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Playwriting

Students stuck on “what do I write?”

These playwriting activities are all about sparking ideas. Use prompts, quick exercises, and creative challenges to get students thinking, imagining, and writing without the pressure of a full script.

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Playwriting

20 Character Profile Questions

One of the most important elements when writing a play or a story is creating characters that feel three-dimensional and real. You can help your students flesh out their characters with some...
Games, Exercises, & Activities

Making Assumptions About Characters

An assumption is when someone accepts something as true about a person, place, thing, or idea without proof. People do this all the time, often without thinking. We assume all sorts of things about...
Playwriting Writing Prompts

Prompting Creativity in the Classroom

Character Prompts“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one. ~ James Froude” Students often miss connecting character development as part of the writing...
Acting Technique

Exploring Spoken Word Poetry

Spoken word is poetry that is meant to be performed for an audience, rather than just read on a page. Spoken word has a freedom to it. Spoken word poems can use alliteration, rhyme, repetition,...
Playwriting Devised Theatre

Devising in the Drama Classroom

Q&A with Pilar OrtiLindsay Price talked with Pilar Orti, author of Your Handy Companion to Devising and Physical Theatre, about her experiences with devising in the drama classroom. Here are some...
Podcast

Interview with Stephen Gregg

Episode 159: Interview with Stephen Gregg Lindsay talks to playwright Stephen Gregg (This is A Test, Crush, Small Actors, The New Margo, Twitch) about his start down the writing path, his writing...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Devising Challenge: One-Minute Word Association

Devising a brand-new piece of theatre from scratch can be exciting, overwhelming, or just plain scary for students. It can be challenging for students to narrow their focus when there are literally...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Same Character, Different Choice

Are your students feeling stuck or frustrated with their playwriting assignments? This exercise will help get them unstuck by challenging them to explore alternative situations for their scenes and...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

The 5 W’s and Playwriting

So, you’ve decided to do some playwriting with your students. Fantastic! But now comes the hard part – actually sitting down and writing. Whether in a notebook or on a computer screen, that blank...
Acting Technique Character Development

Top 3 Ways to Write a Character Specific Voice

If you want your characters to be three dimensional, you have to consider their voice. What words do they choose? What’s the structure of their language? How do they communicate? A character...
Games, Exercises, & Activities

12 Days of Classroom Exercises

We’re counting down the 12 Days of Christmas with 12 of our most popular Classroom Exercises! No matter which holidays you celebrate, these exercises are a useful tool to keep in your back pocket –...
Games, Exercises, & Activities

Observation: The conversation you can only see

Observation is my number one tool for finding play ideas. When you observe, you’re not just looking around, skimming the world around you. Observation is the specific looking at people, places and...
Playwriting Playwright Spotlights

5 questions with David Hammers

We have a great community of amazing playwrights here at Theatrefolk that contribute to our collection of middle and high school plays. We hope you’ll enjoy this peek behind the curtain as they...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Playwriting Exercise: Write a Letter

““… I recommend they keep a diary, at least a page a day, and faithfully, and also to get into the habit of letter writing to other writers. The advantages that come with doing this seem...
Games, Exercises, & Activities

Shakespeare Exercise: Reframe the play

This is a great classroom exercise to not only have fun with Shakespeare but to also see how well students can re-frame which ever Shakespeare play they are studying. Take a character from one...
Playwriting Devised Theatre

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...