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How do you take existing pieces and create a costume? One of the keys to successful costuming is knowing how to adapt staples into a variety of different costumes for different productions. As highlighted in Lesson One, when it comes to costuming, sometimes what you come up with won’t be the perfect costume. It’s important to learn to work with what you have. This lesson allows students to continue working on their clothing vocabulary document.

Costuming with colour is another technique to unify a look for a show. It’s a great way to visualize theme and mood. How do different colours make you feel? What colours are associated with different moods? Can colour be used to identify a group? Students will first assess character types and use the colour wheel to create a costume look. Their task for the lesson is to assign colours to different groups in a play, based on relationship, mood, and era.

One issue that costumers run into is that because they’re pulling together from existing pieces, the costumes’ overall look can lack unity. The best way to achieve unification is by creating and executing costumes through a costuming vision. In this lesson, students will answer questions in order to develop a costuming vision for a show.

All masks can be played in more than one way, even if there’s a dominant look. In this lesson, students will explore how two physical interpretations paired with each other and opposite to each other become the mask and the countermask—the opposite reaction. They will then apply the qualities of movement to their mask/countermask.

Students use personal experiences or views to write a spoken word poem about a challenge young people face in their community.

In this lesson, students will explore the eight qualities of movement to give more variety, texture, and richness to their movement choices and then apply the qualities of movement to their mask work.

Students will apply what they have learned to two possible culminating assignments.

An introduction to the concept of the spoken word performance using examples and self-reflection.

This lesson will focus on the materials needed to create various physical wounds using stage makeup. Students will interact with specialized makeup materials such as latex, nose and scar wax, and stage blood in order to become familiar with the materials and gain a basic understanding of how to utilize the materials in the execution of a stage-makeup design.

In this lesson, students will explore character relationships before they start writing their scripts by answering 20 questions. They will also think about character specific vocabulary.

Before students start writing their script, they will develop a plot outline using the points of plot development. They will review the conventions of script writing and the criteria for the project.

Using a specific method of timed sessions and movement breaks, groups will write the first draft of their plays. They will then revise, change, and edit the draft using the same method.

Students will learn how to identify the architecture of a mask—that is to choose specific shapes that they can mimic in their bodies to find a mask character.

Students will be introduced to the unit through the running man exercise. This exercise demonstrates how physically committing to a specific set of actions creates a sense of emotion without the actor having to play the emotion.

This lesson will focus on creating scars, scrapes, and cuts with stage makeup. Students will reflect on what causes these wounds and will then create a scar, scrape, or cut on a partner using stage makeup.

This lesson introduces the project and begins character development exercises, including Stanislavski's Magic If.

In this lesson, using the character they created in the previous lesson, students will show up to class “in character” and repeat the Magic If exercise, and choose their dilemma.

In this lesson, students will explore location options for their play and choose one.

Students will demonstrate mastery by presenting their original spoken word pieces for both a written and performance grade.

Students will follow a structure to rehearse their spoken word poetry performances with peer feedback.