Search the Drama Teacher Academy

In this lesson, students will complete a rehearsal checklist, focusing on objectives, tactics, and blocking.

There are two possible assignments for this unit. One that will take a week of class time, including performances and one that can be completed in a class period.

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.

Students will use a workshop process to build upon the first draft of their monologue and write a second, stronger draft of their monologue.

Students will listen to and analyze a podcast musical called 36 Questions by Christopher Littler and Ellen Winter, starring Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton. This lesson is intended for senior grades only (11 & 12). Please see content warning in the lesson plan (p.1).

To introduce students to Aristotle and his connection to theatre.

In this lesson, students will take what they learn about the different types of props and how props are created or acquired in order to apply it to a specific project. Using their critical thinking skills, they’ll have to invent, design, and create a science fiction style prop for a hypothetical show.

Students understand what a property is and the various categories of props. Students explore how props are created and acquired.

In this lesson, students will analyze existing monologues, identify the criteria for a good monologue, and write their own monologues in the practice session.

The objective of the lesson is for students to explore historical events that are significant to them through various theatrical mediums that may seem unusual or “out of the box.” The inspiration for this lesson plan comes from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s theatrical hit Hamilton, which utilizes rap and hip-hop music and colourblind casting to tell the story of the American founding fathers.

The objective of the lesson is for students to create and perform their own radio play using a children’s story as the source material. Radio plays are fantastic for students to practice and develop many performance skills like projection, diction, using emotion, and using their voices. They give students the opportunity to creatively work with playwriting, selecting appropriate music, and creating sound effects.

In this lesson, students will explore different methods of gathering ideas.

Students write on their preconceived notions about playwriting, their expectations and fears, and identify actions: What does a playwright do?

In groups, students will brainstorm a list of scenarios in which they feel power or oppression in their daily lives. They will then select a scenario from their list and turn it into a tableau.

Making a first impression is the most important part of an audition. By learning to slate with confidence, students will learn how to introduce themselves in an musical theatre audition.

Students will act in and direct a commercial. They will break down a script into shots to “cover” the script. They will also format a script into video and audio. Actors will need to hit marks, make a point concisely, and hit the time format of the commercial. They should use the acting techniques for film as much as possible. Students will also need to think creatively to work in socially distant circumstances.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to Kabuki, the staging, the plays, the acting style, makeup, and the all-important climatic pose—the mie. They will apply their knowledge by creating their own mie and walking like a Kabuki actor. Finally, they’ll create a mini modern-Kabuki scene.

In this lesson, students practice some of the tracking tasks required of the stage manager in rehearsal: blocking, scene shifts, and props/costumes.

In this lesson, students will perform for peers and give and receive feedback on the Scene Details Rubric. Students will be using a variety of methods they’ve learned in the previous unit to communicate meaning in a contentless scene: setting, pantomime, relationship clues, objectives, stakes, and tactics.

Students will participate in a tableau “Power Handshake” exercise that will give them some basic background experience with image theatre/tableau and nonverbal expressions of relationship and power. They will then work on their critical thinking skills by close reading an article that gives a brief introduction to Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.