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In Elizabethan times, audiences at the Globe had to use their powers of imagination and listening to envision the worlds of Shakespeare’s plays. Today, modern audiences are treated to elaborate depictions of Shakespeare’s settings with expensive sets, lighting, projections, and sound. This lesson will test your students’ creative collaboration. They will design a set and soundscape in obstacle course form for one of Shakespeare’s plays using found objects, sounds, and actions.

The director Max Reinhardt said that, “Our standards must not be to act a play as it was acted in the days of its author.” Use this quote as a reflection point for students. Students will take a play from another era and create a 1-minute presentation that demonstrates how a production can take a play beyond how it was acted in the days of its playwright.

This cross-curricular lesson plan uses a picture to illuminate a historical moment that we don’t often see. How does seeing the event in a different light change the perspective? This is a great lesson to enforce the idea that characters aren’t always what they seem - whether students are preparing a character to perform, or if they are writing a play.

This unit includes the opportunity for students to choose and perform a musical theatre piece using the oral techniques and textual analysis that they learned in the lesson.

Decide how students will demonstrate their knowledge of the unit. A variety of activities are provided. You can choose to have all your students do the same activity, or allow students to choose how they demonstrate their knowledge. Rubrics are provided for each activity.

This day introduces the Seven Grandfather Teachings. Students engage with the story, create a storyboard, and discuss as a class.

These lessons move from the story into activity. Students will try interpreting, actively modelling, and practicing stepping into the character traits of Love, Wisdom, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility, and Truth.

A final step can be used as an evaluation of student understanding of the character traits presented in the Seven Grandfather Teachings by approaching an Open, Neutral Scene. Students are paired and given one of the open, neutral scenes included in this unit. Neutral scenes can have dictated conflict or character traits added to them by the teacher for students, but in the most “open” sense, allow students to develop the story and create strong focused characters.

This close-reading lesson centers around students analyzing Chapter 15, “Who The Hell Are These Guys?” of the memoir It’s Always Loud In The Balcony: A Life in Black Theater, from Harlem to Hollywood and Back by Richard Wesley.

The first day introduces the learning circle format to the class, and the story of The Two Wolves.

Students will share their findings from the previous lessons, and present their interpretation of art in small groups. Options for assessment are included.

Students will read, annotate, and reflect on an article about the Black Arts Movement. By participating in the annotation exercise, students will obtain background knowledge which will lead to a mini research project and presentation.

Students will engage in activities to help them further their understanding of the principles of Stanislavski’s Method.

Students will put into action the Stanislavski principles, superobjective, and scene scores as they rehearse their scenes for performance. In these classes students will work through planning, blocking, specific details, a line check, and a final runthrough before the performance.

Students will explore and apply some of the principles of Stansislavski’s Method in a virtual environment.

Students will put into action the Stanislavski principles, superobjective, and scene scores as they rehearse their scenes for performance. In these classes students will work through planning, blocking, specific details, a line check, and a final runthrough before the performance.

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of everything they have learned through scene performance. They will watch the scenes afterward to self-evaluate. An optional quiz is provided.

A conversation with Claire Broome, on how to execute the Dilemma Project in your classroom.

In this introduction lesson, students will discuss the challenges of writing a play. They will learn the definition of self-management and discuss how they use self-management in their day-to-day lives. Students will then choose a topic that they care about and identify what they know about it, what questions they have, and how they’re going to answer those questions.

Students will officially set their goal and discuss the differences between a strategy, action plan, and process. By the end of the lesson, students will have created a strategy paragraph, developed a framework for writing their play through a plan of action, and identified specific playwriting exercises to use.