Lesson Plans Articles for Drama Teachers

If you want your students to physicalize their characters, get them thinking about status. What is status?Answer this question for yourself. Write down a couple of different answers yourself, then...

If you’re looking for a way to help students work on their communication skills at the beginning of the year, here’s a great warm-up. Instruction• Everyone stands in a circle. • You’re going to...

A mixed message is when someone communicates two conflicting ideas at the same time, making it unclear what they really mean. This can happen through: • Words vs. actions (saying one thing, “I’ll...

Communication skills are important in life and in the drama classroom. Whether you want your students to be focused on their scene partner, active listening in an improv scenario, or doing both in...

If you’re starting out in your drama teacher journey, you will learn very quickly that lesson planning is the bane of your existence. It is never-ending. You may need to show your lessons to an...

Commedia dell’arte is an improvised comedic theatre form that flourished in Italy in the 1500s. The exact origins of commedia are fuzzy and hard to pin down; there is not much documented previous...

Subtext is a glorious medium. It adds depth to a scene. There’s the conversation that two characters are having, and there’s the conversation underneath the conversation the two characters are...

Do you notice any of these common issues when your middle school students perform monologues in competition? • They’re overcome with nerves. • They’re unable to grow their characters beyond...

Here’s a unit you can use that combines technology, drama, and cross-curricular learning. Talk about a multi-purpose activity! Since the unit involves speeches, it’s probably best-suited to...

Adding on to our previous post on annotating a script for analysis, the next task for student actors is to explore their text through action words (“verbs” for you English majors). The idea is to...

The Oscars are happening this weekend and celebrities are no-doubt cramming the gifting suites. Here’s a little drama/improv warm-up that makes everybody a celebrity! I call it… The Celebrity Gift...