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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.

In this lesson, students explore word choice, emotion, and vocal expression in communication. They will select an objective or argument and actions to support it. They will write lines of dialogue to match different actions. They will choose an emotion that correspond with the line and action, and practice speaking their lines with emotion and vocal expression. Finally, they will write an argument explaining how a line expresses a specific action – and support it with evidence.

Students will learn the importance of articulation, how to identify the articulators in their mouth, and how to use good articulation when speaking.

Students learn about the articulators and use them with tongue twisters and additional exercises.

Students will be able to identify some of the major differences between acting for the stage and the camera. They will also be able to understand and use vocabulary that is specific to working on film sets and acting for the camera.

Students will be able to identify some of the major differences between acting for the stage and the camera. They will also be introduced to terms used on film sets and for acting for the camera and be ready to use those terms in upcoming projects.

This lesson includes a series of improv games to focus students on “the other” rather than “the self,” on listening, on sharing their energy with scene partners, and on collaboration in acting.

In this lesson, students will explore nonverbal communication. How do students determine what others are thinking and feeling? Can they read body language and other forms of nonverbal communication? When they look at a photo can they identify what someone is thinking?

The objective of this lesson is twofold: first, for students have the opportunity to perform individually onstage to practice volume, diction, and enunciation while speaking, and receive feedback from their peers on those elements. Second, students will then observe others’ performances and give feedback to their peers. Two challenges in one lesson!

Students demonstrate comprehension of how to present physical activities through pantomime. The focus of the pantomime is using the five senses, using whole body, and incorporating the principles of maintaining a mimed object.

Use this lesson plan to introduce to students the act of making a tableau and apply tableau work in groups. Students will start by examining the story of a photo and discussing how they could make that photo three dimensional. They are taught the three elements that make an effective tableau, the different spaces and shapes to use in a tableau picture, and how a group must work together. After exploring tableau through exercises, groups are given a tableau assignment to apply what they have learned.

This session introduces students to the Elizabethan Era, and its’ key playwrights and players.

This is a simple project. Your students are going to tell a joke or riddle to the class. The reason to use a joke or a riddle (rather than a poem, prose piece, monologue, or scene) is students in the audience will want to hear the answer. They will be more engaged in the simple joke or riddle than passively listening to something else. See the add-on if you wish to have students apply projection and articulation to a scene.

Students continue exploring nonverbal communication through tableaux.

The final project for this unit is a simple two-person pantomime of up to one minute in length. The objective is for students to utilize mime, body language, and facial expression to tell a basic story: an activity that has an obstacle that they overcome or get past.

Students will learn the Rashomon plot device, then put it into practice through improvised character monologues.

What tools do students need to properly prepare a scene? What exercises? This multi-class lesson plan models and practices those tools and exercises with the full class before they have to take on a scene for assessment.

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

Students will participate in a number of power activities that will encourage them to come up with ways to physically demonstrate a powerful/powerless character. A discussion about power in our society will follow.

Theatre is about communication. A story is presented to an audience. Storytelling was one of the earliest forms of entertainment that we continue to use today. Even though the method for delivering the story has changed, the form itself has stayed the same for thousands of years. In this lesson, students will create their version of the 21st century story. What stories do we tell today? How do we tell them? Who do we tell them to? You can use this lesson as an intro to studying modern theatre, especially for students who don’t have a theatre background. You can also use this lesson as an intro for Ancient Greek Theatre. Start by examining stories in a modern context, then shift to the Ancient Greek era.