Curriculum & Lesson Planning

Monologue writing is a great exercise for students. The monologue is a mini play: It has a beginning, middle, and end, as well as character, conflict, and often a listener. This makes the monologue...

In many drama programs, teachers are often building curriculum from scratch, sometimes as the only drama instructor in their school. Without a clear framework, assessing performance-based work can...

When young actors look for a monologue, sometimes their first stop is the movies. There are so many monologue moments available on YouTube these days, and certainly, some of those moments are...

It’s that age-old drama classroom conundrum: Final projects have been completed, but there are still a handful of school days to fill before the year officially ends. This can be a challenging time...

The end of the school year is a challenging time for drama teachers. Teachers are tired, students are distracted, and the curriculum doesn’t always fit the remainder of the calendar. These issues...

The play adaptation project, where students adapt a text into a play, is a great end-of-year project for advanced drama students. It involves every aspect of the theatre process, from playwriting...

How do the arts make life more bearable? Click below to access a one-class lesson plan that uses this George Bernard Shaw quote as its starting point: “Without art, the crudeness of reality would...

One of the most powerful things a theatre program can offer students is not just performance skills, but real empowerment. Empowerment in theatre education isn’t about giving students free rein...

Do your students know how to form their own artistic opinions without being swayed by others? Can they confidently stand by their perspective, even if they disagree with a show that has received...

Theatre in the classroom is more than lines, scripts, and stages. It’s about building a community. A strong ensemble creates a brave space for students to explore, take risks, and develop their own...

What do you do when you enter the drama classroom, ready to teach, and half your students aren’t in class? Maybe it’s due to illness, a field trip, it being the last week before winter break, the...

Theatre games are a vital tool for drama teachers. They help build relationships in the drama classroom, teach important theatre skills, and give students a chance to practice those skills and take...

It’s incredibly rewarding to see your drama students grow and improve their skills during your time together. But sometimes it can be hard for students to see that improvement themselves. It’s easy...

It can be difficult to get students to engage their imagination when participating in drama class. Whether it’s making big choices or fully committing to a scene, students are often reluctant to go...

You’ve found the perfect play! It’s engaging, relevant, and a great fit for your students. BUT, you can’t produce it this year, for any number of reasons. Maybe your performance calendar is already...

Every student learns differently. Some do well when they can listen and take notes, some prefer visuals to make sense of information, some like to read articles and books about different topics,...

Teaching multiple grade levels in the same class is fairly common in elementary school, but is also becoming more and more prevalent in high school. You might be growing a new theatre program at...

If you have taught theatre for any length of time you have encountered a “non-theatre student.” It could be a student looking for an easy A, someone who needed to fill an arts requirement for...