Acting Technique

What do the musicals The Little Mermaid, Honk!, and Cats all have in common? They’re all shows that feature actors playing animals. It’s a lot of fun to play non-human characters, but the vast...

Creating pre-show rituals and routines is so helpful for students. It clears their minds and gets them into their “theatre brains” – the mindset needed to leave their personal issues at the door...

An organized backstage is a calm backstage, and a running list can help keep things running smoothly during a production. What is a running list? It’s a scene-by-scene breakdown of scene changes...

Have you ever considered including musical theatre in the drama classroom? Does the thought of singing in front of others scare your students to death? Does it scare you to death? If you’re going...

Cleaning up anybody else’s mess is no fun. Cleaning up a messy backstage after a show is especially disheartening – it takes away any good feelings that were cultivated during a good performance,...

Sometimes we get caught up in all the bells and whistles of a theatrical production. Sumptuous sets, elaborate costumes, piles of props, mountains of furniture – they’re all wonderful, but shows...

We asked drama teachers: What is your advice to an actor who forgets their lines during a performance? Let’s hear from teachers on the front lines. It’s more than memorizationParker M. says...

Costumes are such a fabulous part of theatre – they help tell the story, they help actors get into character, and they immediately tell the audience something about what’s going on. For many...

“The time is near So near it’s stirring the blood in their veins!” What time is it? (Showtime!) It’s competition time. Monologues, scenes, one acts. The season is nearing, perhaps it’s looming, or...

Now is the time of year that many students compete in monologues, duets and group events. It can be a challenge to figure out where to begin – how do you prepare? How do you properly process...

Props can add so much to a production, but they can also be challenging to work with. Here are five common props challenges, rapid-fire style, with suggestions about how to deal with them! 1....

Creating a theatrical piece is a bit like baking a cake – choose your recipe (the show), add ingredients (cast and crew), stir together and bake (practice and rehearse). At the end, you’ve got a...

A colleague of mine once told me that he always waits until the technical or dress rehearsal to choreograph the curtain call. His reasoning was that the curtain call should be the absolute last...

We asked drama teachers: How do you address scheduling conflicts? Between sports and students’ activities, how do you ensure that your rehearsals are attended and your students are prepared? Let’s...

In theatre, a transition refers to the process of moving from one scene or set to the next. It seems simple enough–grab “all the stuff” at the end of one scene and take it offstage, while the rest...

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Everything! Can’t find the time to climb a mountain of scripts to choose the right production for your group? We’ve made it super easy for you with our Ultimate...

Drama Teacher Podcast.Scott Giessler is a teacher and a playwright. He went into theatre teaching without any training. Not only is he still doing it, but he has a strong philosophy for how to do...

There comes a point in every rehearsal process when the dreaded “rehearsal blahs” start to set in. This tends to be mid-way through the rehearsal process, when the initial excitement of casting and...