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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 continue their journey toward the Mock Audition by exploring audition etiquette. How can an actor’s attitude and behaviour affect an audition?

Students will demonstrate their understanding of textual analysis, painting with words and imagery, creating a character, and preparing a monologue by performing a Shakespearean monologue and reflecting on their experience.

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.

Students will demonstrate their understanding of simple action by performing or coaching the performer to deliver a love poem while using three simple actions.

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).

In a drama class there is often a focus on onstage activities: performance skills, staging a scene, ensemble building. But the audience plays a vital and necessary role in the process. Theatre does not happen without an audience. It’s important for students to be aware of and apply audience etiquette. In this lesson, students will explore the different ways an audience behaves depending on the event, what is bad audience behaviour, establish the rules, practice critical thinking as an audience member and complete an exit slip to demonstrate comprehension.

Students will learn about creating a safe and professional space in the classroom and in the theatre, and how these principles can be applied to the real world. What are the best practices for etiquette in the classroom, which can also be used in rehearsal, and which can also be used in the real world.

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).

In this series of lessons, students will use class time to work in groups to create as many musical components as they can given the time available.

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.