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Curriculum & Lesson Planning

Teaching drama made practical.

Explore strategies, ideas, and insights to help you plan, teach, and inspire with confidence.

Acting

How to Solve Common Beginning Actors’ Mistakes

Beginning actors make mistakes. Mostly it’s because, well, they’re beginners! I prefer thinking of them is missteps rather than mistakes – they are things the beginning actor hasn’t considered. And...
Teaching Drama

5 Reasons Your Theatre Program Needs a Mission Statement

Why create a Mission Statement for your theatre program? Aren’t things like ‘mission’ and ‘vision’ better suited for corporations? Amy Pugh Patel, Theatre Teacher, Director, and DTA Instructor,...
Teaching Drama

21st Century Skills In the Drama Classroom

Drama is one of the few classes that teachers real world skills. This is something that every drama teacher knows well. You know this. Despite resistance you may receive from parents,...
Classroom Management

Classroom Communication: The Exit Slip

Is what you say in the classroom hitting home? Communication is a two way street. It’s not just about sending information out into the world, there’s a receiving aspect as well. Give and take. If...
Acting

The Ultimate Audition Guide: Teacher Edition

Auditions happen everywhere at every level, from middle school plays, to high school musicals, to college admissions. Audition styles range from prepared monologues, to cold readings, to group...
Acting

Intention vs. Presentation

One of the issues in student artistic work (whether it be as a playwright, an actor or a director) is intention vs. presentation. There is often a difference between what students intended to put...
Production

How to Write a Play Review

We’ve all seen those reviews. The ones that rip the theatre production up one side and down the other. They criticize the scenery and the script. They suggest that the leads take up basket weaving,...
Teaching Drama

Top Ten Tips for Teaching Improv

Guest blogger Jennine Profeta is a Second City performer and theatre educator, as well the instructor of the Drama Teacher Academy course Yes, And… How to Teach Improv. She shares her Top Ten Tips...
Classroom Exercise

Silent Communication Exercise for the Drama Classroom

Communication is not just what we say – nonverbal actions play a huge part as well. How we stand, gesture, make eye contact, all of these physical choices communicate. Use this nonverbal exercise...
Teaching Drama

Communication in the Drama Classroom

“Communication: the means of connection between people; the imparting or exchange of information, thoughts, opinions.” Communication is vital to a successful theatrical experience. A play is a two...
Teaching Drama

Brainstorming: Effective Group Work

“How can you get your students to brainstorm effectively?” Brainstorm: a group discussion to come up with ideas and solve problems. Brainstorming is a great idea generation and problem solving...
Production

Ensemble: Is it time to dismantle the pyramid?

Many productions are based on a pyramid structure : Stars at the top, supporting cast in the middle, chorus at the bottom. Even though there are more actors involved at the bottom of the pyramid,...
Production

What Play Do I Do Now?

Some drama teachers have their whole production year figured out before the first day of school. If you’re doing a big musical, you need to get that paperwork started way in advance. Or maybe you...
Classroom Management

Top 10 Classroom Management tips for Drama Teachers

These tips are designed to help you lay a solid foundation for discipline. Whether you’re a beginning teacher facing a classroom full of students for the first time, or a theatre veteran (with the...
Classroom Exercise

Devising Exercises for the Drama Classroom

What is devising?The hallmarks of a devised theatre piece is that it: • does not start with a script, it start with a idea/concept/topic • is a collaborative creation • there are no traditionally...
Acting

Ten First Week Activities for Drama Class

The first week of drama class can be the toughest week of the semester. A drama class is quite different than a “regular” class. Students need to be comfortable with each other before the “real...