Collection
Project-Based Learning
14 items
A curated collection of courses, lesson plans, and resources from the Drama Teacher Academy.
Courses
PD COURSE
Play Adaptation Project
by Lindsay Price
6 modules
44 minutes
2 Credit Hours
Adaptation is a fabulous classroom project: it requires students to analyze, adapt, modify, plan synthesize, devise. All the higher order thinking skills.
But you can’t just throw a narrator into a script and call it a day. You have to have a preparation process leading up to the writing process.
In this course you will learn practical exercises and a path to prepare your students to take on their own adaptation project. We’ll look at the guidelines to adaptation, things to think about when choosing a text, how to analyze the source material and writing that first draft.
So join me, Lindsay Price, in the Play Adaptation Project.
Units
Creating a Musical: Project
by Annie Dragoo
6 lessons
Want a fun project that has your students collaborating and creating? In this unit by Annie Dragoo, students in groups will write and perform an original musical by adding modern songs to a traditional fairy tale story.
The six lessons take students from writing their script, to choreography and planned movement, to rehearsing, performing and evaluation.
The Rubric will focus on student performance. That means vocal delivery, emotional delivery, blocking/choreography, energy, focus, and characters.
The Dilemma Project
UNIT
The Dilemma Project
by Claire Broome
12 lessons
The Dilemma Project is based on a situation that requires a decision: push a button and get a great reward, but there’s also a great consequence. Don’t push the button and there’s no reward.
This unit will lead to a group performance including characters, costumes, set, acting theory, acting tools, and a student written script. The final script will be about ten pages in length which means roughly ten minutes of stage time.
Musical Theatre History Museum Project
by Annie Dragoo
8 lessons
Musical Theatre is a uniquely American art form, explored through this unique unit by instructor Annie Dragoo.
It is divided into two parts: first, students view a documentary called Broadway the American Musical - available on YouTube. Students will reflect after each episode and there is an available viewing quiz.
After viewing, discussing and reflecting on each episode of the PBS Documentary, Broadway: The American Musical, students will research a specific topic in order to create and design a musical theatre museum exhibit. It’s a great three-dimensional demonstration of knowledge, and there is a rubric provided for the completed exhibit.
This is not your traditional textbook history learning!
Play Adaptation Project
by Lindsay Price
5 lessons
Adaptation is a fabulous classroom project: it requires students to analyze, adapt, modify, plan, synthesize, and devise. However, it takes skill to write a successful adaptation; you can’t just throw a narrator into a script and consider the work done. In this unit, students will go through a step by step pre-writing process in order to prepare them to write their own adaptations. They will learn and practice the elements of adaptation before writing the first draft of their own theatrical adaptations.
Toolkits
TOOLKIT
Concept-Based Design Project
6 resources
This project introduces students to a structured design methodology by having them apply the MELT (Mood, Era, Location, Theme) framework and “What If” brainstorming games to reinterpret simple stories. Over five scaffolded parts, learners identify essential elements, generate conceptual statements, explore imaginative variations, and then present a cohesive design portfolio including scenery, costumes, and lighting. The resource emphasizes conceptual thinking and creative risk-taking while anchoring student work in a clear process.
TOOLKIT
The Empathy Project
8 resources
This project takes a scaffolded approach to creating the Empathetic Classroom. It guides students through five “links” of empathy: first with themselves, then others, then characters, then the audience/world, and finally into a culminating theatrical presentation. Along the way, it provides resources like reflection prompts, team-building games, safe-space guidelines, and support for executing the project in a classroom context.
TOOLKIT
SEL Monologue Project
6 resources
This project guides students to analyze and rehearse a monologue through the lens of social-emotional learning, fostering deeper emotional connection and authenticity in performance. It is structured into five parts: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making. Each part has activities and prompts to help students explore their characters’ inner lives and emotional journeys.
Lesson Plans
LESSON PLAN
Research Project: Acting Teachers
by Todd Espeland
Instead of presenting a lecture on influential acting teachers, students self-learn in this lesson plan. Have students research an acting teacher, prepare a presentation and teach an exercise in groups.
LESSON PLAN
The Musical Theatre Audition Portfolio Project
by Annie Dragoo
Part of the audition process is preparation. And that is not just memorizing a single monologue or one song. It’s preparing a wide variety of material for a variety of situations. By preparing an audition portfolio, students will be ready for any type of audition that may arise. The portfolio will also help students explore different genres of musical theatre.
LESSON PLAN
Who is Thespis? Project Version
by Lindsay Price
Thespis is often stated as being the first actor because he stepped away from the chorus. But who is he? What do we know as fact and what has been assumed as his origin story? What happens when unreliable evidence is recorded as historical fact? Does it matter?
In this lesson, students will research, present and draw their own conclusions about the validity of Thespis as a reliable figure in theatre history. They will then write and present a scene that showcases their viewpoint.
*This lesson requires internet accessibility (for students to research for the project) either during class time or afterward as assigned homework.
Individual Resources
RESOURCE
Dealing with Absent Students During Scene Work: The Group Scene Project
PDF
2 resources
Do you have trouble rehearsing scenes in class because of absenteeism or school testing or any number of other events that pull students from your classroom? The rehearsal and performance of scenes are a key part of the drama curriculum, and all of these obstacles can bring scene work to a halt.
The Group Scene Project is designed to help circumvent obstacles of missing scene partners and give those students who are in class the ability to continue working on their scenes.
RESOURCE
Research Project: Acting Teachers
PDF
In groups, students will research a well known acting teacher, give a presentation and teach an exercise.
RESOURCE
Song in a Box
PDF
Based on their analysis of an approved song, students will use their knowledge of line, shape, color, theme and mood to design and create a single abstract miniature set in a shoebox. Students will also give an oral presentation to explain and defend their design ideas.
