Serra’s Drama and Filmmaking Program: Scripting a Bold Future

At Junípero Serra High School, the drama and filmmaking program offers a rigorous, academically grounded approach to theater arts education and digital filmmaking. Drama students study all facets of the craft—including acting, directing, playwriting, set and costume design, and technical production—while developing critical thinking, collaboration and creative problem-solving skills. Through hands-on theater projects and structured coursework, Padres gain a deep understanding of theatrical principles and professional practices. The program combines artistic exploration with intellectual inquiry, giving students the tools to engage thoughtfully and collaboratively with the dramatic arts. The extensive curriculum prepares students to successfully pursue theater and film studies at the next level. Digital filmmaking students get a substantive introduction to the fundamentals of filmmaking, screenwriting and storytelling for the screen, guiding them through the creative and technical process of developing original stories.

Drama Studies: Technique, Theory and Production

Students learn the foundations of dramatic performance as they practice improvisation, freeing their expressive voice, character creation, learn to grow comfortable in their own body and make bold artistic choices. Collaborative projects in ritual theater, improvisational storytelling, and puppet theater culminate in a formal scene study, where students learn to use and dissect scripts for use in rehearsal and performance..

Drama 1: Introduction to Performance

Students learn the foundations of dramatic performance through improvisation, voice work, and character development while growing more comfortable in their own bodies and making bold artistic choices. Collaborative projects in ritual theater, improvisational storytelling and puppet theater culminate in a formal scene study, where students learn to use and dissect scripts for use in rehearsal and performance.

Drama 2: Acting for the Stage

Students take on ensemble acting, movement theater, mask work, improvisation, advanced vocal technique and scene study. Students will complete in depth textual analysis and will learn about the evolution of acting techniques and their creators. This intermediate course centers on discerning objectives, obstacles and actions when approaching performance. It also touches upon techniques such as inner-monologue, power dynamics, behavioral observation and emotional truth.

Drama 3: Advanced Acting and Production

Students' performances focus on advanced acting techniques like substitution and sense memory as applied to 21st-century theater and classical Western theater (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Goethe, Commedia dell’arte, etc.). Elements of theatrical design like lighting, costume design, scenic design, prop making, makeup and stagecraft are introduced and culminate in a public evening performance of a student-produced and -designed play.

The advanced course focuses on each student’s individual artistic growth by alternating curriculum year to year. Curriculum is determined based on enrollment, current and recent production seasons and may change to best fit the education of the students enrolled.

Drama 4: Advanced Acting and Performance

Students' performances focus on advanced acting techniques like substitution and sense memory as applied to World Theater (Non-Western), American Musical Theater and film scene work. Elements of theatrical design like lighting, costume design, scenic design, prop making, makeup and stagecraft are introduced and culminate in a public evening performance of a student-produced and -designed play.

The advanced course focuses on each student’s individual artistic growth by alternating curriculum year to year. Curriculum is determined based on enrollment, current and recent production seasons and may change to best fit the education of the students enrolled.

Film 1: Digital Filmmaking and Screenwriting

This hands-on course is designed to familiarize students with cinematic language and filmmaking from the camera to the computer. Students will learn the basic language of cinema through screenwriting, storyboarding, short-form narrative film, the casting process and designing their own experimental works. Student work will stress collaboration, planning for deadlines, exploiting limited resources and the application of post production techniques to enhance artistic expression and storytelling.

Meet Lawrence Long

Chair, Visual and Performing Arts Department

Artistic Director and Theater Manager,Tri-School Productions

Director, Tri-School Production fall play

Lawrence Long has been acting onstage since he was 12 years old. Born in Stockton, California, he appeared locally in plays and musicals at St. Mary's High School, San Joaquin Delta College and Stockton Civic Theatre.

Lawrence holds a B.A. in Theater from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television, where he majored in acting with minor emphases in vocal performance and writing. While attending UCLA, he participated in John Hall's Musical Theater Workshop for three years and studied acting under Sandra Caruso, April Shawan and Nancy Dussault.

After college, Lawrence performed with the Hermosa Beach Players, the Glendale Centre Theatre and The Victory Theater in Burbank. He also worked as a script reader and coverage analyst for The Screenwriter's Room and contributed to the writer's workshop Deadline Junkies as an actor and writer for more than five years.

Lawrence has taught on-camera audition technique at The SAG/AFTRA Conservatory at the American Film Institute, as well as beginning acting at the Will Wallace Acting Company and About the Work Actor’s Studio in Los Angeles. Professionally he has studied at the Ivana Chubbuck Studio and the Will Wallace Acting Company in Los Angeles. He has appeared on numerous stages in Southern and Northern California, and was awarded the Best Actor award at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema. He continues to perform locally on stage and on camera whenever he can.

Drama and Filmmaking Program FAQs

Do drama classes focus more on performance or the academic study of theater?

Students learn the foundations of dramatic performance as they practice improvisation, freeing their expressive voice, character creation, learn to grow comfortable in their own body and make bold artistic choices. Collaborative projects in ritual theater, improvisational storytelling, and puppet theater culminate in a formal scene study, where students learn to use and dissect scripts for use in rehearsal and performance..

What types of projects or assignments do students complete in drama classes?

In the introductory class, students approach performance from many angles. For example, as they learn where Western Theater comes from, the students create unique ceremonies and rituals that they share with the class. We match the study of Aristotle's 6 Elements of Tragedy and learn to tell stories through improvisation. They study characterization using puppets and apply it all to modern acting in a conservatory style scene study where they learn modern acting methods employed by working actors today.

Is enrollment in a drama class required to participate in school productions?

Not at all! While the drama classes are designed to support the Tri-School Production theater program, one is not required to be a part of the other. Many students who have other after-school commitments, but who have a love or interest in performance, can find their opportunities in drama class. And while many drama students are cast in our mainstage productions, enrollment in the class does not guarantee casting.

Do students need their own equipment or prior experience to take filmmaking classes?

No prior experience or professional equipment is required to take filmmaking classes at Serra High School. The only piece of equipment a student needs to take part in the filmmaking class is a phone capable of recording video. All other equipment is provided, including: handheld and mounted rigs to turn their phone into a steady film camera, lens attachments, gimbels, lights, Clapboards, lavalier microphones, and a 4k camcorder rig with an XLR boom microphone and sound recorder for filming. We also provide MacBooks loaded with Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Motion and other software to create a mobile classroom editing station. The cost of the class covers access to an online screenwriting and pre-production suite that lets the student write and prepare from anywhere they can get online.

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