About

Curtains Up! is an online resource for teachers trying to introduce drama programs into low income or especially diverse schools, where they may face limited resources or students who don't feel like plays are written for "people like them."

A major problem with high school theater today is that teachers are forced to rely on their own personal knowledge of plays to drive their school drama program, a knowledge which usually consists of canonized works like Shakespeare or The Sound of Music. While Romeo and Juliet and Rodgers and Hammerstein make for excellent shows, they are arguably supported by extremely hegemonic modes of cultural production that can alienate the students from the work, as well as from each other.

The purpose of this website is twofold:

  1. Broaden teachers' knowledge of lesser-known works, and provide suggestions for adapting canonized works to meet the specific needs of their students.
  2. Set up a forum through which teachers can share their experiences or offer advice for doing particular shows at their school.

Hopefully by making theater more accessible to high schoolers today, students will gain new ways to express themselves, find a place where it's okay to "act out," and come to see life through other student perspectives.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License