Acting Articles for Drama Teachers

Many students take drama class not because they want to, but because they have to. They might need an arts credit to graduate, or there aren’t any other options for them to have a full class...

A director friend recently sent me a message asking for advice about how to help her students with their upcoming show. _Hi Kerry, _ Any tips on helping my students to slow down and stop rushing?...

Want to give your students some fantastic acting material that they can really sink their dramatic chops into? Consider doing an issue play for your next production. Issue plays explore problems...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Last semester, one of my classes consisted of a group of students who had little theatrical experience. Most of these particular students had never performed onstage before. They were eager and...

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For…Advanced Actors. You have students who can go to the next level. They are ready to tackle scripts beyond the norm of character development and realistic story...

We asked drama teachers: What are your tips for bringing shy or hesitant students out of their shells? Do you let them have the time they need to get comfortable participating, or does it work...

From Kingston to California, drama teachers everywhere deal with similar concerns with their drama students and their theatrical productions. Here are five common rehearsal problems, rapid-fire...

From Shakespearean tragedies to zombie thrillers, stage blood can be an exciting addition to a show–it adds a sinister realism to dramatic moments, and really makes the audience gasp with surprise...

How do Theatre and Autism fit together? Do you have students on the spectrum in your classrooms? Have you ever put on a sensory friendly performance? All of these questions and more were answered...

It’s a situation that directors hope never to have to face, but unfortunately it happens: an actor, for whatever reason, has to drop out of the show at some point during the rehearsal process....