The Brainstorming Process

After our show was cancelled last year, we began the year with a depleted budget, but a very supportive administration. We were determined to find a cost-effective way to provide a fun and safe after school activity for our middle school students. Mrs. Stroupe took time to look through virtual performance scripts and brainstorm ways to act while staying socially distant. Many scripts later, she still hadn't found one that she liked.

Fortunately, a class full of middle school students can generate a lot more ideas than a single teacher brain. Some students on our Tech and Production Design Elite Team suggested writing our own play, others suggested adapting an older play to modern time, and another group suggested creating a more biographical play that took interviews and experiences and created scenes re-telling those experiences. 

As a 7 Habits school, we talk a lot about synergy and working together. That discussion was one of the most synergistic experiences I'd had with any class. Together, we decided to honor each of those ideas and combine them into one single idea: A modern re-telling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, written by us, set in modern times, with a prologue taken from actual student experiences with the COVID shut-down.

Plot Summary​

After the COVID shutdown in March, everyone is excited to resume in person school. Things get back to as much “normal” as they can in a high during COVID. One day, after Pedro, Konnor, and Ben come back from a weekend basketball tournament, Konnor reveals that he has a crush on Autumn. Konnor quickly asks Autumn out. The rest of the friend group now turn their attention to Ben and Bree, who have an ongoing battle of insults. With fake love notes and "secret" conversations, they attempt to convince Bree that Ben loves her and vice versa. But when John in all his evilness decides to disrupt all the darn love in the air, will all their plans crumble or will they find a happy ending?

MOUNTAINVILLE ACADEMY IS A FREE (NO TUITION) PUBLIC K-9 CHARTER SCHOOL IN ALPINE, UTAH.