaviour, and he gave the astrophysicists plenty to work over too. I’m not lecturing you. I’m telling you, If I came up with one-tenth of the shit your dad produced. I could write my own ticket to any math department in the country.

CATHERINE: I lived with him. I spent my life with him. I fed him. Talked to him. Tried to listen when he talked. Talked to people who weren’t there . . . Watched him shuffling around like a ghost. A very smelly ghost. He was filthy. I had to make sure he bathed. My own father . . .After my mother died it was just me here. I tried to keep him happy no matter what idiotic project he was doing. He used to read all day. He kept demanding more and more books. I took them out of the library by the carload. We had hundreds upstairs. Then I realized he wasn’t reading: he believed aliens were sending him messages through the Dewey decimal numbers on the library books. He was trying to work out the code . . .

Beautiful mathematics. The most elegant proofs, perfect proofs, proofs like music . . . Plus fashion tips, knock-knock jokes – I mean it was nuts, OK? Later the writing phase: scribbling nineteen, twenty hours a day . . . I ordered him a case of notebooks and he used every one. I dropped out of school . . . I’m glad he’s dead.

Course Offerings

Beginning Theatre Arts: An Introductory Level Course. No Prerequisite.

Students will experience creative dramatics, mime, reader’s theater, interpretive movement, and oral interpretation as they explore the actor’s craft. In addition, they will learn how directing, theatre history, and theatre management contribute to a stage production. Behind the scenes, students explore how costumes, makeup, props, and scenery along with special effects, lighting, and sound bring magic to the stage.

Intermediate Theatre Arts: An Enhanced Level Course. Prerequisite Beginning Theatre Arts, C Average or Higher.

This course further develops the skills and vocabulary learned in Beginning Theatre. Through classroom scene work and the study of acting techniques in different historical periods, students will refine their acting skills. Participating in ensemble acting and student directed opportunities to portray a variety of roles. Students will learn how to critique their own and others’ performances and will continue learning about technical theatre and theatre management. They will perform scene work and original work.

Proficient Theatre Arts: A Higher Level Honors Course, Prerequisite Beginning and Intermediate Theatre Arts, B Average or Higher. Participate in Drama Club. Teacher Recommendation.

The focus of this class is on learning how to direct. Once students select their scene, they will analyze the script, audition actors from among their classmates, plan rehearsals, make decisions about blocking, and develop a plan for set and lighting design. Each student directed scene will be showcased for a live audience. This course involves in-depth application of theater arts knowledge, skills, and processes. Students will study a variety of playwrights and different historical periods.

Advanced Theatre Arts: Prerequisite Beginning, Intermediate and Proficient Theatre Arts. A or B Average. Active Participant in Drama Club. Teacher Recommendation.

These advanced acting ensembles focus on student-created productions which include writing scripts, acting in each other’s productions, developing the assigned characters, learning advanced movement techniques, and overseeing of all aspects of their productions. Students will continue their study of the different styles of theater, film and television and learn more about the business of professional acting. Students continue to refine adapting works from different historical periods and researching different acting styles. Students will have opportunities to prepare a performance for a competition and/or for a showcase. Students function as a performance and production ensemble.

Program Highlights

Full-length productions like, Almost, Maine, She Kills Monsters, Sister Act, The Color Purple: The Musical, Once On This Island Jr, and The Wiz.

Student-led Drama Club performances

DPS Stage Center

Excursions to DPAC, Carolina Theatre, Duke, NCCU, and more!

2023 Triangle Rising Star nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress

Advice from professionals working in the theatre industry

Annual Black History and Hispanic Heritage Programs

Arts Gala Collaborations

Our auditorium has the highest number of seats in all of DPS!