Exercise Articles for Drama Teachers

Theatrical “cold reading” (also known as “sight reading”) is where actors read aloud from a script, scene, or text with little to no advance preparation. Actors are handed a script and expected to...

The following exercise is the first of a two-part class exercise (Part 2 will come later this month), giving students the opportunity to practice audition prep in a safe environment. Although...

Different venues can have a huge effect on a production. They can create beautiful and intriguing staging options for directors and designers, and really surprise and enchant audiences. They can...

The following exercise gives students the opportunity to pitch their dream show to the rest of the class. This is a great exercise to do with students after you’ve polled your class. Now that...

“I’ve got so much to say / if only you would listen!” That’s one of my favourite lyrics from School of Rock: The Musical. Students truly wish to be heard, and as teachers, it’s our responsibility...

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,...

Radio plays are theatrical performances that are purely auditory; they’re meant to be performed on the radio, hence the name! There is no visual aspect, so performers must rely on their vocal...

The following exercise has lots of variations and ways to adapt it for your classroom. No matter what variation you use, however, the ultimate goal (see what I did there?) of the exercise is to get...

““Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” -Stephen R. Covey” How many times have you been giving instruction in class and when you get to the...

One thing that often comes up in student writing is that characters only seem to exist from the first page to the last page. Students don’t think of their characters as having lives outside the...

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...

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...

Scenes from a Bag is one of my most favourite theatre games. It can easily become one of those “takes over the whole class period” games because it’s simple and fun for students. This game is...

Theatre is all about change. Not only do we want to look back and identify origins, but it’s also important to explore theatre history to see how the form evolves. Often that evolution comes from...

If you’re going to study theatre history, Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era are two of the most fascinating topics to study. But time and time again students (and teachers) resist against...

If you want students to learn the elements of a theatre history era, there’s no better way than to study a scene from a play that exemplifies that era. For example, look at the principles of the...

When working with historical theatre pieces by playwrights like Shakespeare and Marlowe, a common complaint is that their diction is difficult for students to understand. One way to help students...

Commedia dell’arte is a style of theatre that was popular in Italy during the 1500’s. It was recognized for being comedic, improvised, and having clear elements: • Stock characters including...