Search the Drama Teacher Academy

In this lesson, students start working on physicality elements. They will complete an Introduction to Physicality Notes sheet and give peer observational feedback.

In this lesson, students will perform their final scene for assessment in front of the class. They will also complete an audience feedback sheet where they give their peers feedback on rubric skills.

Students will participate in a tableau “Power Handshake” exercise that will give them some basic background experience with image theatre/tableau and nonverbal expressions of relationship and power. They will then work on their critical thinking skills by close reading an article that gives a brief introduction to Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.

In groups, students will brainstorm a list of scenarios in which they feel power or oppression in their daily lives. They will then select a scenario from their list and turn it into a tableau.

In this lesson, students will rehearse their scenes using a rehearsal checklist, focusing on vocal expression and projection.

Students will be introduced to Boal’s Image Theatre. They will review the concept of tableau (frozen picture) from Lesson 1, and they will be introduced to the tableau rubric and the three tableau skills (frozen bodies, 3+ levels, and character). In small groups, they will create tableaux that capture an image of “Family” (whatever that word means to them).

Students will take the scene outline created last class and use it to create a more detailed script that includes scene-setting notes, movement notes, and dialogue for the characters. Students will evaluate a peer’s script for errors in grammar or script writing conventions. They will then turn in their scripts for an assessment grade at the end of class.

Students will review the three tableau skills (frozen bodies, 3+ levels, and character). In small groups, they will analyze the tableaux from last class that captured an image of “Family” (whatever that word meant to them), as well as create and analyze new tableaux around a topical issue in society.

Students will be introduced to forum theatre by researching a video example. Students will then try their hand at forum theatre by acting out a middle school scenario of oppression, becoming spect-actors, and improvising solutions.

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.

In groups, students will begin by briefly bringing to life the tableaux from Lesson 5. They will then create the skeleton of a scene for each tableau, indicating the protagonist, antagonist, and method of oppression in each scenario. Finally, students will review their peer’s work and rank the scenes that they are most interested in bringing to life.

In this lesson, students will perform their final scene for assessment in front of the class. They will also complete an audience feedback sheet where they give their peers feedback on rubric skills.

Students will take what they’ve learned so far to create a digital Inspiration Collage as a way to help them visualize the costume they will create.

Students will begin by discussing the importance of realistic acting in these scenes, noting how they will be graded on the Realistic Acting Rubric. They will commit their scenes to memory and review projection skills. When the scenes are solid, students will then begin practicing becoming and reacting to spect-actors, and reviewing the Improvisation, Spect-acting, and Realistic Acting Rubrics after each spect-acting attempt.

Students will learn how to set up the costume racks to prepare for costuming a show. Students will then learn how to take proper measurements by measuring each other. They will fill out a standard costume measurement form. Then, after instruction on how to do the three stitches that can help them to complete alterations, they will practice these stitches by creating a pincushion.

Greek Theatre is the ancestor of the Modern Theatre. It is the birth of the actor stepping away from a chorus of unison speakers. The building of theatres. We can look at the production of theatre in that time and see similarities to how we present theatre today. But where do we start? And how do we make theatre history more than just the collection of data? In this lesson plan, students will explore the connection between the way they tell stories in the 21st century and the way that the Ancient Greeks told stories. Students will also explore Ancient Greek vases and Homer’s The Iliad.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the plays and playwrights of Ancient Greek theatre. They will create their own hero’s downfall, take on a choral reading, examine Aristotle’s elements of drama, and read a monologue from Antigone.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the precursors of Realism/Naturalism. Students will complete a research project on the sociopolitical and STEM background of the era to set the stage for Realism/Naturalism.

In this lesson, students will learn about Constantin Stanislavski, an actor and theatre director who profoundly affected modern realistic theatre with his system of actor training specifically for realistic plays. Students will participate in exercises from the Stanislavski system.

The Greek Theatre is the birth of the modern theatre. It is the birth of the actor stepping away from a chorus of unison speakers, as well as the catalyst that triggered the building of theatres. We can look at the production of theatre in that time and see similarities to how we present theatre today. But where do we start? And how do we make theatre history more than the collection of data? In this lesson plan, students will explore the connection between “what” of Ancient Greek Theatre: tragedy, satyr, and comedy.