Exercise Articles for Drama Teachers

Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Pictures are a great jumping off point for creative writing. Here, we’re looking at a...

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Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Pictures are a great jumping off point for creative writing. Today we’re looking at...

Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Pictures are a great jumping off point for creative writing. Today we’re looking at...

It’s easy to get caught in a rhythm during the rehearsal process. Lines must be memorized, blocking must be learned, it’s the same rhythm over and over again. Before you know it, it’s opening night...

Have fun with the five senses! Students write a different header on five different pieces paper: 1. Sight (objects) 2. Sound 3. Smell 4. Touch (Textures) 5. Taste Go through the headers with the...

What: Tag Team Scene Who: Divide class into pairs Materials: Pens/Pencils, Character/Location/Line Pages, Timer Why: Use this exercise to practice writing natural-sounding dialogue. With this...

The Best Writing Exercise ever? How can there be just ONE? Surely there’s a different “best” exercise for playwrights or novelists or poets? It’s impossible to make that claim! I am making that...

One of the keys to Classroom Management is getting students to work well together. Group work is tricky if students don’t know one another. Why should I share something with this guy who doesn’t...

When it comes to analyzing a character, names are extremely important. In a play, character names are always specifically chosen by the playwright to give clues on personality, status, identity,...

One of the keys to Classroom Management is getting students to work well together. Group work is tricky if students don’t know each other. Why should I share something with this guy who doesn’t say...

If you’re looking for a great cross-curricular activity for your drama classroom, delve into verbatim theatre. Verbatim: in exactly the same words, word for word Verbatim theatre uses a process in...

Who am I? It’s a question not a lot of people ask. Who am I? What defines me? Effective artistic expression begins with you. If you’re going to write a well detailed character, you should know...

Did you know that the word moment actually used to mean a specific time? It’s so general now – Just a moment….. I’ll be there in a moment…. wait a moment.” In medieval time a moment meant 90...

Birthdays are wonderful character development material because every human being has an immediate emotional reaction to their birthday. It could be that the character hates getting older or isn’t...

This exercise works for both playwrights and actors. It can be done by playwright working on a new play, or by an actor in rehearsal. It’s very simple, but also illuminating. It will encourage you...

If you want writing to become a tangible act, practice it with consistency. Consistency does not mean volume – there’s no need to start with a 400 page project. That will weaken your resolve almost...

This is a great Fun with Words Exercise. Hopefully you can use this in your writing, or take them in your classroom. We’re taking a word that means a mouthful and using it as an inspiration for a...