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In this lesson, students will watch a movie musical, respond to viewing questions, and apply themes and contexts from the musical in a post-viewing activity. The questions and exercises for this lesson are taken from the Singin’ in the Rain Classroom Study Guide, which is included. Alternative pre-viewing questions and post-viewing exercises are available if you wish to modify the lesson. This lesson is ideal for the end of the school year, after a major assessment, or following a semester-end production.

There are two choices for a culminating project for the play. You can have everyone complete the same project, which is to have groups work on a reimagined version of the play for the 21st century, OR you can give students a choice board of activities and have them choose their final projects.

Students will discuss and answer questions regarding the differences between a monologue and a story using The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as a model.

Students will understand how status affects characterization and character actions by participating in the “Status Monkeys” game as well as other status-based interactions. The lesson begins with a status demonstration using students. It then moves onto an "unknown status" activity where students react to the status of others without knowing their own status. How do you treat a low status character compared to a high status character? The final activity is an animal imagery exercise where the students are all monkeys in a jungle with an assigned status. They must explore survival tactics available to someone of their particular status.

Students will understand how background and subtext can help create a scene with honest emotion and depth by exploring secrets. Students create a secret to explore their character and apply it to a scene.

Students will understand how to uncover the directorial clues that Shakespeare left in his work by doing a textual analysis. They will explore Emotional Outbursts, Action words, and Emotion words through a structured color coding analysis of a Shakespeare monologue.

Students apply the questions used in a Character Analysis Worksheet to create a character background for themselves. Students use this to help them understand the importance of details and commitment to character choices by creating a believable Show and Tell presentation with an unknown object.

This is a three lesson plan unit on introducing Improvisation. Part One: Introduction to Improv Students will understand what improvisation is and how to use the following rules: Trust Yourself and Accept all Offers. Part Two: Characterization & One Focus Students explore Characterization and One Focus by participating in activities and playing Ding, Emotional Waiter and Party Quirks. Part Three: Conflict and Tell a Complete Story Students will understand what conflict is and how to create it. Students will also understand how to use conflict to tell an improvised story with a beginning, middle and end. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the rules of improvisation through their final performance in Freeze as well as a written quiz.

Use this lesson plan with students who have some background in tableau. Students will apply the tableau form to a nonlinear framework to communicate an emotion, to visualize a word, and to illuminate an issue.

Use this lesson plan to get your students to practice the act of writing theatrical action. It's much different than writing a story. Students learn that in plays characters "do" an action, they don't "describe" an action. Students practice taking prose descriptive sentences and re-writing them as theatrical action. Students are also introduced to proper play formatting.

Some plays have rudimentary stage directions or no stage directions at all, leaving the world of the play up to the director and designers. Some plays, however, have stage directions that to the ordinary person might seem impossible to stage. Shakespeare has “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Peter Shaffer has “They cross the Andes.” These types of challenges, however, are perfect for the classroom. Students work in groups with an impossible stage direction and come up with possible solutions. How would they stage it with a limited budget and no mechanical options? How would they stage it using the newest quality set design, lights, and sound?

In this ELP students will take on the role of director. As the point person in a production for both the onstage and offstage departments, the director is the one who must problem-solve in a variety of situations. Students are asked to brainstorm solutions for a variety of problems and write out their answers. They will submit their work at the end of the class.

In this ELP, students problem solve common tech theatre issues.

Students will work on a problem-solving scenario that may arise while working with peers/friends during the rehearsal process. They will first work together as a group, and then individually submit an Exit Slip.

In Week Three, students continue to write read their work aloud and receive feedback. The feedback for this week will focus on character and conflict. They will also complete post-first draft questions and character profiles. The second draft is due at the end of the week.

Week Four is about practice, performance, and unit reflection. It’s important to include performance in the unit because the ultimate goal of all plays is that they 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.

The objective of this lesson is for students to explore different ways of analyzing text, to make their character’s lines rich and full of emotion and meaning. This lesson provides three exploratory exercises (which can be used individually as desired) as well as a culminating assignment.

In this ELP, students read an article about a specific role in the professional theatre, answer questions, and participate in a problem-solving activity.

In this ELP, students read an article about a specific role in the professional theatre, answer questions, and participate in a problem-solving activity.

In this ELP, students read an article about a specific role in the professional theatre, and answer questions.