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Students start the monologue process nonverbally. They will present an entrance, an action, and an exit that shows a story without dialogue. In a monologue, the physical body is an important communication tool—just as important as dialogue. And that’s the focus of this lesson. Physical action can demonstrate location, mood, age, and subtext.

In this lesson, students will work on a three-sentence monologue to address both issues. Everyone will do the same monologue, so there is also the opportunity to talk about individual character choice, physical expression, and verbal expression.

In this lesson, students discuss and choose a topic for their devised piece.

Students explore how body language can show a story (i.e. how someone is feeling, character traits, relationships between characters, etc.). The lesson culminates in students using a physical elliptical scene (a scene with just stage directions) and adding movements, gestures, and body language.

In this lesson, students begin putting the pieces together for their devised work. Students brainstorm on their topic, then participate in a movement piece and a forum theatre activity to explore their topic.

In this lesson, students will start their scene work first with a contentless scene, a one-minute scene, and then (for homework) write a one-page scene based on a real life experience.

In this lesson students watch the Ren Run then discuss the topic of revision. What is the message of the play? How do the scenes communicate the message? Note: Depending on the amount of revisions your students feel the play needs, revising might take longer than one lesson. Feel free to add time, if need be.

In this lesson, students continue to build the play by writing and revising scenes, reading each other’s work, and providing feedback.

In this lesson, students will work in groups to create transitions in improvised tableaux and movement pieces. They will also participate in a “ren run” to practice improv blocking.

In this lesson, students finalize casting, then start rehearsing. Focus the rehearsals on blocking. What is the necessary movement to communicate the content of the scene?

Students run the show before their performance. And then on the decided upon date and time, they perform!

Students continue to rehearse. They also move on to the design phase of the project. The group will decide upon costuming and props for the performance. NOTE: Keep costumes and props simple. Black works well for costumes with colourful accents.

Students continue to rehearse. In this lesson, character development exercises deepen the students’ experiences and final products.

This lesson happens after the performance. Post-show discussion questions are included as well as a post-show reflection.

Students will understand the importance of endurance, emotion, and commitment in movement when performing. They will also gain an understanding of how to pick up choreography by learning the concepts of routine and anticipation.

Students will start the process of writing a monologue by storytelling. They will tell a story based only on what they observe in a picture.

Using their rough drafts from the starter prompts, students will work in pairs to edit their drafts to make cleaner stories. Students will also map out their drafts on a Story Mountain diagram to make sure that they follow the proper format.

Students will plot out the steps of the story mountain by using existing monologues.

Students will start writing their own monologue, using a pre-selected phrase as a starting point.

Students will understand the parts of a story and how it relates to a monologue through the story mountain framework.