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Students are given time to work on their second draft. Students also receive a Post-First Draft Questions sheet to apply critical thinking skills to their draft.

Students are given time to work on their second draft. They will read an excerpt of their play aloud and receive feedback. Students will also receive an In-depth Character Profile sheet to help them apply critical thinking skills to their draft.

In these last two lessons, students will focus on the performance aspect of playwriting. It’s important to include performance in the unit because the ultimate goal of all plays is to be performed (rather than read). Students have the opportunity to rehearse in groups, present to the class, and then reflect on their experience with the unit.

In Week One, students learn about the criteria for the culminating project, complete some exercises to give students strategies for warm-ups and fighting writer’s block, as well as complete a practice session for both a monologue and a scene.

In Week Two, students work on their first draft. Each class period involves writing, reading aloud from the draft, and giving/receiving feedback. The draft is due at the end of the week.

In this lesson, students will read and analyze Act One of Our Town within the theme of the ordinary versus universality. The lesson format encourages students to explore text themes and concepts through scene work before they read, participate in a small group discussion post read, and then take on an activity to apply knowledge through a theatrical expression of the text.

In this lesson, students will continue to analyze the first act of Our Town with a focus of examining the non-realistic elements Wilder uses. What comes across as a play steeped in realism and realistic characters actually uses a number of experimental theatrical techniques.

In this lesson, students will read and analyze Act Two of Our Town within the theme of love and marriage. The lesson format encourages students to explore text themes and concepts through scene work before they read, participate in a small group discussion post read, and then take on an activity to apply knowledge through a theatrical expression of the text.

In this lesson, students will continue to analyze the second act of Our Town by examining the concept of time. Why does the play use a wedding and the idea of marriage as a marker for time slipping away? How do characters react to the passage of time?

In this lesson, students will read and analyze Act Three of Our Town within the theme of death. The lesson format encourages students to explore text themes and concepts through scene work before they read, participate in a small group discussion post read, and then take on an activity to apply knowledge through a theatrical expression of the text.

In this lesson, students will continue to analyze the third act of Our Town with a focus of examining the concept of the eternal as it connects to valuing the ordinary.

Experience Tech Theatre: Students will explore how technical theatre affects storytelling.

Students are introduced to two groups of technical theatre roles and the people in charge of those groups: the technical director and tech crews and the stage manager and running crews. Students will take on the role of a stage manager and practice the calls a stage manager would use.

Students review the three most common types of theatre stages used today: proscenium, thrust, and arena stages. Students create the audience for a specific type of stage in a warm-up, and then in groups, students work to stage a fairy tale using the three different theatre configurations.

Students learn about stage geography and parts of a theatre. Students practice stage geography in a warm-up, and then participate in a group activity where they are given random stage geography positions and have to present a scene from those positions.

Students design, create, and implement a solution for the famous “exit, pursued by a bear” stage direction from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

The final project for Part 1 of this unit is for students to write examples of what has been explored so far in the following way: • A two-person, one-location, one-page scene. • Each character has a want, there is an obstacle to their want, and they apply tactics to get what they want. • A separate (ie: not included in the scene) half-page monologue for one of the characters in the scene. • A character profile for each of the characters. The objective is for students to apply all the elements they’ve learned so far in dramatic writing.

Students expand on the definition of theatre and explore the excitement and intimacy of something “live” in the moment. They will discuss the differences between theatre and film, and hopefully, they will have a “dramatic moment.”

Students learn and apply specific theatre roles.

Students are introduced to Guideline 1 “Accept the Offer” and apply their knowledge through a warm-up and improv exercise.