The exercises listed below can be adapted to distance and online learning opportunities. Students work individually (rather than with partners or in groups).
Group work and discussions can be completed using video conferencing programs (such as Google Hangouts, Skype, or Zoom).
Written work can be submitted electronically via email or uploading to Google Drive or similar.
Performances can be done live via video conferencing programs, or filmed on a smartphone or digital camera and uploaded to a service such as YouTube or Vimeo (privacy settings can be adjusted to accommodate your school’s internet safety policies).
Check out our round-ups of exercises for Vocal and Physical Performance, Monologue and Individual Performance, Playwriting & Written Drama and Analysis and Technical Theatre as well.
Larger Projects / ISPs (Independent Study Projects)
These are longer assignments that may be used as independent study projects (ISPs) or longer-range group assignments. With distance group projects, students should devise a way to divide up the work equally and can come together to discuss their work via video conferencing. Groups can use project management programs such as Basecamp to assign specific tasks and due dates to each other, and mark them as complete as they go. Written assignments can be submitted via email or Google Drive, and group oral presentations can be done via video conferencing with the teacher.
Directing Challenge:
- Script Analysis for Directors, Part 1: Scanning the Script
- Script Analysis for Directors, Part 2: Going Deeper
- Communicating Your Directing Vision Through the Senses
- How to Pre-Block a Scene
- Problem-Solving for Student Directors
- Casting Challenge: Not Enough Actors!
- Casting Challenge: Too Many Actors!
Global Citizenship Challenge:
Looking Back and Looking Forward
Students will look over what they’ve learned and create a manual for future drama students
Pitch Your Project: A Cross-Curricular Performance Challenge
Putting on a Class Production Challenge:
For this exercise, you might have every student select a monologue on a specific topic and then create a livestream for the public to watch. Alternatively, you could go through the process of producing a hypothetical show.
- Part 1: What to Produce?
- Part 2: Who Does What?
- Part 3: Casting
- Part 4: Problem-Solving
- Part 5: Post-Show Reflection
Staging Your Show: “Same Show, Different Stages”
The Three-Dimensional Theatre History Project
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