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Students will reflect on their own identities and the components of their identities. They will then reflect on how often they see themselves in current entertainment. Students will discuss common identities in fairy tales and then change a fairy tale character to reflect their identity in a scene. How does the change in identity affect the story? How does the story change?

Writing a play review is an excellent way for students to apply critical thinking skills. A review is a subjective but educated response to a play. The reviewer gives an opinion and supports it with thoughtful analysis. What are the parts of a well written review? What should a student do before, during, and after a performance? The culminating exercise involves students writing a review of a show. Use this lesson as a precursor to students seeing a performance (i.e. a school production, a community play, or a touring show).

Students will use sentence starters to self-assess and reflect on what they’ve done in drama class over the past year. What was their favourite unit? How do they compare their skills now to the beginning of the year? What were their personal goals for the class and how did they achieve them?

Props add so much to a production, but they can also be challenging to work with. From dealing with a huge list of props, to having trouble using props during rehearsal, to problems with broken, missing, or consumable props, students need to work together to problem solve when a props issue occurs. This is great practice for students working on productions, because props problems will inevitably crop up.

The objective of this lesson is to put students in a theatre production role. Introduce the concept of a master props list to students: what it is, why it is useful, and how to create one.

Students will stage locations using only a finite number of props and pieces. The goal is to show the location using action and imagination (as we often must do in the theatre) without a reliance on exact realism.

In this lesson, students will create a script draft that includes the five required lines to establish character, setting, conflict, rising action, and resolution.

In this lesson, students will create a script draft that includes scene setting, expression, and movement notes.

Students will practice speaking in front of their peers as they explore personification and emotion in a monologue. After seeing a model exercise, Students choose an object and an emotion as the base for their monologue. Students play the part of the object and decide on a story that explains why they feel their current emotion. Students demonstrate stage presence, vocal presence and creating a relevant story.

Students will reflect on common societal norms and expectations. Who decided these norms? Why do we follow them? What happens when we don’t? They will then write a monologue for a character who doesn’t fit within the common societal norms and expectations construct.

Students will choose a LGBTQ+ designer that is unknown to them and has not, as of this writing, worked on Broadway. The chosen designer has to have a website with visual examples of their work, a bio or about page, and a resume. Students will analyze the work of the designer using the Analysis Worksheet. They will then reflect on what they have learned. If you want to extend the length of the lesson, have students put together a brief presentation on their designer and share their findings with the class.

Students will review quotes from LGBTQ+ theatre professionals in set design, lighting design, sound design, and costume design. They will write out their first impressions, reflect on the quote, and then create a theatrical design expression. The focus here is time management and self-management. How will students use their time to complete their tasks?

Students will start with pre-reading questions about costume design. They will then read an article about costume designer Machine Dazzle, who specifically identifies himself as an artist before a costume designer. Finally, students will apply what they have learned about Dazzle’s design philosophy in their own costume designs.

Using a set of criteria, students will watch a movie (or read a play) and analyze it based on the criteria. The Vito Russo is specific to LGBTQ+ representation in a work. Does the movie meet the criteria and, therefore, pass the test? Students will then reflect on the results: Is the criteria a good way to assess representation? How could the movie be changed to meet the criteria?

Students will research the character of Jo from the musical Jagged Little Pill. The character, allegedly, started out as nonbinary and was changed to cisgender for the Broadway run. When confronted with this change, those involved with the production stated that Jo was always intended to be cisgender and was written as cisgender. This confused many in the LGBTQ+ community. What is the background to this situation? What is the origin story to the character and the actor playing the character? Why did the creative team react the way they did and what was the response to their reaction? Who is right? Students will research, analyze, and come to their own conclusions and then express their conclusions in a response.

Students will research how the character of Anybodys was changed from a tomboy in the original West Side Story movie (and musical) to a transgender character (played by nonbinary actor iris menas) in the 2021 Steven Spielberg version. Students will research the change through articles and video and come to their own conclusions about the change. Students will then apply what they have learned by creating their own scenes with a character change.

This lesson covers a general overview of The Production Classroom process. It includes pacing suggestions for each step as well as how to find the necessary documentation to complete each step.

Students will be able to identify elements of Ancient Greek Theatre through a group research activity.

In this lesson, students will do a research project on the sociopolitical and cultural background of Spain and learn about the plays and playwrights of this era. They will also explore a monologue from the play Life Is a Dream.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to Renaissance theatre. They will complete a research project on the sociopolitical and cultural background for the birthplace of the Renaissance: Italy.