Musical Theatre Performance In The Classroom

Objective:

Students will demonstrate their understanding of musical theatre by performing a musical theatre act with a song and body movement.

Class Level:  Beginning

Main Concepts: Voice, Dance

CONTENT STANDARD 1: Acting by developing, communicating, and sustaining characters in improvisations and informal or formal productions.

CONTENT STANDARD 2: Comparing and integrating art forms by analyzing traditional theatre, dance, music, and visual arts, and new art forms.

Lesson Plans

Lesson 1: Introduction to Musical Theatre

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of musical Theatre by filling out a form which will include what they know, what they want to know, and what they learn.

Lesson 2: Typing the Voice

Students will demonstrate a knowledge of their voice type and vocal range by singing few bars of music in their range.

Lesson 3: Vocal Warm Ups and Style of Singing

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the importance of vocal warm ups and technique by learning and performing them that day.

Lesson 4: Final Choice of Musical Scene, Solo, Duet, Ensemble, etc.

Students will choose their final choice of their musical performance (and know if they are doing a solo, duet, trio, or ensemble) by turning in the Musical Theatre Performance Checklist.

Lesson 5: Body Movements and Dance

Students will demonstrate and understanding of body movements and dance steps for musical theatre by performing a simple choreographed dance that will give them ideas for their final performance.

Lesson 6: Practice Makes Perfect

Students will demonstrate and understanding of the importance of “perfect” practice by giving a perfect dress rehearsal preview of their performance.

Lesson 7: Musical Theatre Performance

Students will demonstrate an understanding of doing a musical Theatre performance by performing their musical act in class.

Lesson 8: REVIEW of Musical Theatre (not included; a suggestion to synthesize all the elements of what has been taught in previous lessons)

Students will demonstrate an understanding of terms and singing styles of Musical Theatre by watching a musical show and writing down the musical terms and singing styles in the show. (They also will hand in their musical Theatre report if this is the last lesson of the unit.) . 

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Sorts Of Traditional Religious Rwandan Drama

KUBANDWA (a form of prayer). One first had to consult the diviner. Once the permission is obtained, one had to induct Ryangombe and designate Binego, the two high priests servants of imana. In the cult accordingly, they use different styles:

- Make-up: They put lines on the body, especially white and black
- Costumes: They wore the skins of squirrels, sheep and imondo.
- Meal of the party (kubandwa)
- Sorghum paste: Rukacarara
- Beans, colocases, beverages, banana wine(Urwagwa), sorghum beer (Ikigage)

After dinner dance followed, new initiates were baptized and received their baptismal names “the name of imandwa”. The purpose of kubandwa was to ward off evil spirits and to seek for blessings, mainly peace and prosperity.

GUTEREKERA: to make donations to his ancestors is a ceremony that was done at night in order to ask to the spirits a health life and any sorts of blessings. The food used in the ceremony included banana wine, beans, and sorghum dough. Depending on the severity of the situation or the intensity you wanted to put in the application, you could shoot a cow for meat to be added in the ceremony that would appease the spirits and allow their favors. 

GUCURAGURA: this is a ceremony that was done at night in the dark, without a witness. As a result, people who did this practice were treated as poisoners, dangerous people that had to be wary. But in reality, the practitioner was not bad, but it was a special form of Guterekera. The practice was to run two baskets while taking a small earthen pot in which there were bones burning in a small fire. These baskets were used to store the fire while hiding it. They were seen on the hill now and then when night came, with little fire kindled in the dark within a few seconds and seemed to move through the fields.

KURAGURA (Divination): Mediums. The major mediums are in the mu Gitoki behind the mountains of Ndiza in the central province. When they see you, they predict things about you in the near future, and everything they predict is known to happen. A diviner (umupfumu) was given the power to interpret the will of imana and therefore was called the son of god. There are three primary ways diviners are able to determine the will of imana.

- Guhanuura: This means to prophesy. This is a technique that uses intuition and inspiration from the spiritual world.
- Kuraguza inzuzi: This means divination using pieces of wood. In this case the diviner throws small pieces of wood down on a flat surface and reads the message according to how the wood falls.
- Kuraguza urugimbu, which means divination using fats. In this case, the messages are read from fats and intestines of animals. The diviner would use chickens, though sometimes would use the leftover from previously slaughtered goats, sheep or cattle. The fat was mixed with herbs and let to dry. When it was dry, the fat was placed into a pot which was eaned forward a diviner. Then fat was lit like a candle. For several hours the diviner watches the fire and interprets the messages he sees.

HERO SPIRITS (Imandwa)

1. RYANGOMBE: the chief hero spirit. He was a great man in Rwanda and powerful for he did magic things, and he is said to have an origin from the Western Uganda near Eduard Lake. His father was Babinga and his mother Nyiraryangombe. His wife was Nyirakajumba on the throne of Ruganzu II Ndori.

2. NYABINGI
3. BINEGO
4. MUGASA
5. KAGORO
6. RUHANGA
7. NKONJO
8. MASHIRA
9. UMUZANA
10. NYABIRUNGU
11. UMURENGETWE
12. UMUNYORO
13. RUHENDE
14. INTARE

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