Characterization Articles for Drama Teachers

Ideally, we want students to study characters and bring them to life through scene work. But what if you have students who have been away during rehearsals and you need a related activity for them...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Snapshot: Bee-u-ti-ful is a competion-length version of Beauty and the Bee, and an awesome character piece for your next competition! Do you get along with...

Sometimes you need a prompt that’s a bit more than just a word or two. “Oddly specific” prompts are great for improv, devising, and playwriting because they instantly spark students’ imaginations...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. A powerful and timely piece, With Liberty and Justice for All by Jeyna Lynn Gonzales brings student voices to the stage, capturing a moment in history while...

Many drama teachers look for large cast plays with huge ensembles so they can include every student who wants to participate. But sometimes you don’t need something that big. Maybe you have a new...

It’s fascinating how many people can observe the same moment and have wildly different experiences, thoughts, opinions, and memories about what happened. In this exercise, students will write four...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The Happiness Shop by Lindsay Price is an excellent class project that explores important issues for students. Three middle school students find themselves...

As March takes centre stage, we're stepping into a world full of iconic characters from well-known stories. Each play in this month's lineup includes beloved characters, ready to leap off the page...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The Female Edison by Lindsay Price is an incredible ensemble piece with something for everyone! Margaret E. Knight was a 19th century inventor with two big...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The Battle of Image vs Girl by Johanna Skoreyko is a moving duet piece about female body image. One Girl. One Mirror. Against the world. Why did we publish...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The vignette play, Characters Behaving Badly, by Lindsay Price, asks students to look at the concept of what it means to be “good” and “bad”, as well as what...

The following exercise challenges students to explore character movement by focusing on the speed of movements. This exercise is mental and physical — students will brainstorm a list of characters...

For the following exercise, students will start by individually creating and analyzing a new character (or analyzing an existing character). Then with a partner, they’ll come up with a scenario in...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Split by Bradley Hayward is an emotional, theatrical, ensemble-driven play that your student performers are sure to love. Children of divorce are united...

The following exercise helps students learn self-awareness (which is one of the categories of social and emotional learning) and apply it by analyzing characters in a play that they are currently...

In this article, we’re focusing on responsible decision making, which is one of the five areas of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). If the concept of SEL is new to you, check out this article...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Sometimes you come across a play that demands to be read, performed and shared. Not Going Anywhere by Emma Fonseca Halverson is one of those plays. The...

We are all about character analysis — it’s a great tool for helping students develop a deeper understanding of characters in plays that they are studying, performing in, or creating. Read on to...