Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts
HS 117.316 LII - Foundations: Inquiry and Understanding
35 units • 17 professional development courses aligned to
C.1.B - develop and practice stage movement techniques consistently to express thoughts, feelings, and actions non-verbally.
View all Standards for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts
C.1.B develop and practice stage movement techniques consistently to express thoughts, feelings, and actions non-verbally.
This page lists 35 units and 17 professional development courses aligned to C.1.B from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts. Designed for drama teachers, these resources directly address C.1.B - develop and practice stage movement techniques consistently to express thoughts, feelings, and actions non-verbally.
Unit
7
of
7
in
Drama Two
Curriculum
UNIT
Devising
by Corinna Rezzelle
13 lessons
While the Drama Two Curriculum has a focus on acting, it’s always important to include a unit on the technical theatre skills that are necessary to any production. Students will also be able to use what they’ve learned in this unit in their upcoming devising project.
Students will begin by exploring design for the stage by experimenting with line, shape, texture, size, and color. They will expand their understanding of stage properties and scenic flats. They will then apply their knowledge of these building blocks of design to create a high-concept design for a miniature “stage.”
UNIT
Pantomime
by Angel Borths
9 lessons
Teacher Angel Borths developed this unit when she was looking for lessons to teach the basics of pantomime in the classroom.
This unit culminates in a finished product for performance, either for peers, or for theatre festivals. The rubrics and written work for this unit take planning and preparation for performance into account. The exercises can be pulled out and used independently, but work best when used to build toward a finished product. You can also pull the ground plan and stage directions lesson plans to use with playwriting or directing lessons.
Unit
2
of
14
in
Drama One
Curriculum
UNIT
Stage Movement
by Karen Loftus
3 lessons
Students will get “onstage.” They will explore what is important for onstage action, the basics of stage directions, and how to keep open. This unit will culminate with students trying out what they’ve learned in a short scene.
This unit is more about the technicalities of moving on stage. By giving students something concrete to focus on, it allows them to overcome any stage fright.
Ensemble-building exercises are also included in this unit. If you have time at the end of a lesson after you’ve completed your instruction and are wondering what to do, you can never go wrong with an ensemble-building exercise!
Unit
3
of
14
in
Drama One
Curriculum
UNIT
Pantomime
by Karen Loftus
4 lessons
In this unit, students will explore nonverbal communication: first, through body language and gesture, and then through the specific art of pantomime. Students will learn hand position, tension, follow-through, and action/reaction/interaction with objects through warm-up games and exercises. The unit culminates in a two-person pantomime performance.
Unit
6
of
14
in
Drama One
Curriculum
UNIT
Improvisation
by Karen Loftus
6 lessons
Students sharpen their listening and reaction skills through improv games, exercises, and scenes. They will learn five specific guidelines to apply to their improvisation: accept the offer, bring information to the scene, make active choices, make your partner look good, and don’t force the humour.
There are so many different ways to approach a unit on improvisation. Keep in mind that you will have students who are really excited about this unit and some students who dread it. It’s best to start with low-risk games and exercises and then build up to higher-risk ones. Low-risk games in this situation mean partnered interactions that aren’t shared with the whole class.
Unit
11
of
14
in
Drama One
Curriculum
UNIT
Japanese Theatre
by Karen Loftus
4 lessons
This unit will enable students to identify, compare, and contrast three different styles of Japanese theatre: Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki. There are three proposed projects in this unit: a research assignment where groups delve into further detail about one of the three styles; a performance project where students utilize what they’ve learned by enacting a scene from a Kyogen (comedic) play; and a Bunraku puppet play.
Unit
14
of
14
in
Drama One
Curriculum
UNIT
Drama One Final Project
by Karen Loftus
5 lessons
The final project will incorporate multiple areas that students have studied over the course of the year/semester: playwriting, acting, scenic design, and marketing. They are putting everything they’ve learned into a final package, including writing, rehearsing, and performing.
UNIT
Musical Theatre
by Anna Porter
4 lessons
Musical Theatre has two components that separate it from straight plays: song and dance. This unit gives students the opportunity to try out both. In musical theatre, music signifies heightened emotion. We can’t express ourselves with just words, we need music (and through extension, song and dance) to take it further.
This unit includes three lesson plans:
1. Acting the Song - “Musical Tactics”
2. Acting the Song - “Textual Analysis”
3. Introduction to Dance
A solo performance assignment is also included, and the unit includes assessment tools - rubrics, reflections, and self-evaluations.
UNIT
Mock Audition
by Lindsay Price
11 lessons
In this Mock Audition Unit, students will start by discussing the audition process. They will make connections between their personal views and the process. Students will then apply the steps of auditioning from putting together a resume, to choosing a piece based on provided information, to audition etiquette, to the actual audition itself. A final reflection and rubric are provided for use at the end of this unit.
A short play is included that can be used as the source material. You can also choose your own play for this process.
UNIT
Monologue Writing Made Easy
by Matthew Banaszynski
7 lessons
Join Matt Banaszynski in this dynamic unit designed to introduce students to the process of starting, drafting, polishing, and performing a self-created, stand-alone monologue.
This unit introduces students to writing their own stand-alone monologues. Students will learn the steps involved in going from a simple idea to a written piece to performing that piece. They will also provide feedback to others and give themselves a self-assessment.
This unit has been prepared for a middle school drama class but could be adapted for high school. It was designed as a way to get non-theatre students more involved in theatre.
UNIT
Shakespeare Performance
by Anna Porter
11 lessons
In this unit by Anna Porter, students are introduced to the works of Shakespeare and explore how to bring a character to life in a monologue performance. Students are also introduced to the tools to help them unlock meaning in Shakespeare’s text. Through this eleven lesson series, students will participate in class discussions, activities and performance. Assessment tools include informal assessment, submission of textual analysis work and a final performance.
UNIT
Unlocking Shakespeare's Text
by Anna Porter
5 lessons
Shakespeare’s text holds valuable tools that students can use to unlock and understand meaning. In this unit by Anna Porter, students explore how to use the tools of research, context, textual analysis, imagery and punctuation to help them unlock meaning in Shakespeare’s text. This unit is created for an Intermediate to Advanced drama class with a basic background in plot structure and acting technique.
Through this five lesson series, students will use journals, participate in class discussions, activities and performance to explore the tools used to unlock a text. Assessment tools include informal assessment as well as a final group presentation and performance.
UNIT
Pantomime
by Anna Porter
6 lessons
In this unit, students explore how to communicate with their body by exploring elements of physicality and Pantomime. Lesson one helps students explore body awareness as well as the use of the senses and details in pantomime performance. In lesson two, students explore body language and how it is used to communicate by examining the art of flirting. Lesson three helps students create a distinct physical characterization. Lesson four introduces students to the quality of Pantomime – Consistency. In lesson five, students explore the quality of exaggeration in pantomime. In the final lesson, students prepare a pantomime story for performance.
Through this six lesson series, students will use journals, participate in class discussions and practice the elements taught by performing for their peers and as a class. Assessment tools include both informal assessment as well as a final Pantomime performance.
Unit
5
of
7
in
Drama Two
Curriculum
UNIT
Performing Shakespeare
by Matt Webster
5 lessons
In this unit, students are introduced to a series of lesson plans that explore non-traditional approaches to performing the works of William Shakespeare. By the end of the unit students will be exposed to a unique set of tools they can utilize as the foundations for analyzing, staging and performing a scene from Shakespeare’s canon. Students will then rehearse and perform a two-person Shakespearean scene.
UNIT
Tools of Scene Work
by Anna Porter
7 lessons
Students are introduced to scene work performance through a simple, contentless scene unit. In this unit, performers will use exercises like “Show and Tell” to learn how to fill in the gaps of a story by creating scenarios and detailed characters with backgrounds.
Students will further fill in the gaps by exploring environmental and physical conflict as well as stage business. The lesson “Thou Shalts of Staging” will guide students through basic staging and performance technique.
UNIT
Commedia dell'Arte
by Todd Espeland
14 lessons
Commedia dell’arte is a 16th century masked acting form. It is the basis of all comedy, including all tv sitcoms. This form is characterized by masked types and archetypical characters and a specific way of playing comedy. To that end, this unit is divided into two parts.
Part One focuses on the foundations of commedia - playing comedy. These principles will be important to learn when it comes to developing commedia characters, specifically the physicality of the characters. Part Two will cover lazzi.
Note: there are links to video demos in many of the lessons of this unit.
UNIT
Improvisation in Musical Theatre
by Annie Dragoo
7 lessons
Understanding basic improvisation skills will help musical theatre performers understand that musical theatre is more than just singing and dancing. It’s about using all the tools (voice, body, and mind) an actor has at their disposal to create a character.
This unit focuses more on the improv aspect rather than the musical theatre aspects - in fact students need no prior musical theatre knowledge. Annie Dragoo, creator of the unit, uses this material as her first unit in her musical theatre class. It’s a great introduction and will get your students in the right frame of mind to approach musical theatre.
The lessons explore a variety of improv skills such as vocal responses, movement, character study, sensory awareness and culminate in an improv scene and unit essay.
Unit
3
of
8
in
Middle School
Curriculum
UNIT
Unit Three: Building Improvised Scenes
by Lindsay Johnson
12 lessons
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
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.
Unit
6
of
8
in
Middle School
Curriculum
UNIT
Unit Six: Directed Scenes Take 1: Same Scene, Different Visions
by Lindsay Johnson
9 lessons
Students will now start applying the skills they’ve learned thus far in the context of existing, fleshed-out scripts.
They will also have opportunities to shift from actor to director and hone such skills as collaboration, self-confidence, and problem-solving which can be used in many other areas of their lives.
UNIT
Introduction to Musical Theatre: Movement
by Annie Dragoo
9 lessons
Musical theatre performers use their bodies to sing, to dance, and to act. We must think of our bodies as instruments and learn to use our instruments properly in order to be better musical theatre performers.
The overall objective with this unit, by Annie Dragoo, is for students to demonstrate an understanding of the use of good movement as it connects to musical theatre. Some of the activities include using action verbs, moving as animals and inanimate characters, nonverbal communication and situational movement. Students will then perform a scene that will allow them to put to practice all the movement techniques they have learned.
Unit
2
of
11
in
Distance Learning
Curriculum
UNIT
Improvisation
by Lindsay Price and Karen Loftus
6 lessons
Students sharpen their listening and reaction skills through improv games, exercises, and scenes. They will learn five specific guidelines to apply to their improvisation: accept the offer, bring information to the scene, make active choices, make your partner look good, and don’t force the humor.
Unit
3
of
11
in
Distance Learning
Curriculum
UNIT
Pantomime
by Lindsay Price and Karen Loftus
4 lessons
In this unit, students will explore nonverbal communication. First through body language and gesture, and then through the specific art of pantomime. Students will learn hand position, tension, follow-through, and action/reaction/interaction with objects through warm-up games and exercises. The unit culminates in a one-person pantomime performance.
Unit
8
of
11
in
Distance Learning
Curriculum
UNIT
Mock Audition
by Lindsay Price
12 lessons
In this Mock Audition Unit, students will discuss the audition process and make connections between their personal views and the process. Students will apply the steps of auditioning from putting together a resume to choosing a piece based on provided information to audition etiquette to the actual audition itself.
A final reflection and rubrics are provided for use at the end of this unit.
A short play is included that can be used as the source material for your audition. You can also choose your own play for this process.
Unit
10
of
11
in
Distance Learning
Curriculum
UNIT
Scene Work: Part 1, Tools of Scene Work
by Lindsay Price
7 lessons
Students are introduced to scene work performance through a contentless scene unit. Students prepare and perform a contentless scene to demonstrate their understanding of characterization, staging technique, and working with conflict and stage business in a performance context.
Unit
11
of
11
in
Distance Learning
Curriculum
UNIT
Scene Work: Part 2, Student Self Staging
by Lindsay Price
12 lessons
In Part 2 of Scene Work, students take everything they learned in Part 1 and apply it to the staging of a scene.
Students work independently to block, build character, experiment and rehearse a scene. You can continue the scene work process from Part 1, or if your students have a grounding with scene work basics, perhaps they just do Part 2 of this unit.
UNIT
Character Creation: Superhero Series: Multi platform
by Lindsay Price and Kerry Hishon
6 lessons
This unit focuses on character creation: How do you create a character from the ground up? Use this unit as a precursor to a playwriting unit, to a devising unit, or to a class production.
Using the archetypes of the superhero, the sidekick, and the supervillain, students work on exercises to help them create unique characters through physical and vocal qualities, character profiles, and theatrical writing.
Because many of the exercises have an individual focus, this unit works in a distance learning environment or for your no-technology students.
UNIT
Impowerment Improv
by Jennine Profeta
4 lessons
Taking risks, learning to see failure as a gift, finding courage when we don't feel it, and having the awareness that what we say has an impact are social and emotional skills students will take beyond the classroom. These are skills that can be built through improv exercises.
The exercises in this unit are designed to create a safe environment in which students can go beyond their old patterns to take risks, embrace failure, and be more confident and aware of the effects of their word choices. Improv gives you the opportunity to draw attention to these important concepts and to talk about them.
Unit
4
of
10
in
Theatre History
Curriculum
UNIT
Unit 4: Commedia Dell'Arte
by Drama Teacher Academy
4 lessons
We take a side trip to Italy to discover a secular comedic form: Commedia Dell’arte.
Students will be introduced to the form, explore the characters and themes, and put their knowledge to practical application by creating a commedia character.
UNIT
Introduction to Stanislavski
by Drama Teacher Academy
6 lessons
This is an in-depth unit with instruction and activities about the Stanislavski acting method. It is followed by scene work in which students learn how to score a scene, do a comprehensive character analysis, and use what they have learned in rehearsals in a performance. Students will also watch their own work and evaluate their process after the performance.
The purpose of this unit is to give students an introduction and understanding of Stanislavski’s method and to put it into use as they prepare scenes for performance. After seeing their work, and spending time reflecting on how they used the principles of the method, students should take away a concrete understanding of how to prepare a role for performance.
UNIT
Virtual Introduction to Stanislavski
by Drama Teacher Academy
6 lessons
The unit has been adapted for a virtual environment.
This is an in-depth unit with instruction and activities about the Stanislavski acting method. It is followed by scene work in which students learn how to score a scene, do a comprehensive character analysis, and use what they have learned in rehearsals in a performance. Students will also watch their own work and evaluate their process after the performance.
The purpose of this unit is to give students an introduction and understanding of Stanislavski’s method and to put it into use as they prepare scenes for performance. After seeing their work, and spending time reflecting on how they used the principles of the method, students should take away a concrete understanding of how to prepare a role for performance.
UNIT
30 Second Monologues
by Lindsay Price
4 lessons
A monologue unit is an excellent way for students to demonstrate learned skills: vocal skills, movement skills, memorization skills, and character development. It also touches on soft skills such as communication, confidence, and attitude. That being said, monologues are not easy. A typical monologue is two minutes long. That is a lot of text to memorize, block, and develop into an engaging presentation. How often have you sat through a bad monologue performance with little to no characterization, wandering blocking, and a tenuous grasp of the lines?
Performing a monologue is a learned skill. And the best way to learn a skill is in steps. Instead of starting with the end goal—that two-minute piece—start at the beginning. This four-lesson unit will take students up the ladder toward the goal of a longer monologue.
UNIT
Spoken Word Poetry
by Quincy Young
4 lessons
In this unit, students will create a performance of a spoken word poem designed to engage, entertain, and affect an audience. They will also write a poet’s statement in which they describe the purpose(s) or inspiration(s) of their poetry.
This is not a technical writing unit and is geared more toward students self-expression and engaging an audience. If your students are not skilled poets, this unit is still accessible.
UNIT
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by Drama Teacher Academy
9 lessons
Shakespeare is sometimes avoided in the drama classroom because not only do the students not want to take on the language difficulties but neither do the teachers. Monologue and scenework becomes more challenging and a lot of times, students falter in their blocking action and character development because they are so challenged. How do we give students the opportunity to rehearse and present Shakespearean text as they would modern text?
In this play study unit, students will read a Shakespeare play while learning specific tools and techniques in order to stage text from that play. And more often than not, these techniques are ones that they have already used with other plays. It’s all about reframing Shakespeare so that students enjoy the experience of bringing the characters and stories to life.
UNIT
Laban: Advanced Characterization
by Drama Teacher Academy
7 lessons
This is an advanced acting unit in playing character through the Laban movement technique. Students will explore dance theorist Rudolf Laban’s eight efforts and their component parts; turn these elements into physicalizations through which one can express character; use Laban efforts and connect them to a character’s voice and body; and demonstrate knowledge through the creation of an original character.
Reminder: This is an advanced acting unit. You will need students who can do work on their own outside of class time, commit to movement and sound, and commit to making instinctual choices.
View all Standards for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts Standards Master List
