Creating a Scrapbook For Your High Schooler in Theater

At the last play my daughter attended she snapped almost 200 photos. While this is a bit excessive, it does show that you can make an entire scrapbook from just one performance.

Flash photography is almost never allowed during a live performance, however as a parent, if you spoke with the teacher ahead of time, there is a good chance you can take photos during a dress rehearsal. At our school, the kids not on stage are often either back stage or outside, so this too would be an opportunity to snap photos.

There are so many items from the theater program that can be put into a scrapbook. The actual script itself can be copied onto acid free paper and then cut and paste to meet the theme of your scrapbook. For example, my daughter played Rizzo in the musical Grease. We cut out one of the songs she sang to add to the scrapbook.

Photos of the set being built are great. Often sets take several months to build and then paint. It’s fun to look back and see the progress of the set making. Costumes also take time to make or put together. Sometimes costumes are made from scratch and other times costume pieces are pre-made and just need a little alteration. One play my daughter was in, she had so many costume changes, that she was wearing three sets of costumes at any one time. Taking a photo of her in each costume helped us realize just how many costume changes she had that play.

If the play is a musical, there are lyrics to learn. Again, you can make copies of the lyrics onto acid free paper. I believe it’s better to copy everything and then decide later what you’ll use in your scrapbook. If you don’t make the copies prior to the production, it might be very tough to track down the lyrics used. In high school productions very often the lyrics are changed to make them suitable for all ages.

Our local newspaper almost always will run a pre-show review and recommendation of the production. Make sure to save these types of media advertisements. After the play, the newspaper will sometimes put photos and an article about the play into the paper. Newspaper clipping do turn yellow and crack over time, so always copy them onto acid free paper.

The night of the play, our school hands out a program. The program usually includes a brief summary of the play, the cast members names and names of the scenes. We always save a few copies of the program for copying onto acid free paper.

If you want, do a web search on the play and print out some photos of professional casts that can be used to decorate the pages of your theater scrapbook. You can also make a title page with a copy of the history of the play.

Be creative with your theater scrapbook. Make it a treasure your kids can carry into their adult lives!