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In this lesson, students will be introduced to the commedia dell’arte form and start their exploration of stock characters.

In this lesson, students start working on their specific scene and complete a close reading.

In this lesson, we’ll look at multiple perspectives that can lead to a conflict and strategies employed to resolve it. Students will improvise a scene using 2+ tactics in partner groups. Some groups will perform for the class and receiving coaching and feedback on the Tactics Rubric.

Students will explore the considerations for costume design and what can be communicated through clothing. Students will create a “rocker” costume for a character as a means of introducing students to director’s concept and how it can shape a design.

In a drama class there is often a focus on onstage activities: performance skills, staging a scene, ensemble building. But the audience plays a vital and necessary role in the process. Theatre does not happen without an audience. It’s important for students to be aware of and apply audience etiquette. In this lesson, students will explore the different ways an audience behaves depending on the event, what is bad audience behaviour, establish the rules, practice critical thinking as an audience member and complete an exit slip to demonstrate comprehension.

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.

Being able to control how much air comes out as you speak allows you to speak loudly without damaging your voice. It also lets you choose where to pause. This lesson teaches students the basics of breath support and exercises to practice controlling the breath. Students will demonstrate their ability to control their breath support by participating in a series of exercises, culminating with an attempt to say all fifty states of the union in one breath.

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 will learn how to use vocal variety to communicate. Students will learn how to identify and apply Pitch, Tone, Rate, and Volume in performance.

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.

In this ELP, students will read a scene with two characters. Students will read the scene and then analyze the characters. Who are they? What specific character traits do they have? What evidence is there in the text to support your opinion? Students will then reflect on the characters: Who do they connect with most? Who do they connect with least? Who would you want to play/not want to play and why?

In this ELP, students will take their existing knowledge about a text and create a commercial for that text. Not only is this a great way for you to see how students comprehend material, but it’s a great “Emergency” backup if you have to be away in the middle of a text-analysis unit.

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.