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In this lesson, students will spend time rehearsing their abstract scenes. They will also practice and demonstrate movement skills such as facial expression, posture, gesture control, and balance.

Students will participate in a number of power activities that will encourage them to come up with ways to physically demonstrate a powerful/powerless character. A discussion about power in our society will follow.

In this lesson, students will review the “open body” element of projection. Using this technique, students will make it easier for audiences to see and understand their actions in the scene.

In this lesson, we define devised theatre and use a piece of music for students to create their own performance inspired by the music.

Use this lesson plan at the beginning of the year to introduce the concept of ensemble and what it means to work together. Part One: Students participate and then reflect on exercises where they have to work together to make the exercise successful. They are given an Ensemble Expectations Handout. Part Two: Students participate and then reflect on exercises where they have to work together as an ensemble in a theatrical context. Here the exercises add elements of character and story such as creating a family portrait, tableau, group objects, one word storytelling, and choral speaking.

The final project for this unit is a simple one-person pantomime. The objective is for them to utilize mime, body language, and facial expression to tell a basic story (an activity that has an obstacle that they overcome or get past).

Students will participate in a demonstration to explore the rules of staging and performance and why they are important. They will perform a Bad Idea/Good Idea skit for the class, to demonstrate their understanding of the concept.

This lesson combines the work done in Lesson 2 (scoring scenes by beats) with the physical work done in Lesson 3 (creating dynamically staged scenes by connecting choices in blocking/staging to the underlying structural elements in a scene).

Students will be introduced to forum theatre by researching a video example. Students will then try their hand at forum theatre by acting out a middle school scenario of oppression, becoming spect-actors, and improvising solutions.

Students will explore Medieval Theatre by role playing what it would be like to perform at the time. Students form trade guilds, create a medieval market scene, and then work on a morality scenario. Lesson plan comes with a written assignment to be completed after the practical assignment.

Copyright and the Theatre go hand in hand, especially if you’re doing plays, but a topic about which many students (and even teachers) lack knowledge. Students will read about the aspects of Copyright and the Theatre, reflect on making changes to scripts, and complete a Copyright and the Theatre Quiz.

Theatre is about communication. A story is presented to an audience. Storytelling was one of the earliest forms of entertainment that we continue to use today. Even though the method for delivering the story has changed, the form itself has stayed the same for thousands of years. In this lesson, students will create their version of the 21st century story. What stories do we tell today? How do we tell them? Who do we tell them to? You can use this lesson as an intro to studying modern theatre, especially for students who don’t have a theatre background. You can also use this lesson as an intro for Ancient Greek Theatre. Start by examining stories in a modern context, then shift to the Ancient Greek era.

Students begin their exploration of playwriting by learning about structure and applying the elements in a writing exercise.

The objective of this lesson is to introduce the concept of “hard skills” (specific abilities or knowledge needed to do a specific job) versus “soft skills” (personal attributes and personality traits; transferable skills that can be used in any aspect of a student’s life).

Students will participate in a demonstration to explore the rules of virtual staging and performance and why they are important. They will perform a Bad Idea/Good Idea skit for the class to demonstrate their understanding of the concept.