PD Courses
PD COURSE
Strong Ensemble = Strong Play
by Craig Mason
This mini-course will give you a toolkit to bring your shows to the next level by having an engaged, active, ensemble.
The ensemble is a critical part of a large cast show. But you can't leave them to fend for themselves. They need structure. They need exercises and activities.
In Strong Ensemble = Strong Play, you'll be given ensemble-building exercises. You'll also discover specific activities that will help your ensemble become three-dimensional characters who have something to do and something to play in every moment they are on stage.
We'll look at case studies that take the exercises learned in the course and apply them to specific shows.
PD COURSE
Coaching Improv
by Jennine Profeta
Second City performer and theatre educator Jennine Profeta is back and ready to help you take your Improv classes to the next level. It’s all getting students to perform - and how to be a great improv coach who can keep them supported and grounded (and having fun!)
In this course, you’ll learn the golden rules of improv. You’ll learn a bunch of improv games (great for warm-ups, teaching tools, and even for competitions). You’ll learn Jennine’s tips and tricks for what to look for when coaching and how to troubleshoot common issues.
The course is designed to help you improv as an ensemble and give you the know-how to coach with confidence whether it’s in the classroom or on the stage!
PD COURSE
Basic Lighting for Drama Teachers
by Claire Broome
Join drama teacher Claire Broome and explore the basics of lighting, including lighting systems and instruments, lighting plots, how to record a lighting cue, and alternative sources of lighting. You’ll learn some practical, hands-on ways of using lighting in your classroom or theatre, whether you have a lighting system or not.
This course is packed with hands-on examples, activities for your students, and videos to develop your students’ understanding. Find out why lighting is such an important character in a production.
Lesson Plans
LESSON PLAN
Part of Script Analysis: The Actor's Perspective Unit
Getting to Know a Character
by Karen Loftus
Students learn the 5 ways we learn about a character in a script.
Attachments
LESSON PLAN
00 - Emergency Lesson Plans Ebook
by Lindsay Price
You need Emergency Lesson Plans. The unexpected comes up all the time.
This Emergency Lesson Plan Collection (30 lessons) will address all of your concerns and take into account all of your sub’s questions. Every Emergency Lesson Plan includes substitute instructions, handouts, and assessment suggestions.
Attachments
LESSON PLAN
Part of Unit Four: Intro to Scripted Scenes Unit
Intro to Scripts
by Lindsay Johnson
In this introductory lesson, students will be able to define “script” and “dialogue.” They will begin to brainstorm characters/relationships, setting, and conflicts to add content to a contentless scene that they will work on for the rest of the unit. Students will use a variety of methods they’ve learned in the previous unit to communicate meaning: setting, pantomime, relationship clues, objectives, stakes, and tactics.
Attachments
LESSON PLAN
Part of Unit Four: Intro to Scripted Scenes Unit
Intro to Blocking
by Lindsay Johnson
In this lesson, students will decide how best to include movement in their scene to help an audience understand what is happening in the scene. Students will complete a set design for their partner scene and add 3+ blocking notes to their scripts. Students will also take a Stage Directions Mini-Quiz
to demonstrate their understanding of stage directions/basic blocking notes.
Attachments
LESSON PLAN
Part of Unit Six: Directed Scenes Take 1: Same Scene, Different Visions Unit
Introduction to Directors and Close Reading of Scene
by Lindsay Johnson
In this lesson, students are introduced to the different tasks the director and the actor take on in a scene, complete an application for which role they would like to take on, and tackle a close reading of the unit scene.
Attachments
LESSON PLAN
01 - Emergency Lesson Plans: Middle School Drama Class Task Sheets
by Drama Teacher Academy
This ebook contains 15 different task sheets, designed to be used as Emergency Lesson Plans for middle school students.
A task sheet is a sheet that provides students with a task to complete. Each task will have an itemized list of steps. All tasks are written so they can be completed individually and independently using pen and paper. If you are a computer or laptop one-to-one school, simply adapt any substitute instruction to reflect that students will work digitally and submit online. Emergency Lesson Plans: Middle School Drama Class Task Sheets includes Single-Task Sheets, meaning all the instructions have a single-subject focus (monologues, scene writing, theatre vocabulary).
Task Sheets come with additional handouts and worksheets to make it as straightforward as possible for substitutes to give information to students and for students to complete their
tasks.
Units
UNIT
Part of the Drama One Curriculum
Playwriting
by Karen Loftus
Students will explore the structural elements of a play: character, objective, obstacles, tactics, resolution, and raising the stakes. They will also learn how to write character-driven dialogue and stage directions. Students will work in groups to create and present a short play.
UNIT
Part of the Middle School Curriculum
Unit Two: Improvisation Basics
by Lindsay Johnson
In this unit, students will learn, practice and apply three important rules of improv: accepting and building on offers, quick thinking, and strong offers. For each step, they will work with the Improvisation Rubric by both giving and receiving feedback. Students will also start to practice techniques to improve their vocal clarity. The unit culminates in a performance assessment in which students will play an improv game in front of an audience.
UNIT
Part of the Middle School Curriculum
Unit Three: Building Improvised Scenes
by Lindsay Johnson
Students will understand the basic building blocks of a scene: The Who (characters/ relationship), the Where (setting), and the What (conflict – objectives/tactics). They will learn how to use both verbal and nonverbal (pantomime) clues to communicate these scene details to an audience. They will continue to work on voice clarity, while also learning to open their body to an audience. The unit culminates in a performance assessment in which students work in pairs to improvise a scene.
UNIT
Part of the Middle School Curriculum
Unit Four: Intro to Scripted Scenes
by Lindsay Johnson
Students will be introduced to the most basic of scripts: the contentless/open scene script. They will use their knowledge of character/relationships, setting, objective, and tactics to add content to a contentless scene. Students will also learn the basics of set design and blocking, and will begin using voice expression to communicate clearer characters. The unit culminates in a performance assessment in which students will work in pairs to add content to and perform a contentless scene.
UNIT
Part of the Middle School Curriculum
Unit Seven: Directed Scenes Take 2: A Variety of Scenes
by Lindsay Johnson
Students will have another opportunity to participate in student-directed scenes, only this time each director will be assigned a different script, and actors for each group will be chosen by the teacher based on individual strengths and challenges, rather than holding auditions.
Actors will take a deeper dive into character physicality and use of levels in staging this unit. Directors will continue to create a set design and block the scenes, adding props as well in this unit.
The unit culminates in actors presenting their directed scenes to the class.
UNIT
Part of the Middle School Curriculum
Unit Eight: Theatre of the Oppressed
by Lindsay Johnson
Students will have a chance to merge their understanding of scene elements with their improvisation skills in this final unit based on Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Theatre of the Oppressed is a style of theatre specifically created to highlight the injustices of power and oppression in society and to problem-solve ways to bring about change.
Starting with image theatre techniques to identify issues of power and oppression, students will then use forum theatre to create scenarios of oppression taken from their own lives and improvise realistic solutions.
The unit culminates in a performance in which students participate as both actors in a scene they create themselves and spect-actors in scenes created by their peers.
PLCs
PLC
School Startup - Session One
Hosted by Karen Loftus, Matt Webster, and Jennine Profeta
Learn about the most important things for the first week of school - from ice breaker games, to classroom procedures, to setting the tone from Day 1. Watch this replay to learn tips and tricks to start your school year off on the right foot!
Hosted by DTA instructors Karen Loftus, Lindsay Price, Jennine Profeta, and Matt Webster.
Recorded on August 14th, 2015 at 2pm.
Attachments
PLC
Pitching a "Dangerous" Show
Hosted by Lindsay Price, Matt Webster
You’ve found the perfect play for your kids but there’s just one problem… some of the themes/language might raise eyebrows. Will raise eyebrows. Your administration doesn’t like it. Parents don’t like it. But you know it’s important to do work that tackles tough subjects. Your students know it’s important too. In cases like these, it’s better to get in front of the issue than behind it.
Join us as we discuss best practices for communicating with your administrators, your parents, and your community.
Attachments
PLC
Theatre History
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Lea Marshall, Wendy-Marie Martin
Theatre History should be a part of every drama curriculum. But with all the plays and dates and people and places how do you avoid a month of textbooks, tests, and learning by rote? How do you make theatre history come alive in your classroom? Can you make it active? Can you make it fun? Join us for this discussion on bringing the past to life in the present.
Attachments
PLC
Monologues
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Matt Banaszynski, Gai Jones
Monologues are the backbone of the performance process. They are a super-concentrated way for students to learn such skills as memorization, characterization, objective and tactics. But how does a teacher juggle 20+ monologues at a time and still give the kind of feedback that will help their students improve? Join us for a discussion about monologues in the drama classroom and find out how it’s done.
Attachments
PLC
Classroom Management with Social Emotional Learning - Session Two
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Christa Vogt, Shelby Steege
If you talk to teachers these days, the same topic pops up over and over: Post pandemic classroom management. It doesn't matter if they are a highly experienced educator or fresh out of their student teaching, they all say the same thing - the vibe in the classroom has changed. Teachers say they need new tools in their classrooms to address these changes, so in this PLC we are going to break out the best tool in the toolkit: Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Join us for a timely conversation about how you can use SEL in your classroom to reset your students and improve your classroom management.
Attachments
PLC
AI in the Drama Classroom
Hosted by Matt Webster, Lindsay Price, Jessica McGettrick, Elizabeth Holbrook
Artificial Intelligence is here. In the past few years it has found its way into almost every corner of modern life - including the classroom. However, important questions remain. Questions like: "Is there a place for AI in the classroom?" "Does that include the Drama classroom?" and "What does AI in the Drama classroom look like?"
These are just some of the questions we will tackle when you join us in this forward thinking PLC.
Attachments
Resources
RESOURCE
Improv Warm Up Games
This resource has a list and description of six different warm-up games, great for improv groups or any theatre class.
RESOURCE
Last Minute Sub Solutions
What do you do when you have to be unexpectedly absent from class? DTA members to the rescue with their ideas.
RESOURCE
Monologue Packet
We know that you’re always on the lookout for monologues. We also know you’ve no time to search for monologues.
Enjoy the material in this packet. Use them in your classes. Give them to your students for their next IE’s. The full scripts for all monologues can be found at theatrefolk.com.
RESOURCE
00 - Scenes for Classroom Study eBook
Use these scenes in your classroom for character study, scene work, substitute teachers, performance, Individual Event competitions, and any other way you can imagine.
Each scene comes from a published play (the complete play can be found on at theatrefolk.com) and is FREE for you to print, copy, and distribute. But wait there’s more! Each scene comes with:
• Close Reading Questions
• Staging Suggestions
• Character Development
30 scenes in total within this eBook!
RESOURCE
13 - Story Theatre Scripts
These story theatre scripts are ready for performance. Each story includes at least one narrator, and each one can be adapted further to meet your needs.
RESOURCE
Emergency Lesson Plans eBook
You need Emergency Lesson Plans. The unexpected comes up all the time.
This Emergency Lesson Plan Collection (30 lessons) will address all of your concerns and take into account all of your sub’s questions. Every Emergency Lesson Plan includes substitute instructions, handouts, and assessment suggestions.
