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Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts
HS 117.316 LII - Creative Expression: production

18 units • 4 professional development courses aligned to
C.3.D - perform a role such as actor, director, designer, technician, or editor in production decision making and collaborate with others to tell a story through live theatre or media performance.

View all Standards for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts

C.3.D perform a role such as actor, director, designer, technician, or editor in production decision making and collaborate with others to tell a story through live theatre or media performance.

This page lists 18 units and 4 professional development courses aligned to C.3.D from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts. Designed for drama teachers, these resources directly address C.3.D - perform a role such as actor, director, designer, technician, or editor in production decision making and collaborate with others to tell a story through live theatre or media performance.

What is Theatre?

by Karen Loftus

Students will explore the question “What is theatre?” and contrast theatre to film. They will also begin their introduction to a couple of theatre roles.

Puppetry

by Jenny Goodfellow

This unit on Puppetry is designed for middle school and up, to introduce students to the material and get them comfortable with performing in a safe and low exposure environment. This is a unit that builds to a culminating experience for your students. Each lesson is designed to explore techniques, provide opportunities for creative collaboration among your students, and give them opportunities to perform. Some of the lessons require materials to build or create puppets. Puppetry can be as easy as drawing a face on your finger for finger puppets, to actually purchasing your own finger puppets for students to use. While the focus of this unit is puppetry, your students will explore other skills as well. There’s the obvious ones of creative thinking, teamwork, and problem solving. They are also going to explore storytelling, performing skills, and playwriting.

Sound

by Josh Hatt

This is an introductory mini-unit to sound that you can use whether or not you have a sound system. Students will work toward being able to demonstrate their knowledge of sound effectiveness. The questions of the unit include: What is effective sound? What sounds and music do we need in order to make our scene effective? How will we know our sound cues are effective?

Costuming

by Josh Hatt

If the costumes in a play are going to be effective, we need to be thoughtful about how we use them. In this mini-unit, students will demonstrate their understanding costume effectiveness and address the following questions: What is the role of costume in the performance? How does color contribute? How does the style of costume affect a performance? How does costume indicate setting? Do you need costumes in a scene?

Staging

by Josh Hatt

This is a mini-unit on staging. Along with the driving question for the unit, students will explore about how staging affects the performance. Students will draw a plot design (ground plan) to emphasize the need to plan where scenic elements will be placed. They will also practice taking cues from the script, in order to create staging.

Free Play Makeup

by Josh Hatt

This is a student centred mini-unit on makeup design. Makeup is useful in transporting an audience to a different world. The purpose is for students to understand that makeup is a tool that theatre technicians can use in order to contribute to effective performance aesthetics; to understand basic makeup rules and care instruction; to understand how to complete a makeup design plot; to look at a project and figure out for themselves what they need to succeed.

Culminating Project

by Josh Hatt

Once students have completed the five Tech Theatre Units (Lighting, Sound, Costume, Staging, Free Play Makeup), you can give them this culminating project. Depending on how you structured your technical theatre unit, you can adapt this project to suit your needs and context. Up to this point, all the work in the units have been exploratory. This is where students will apply their skills and knowledge.

Production Classroom Units Overview

by Karen Loftus

The overview lays out the all of the parts of The Production Classroom Units - which is divided into three parts. In Part One, you’ll take your students through a series of pre-production units designed to help students gain as much comprehension as possible about putting on a successful production. Part Two offers articles on each step in the process, samples and forms, a suggested pacing, role definitions and task checklists, an outline for a typical class, as well as performance duties. This section also outlines the assessment piece for The Production Classroom – the production binder. Part Three provides a Post-Performance Reflection. Unpack the experience with students, reflect back on what went right and what could be changed for next time. A written Reflection is included as well as a Rubric for student production binders.

Part One - Pre-Production

by Karen Loftus

In Part One of The Production Classroom, you’ll take your students through a series of pre-production units designed to help students gain as much comprehension as possible about putting on a successful production.

Part Two - Rehearsal and Performance

by Karen Loftus

Part Two offers articles on each step in the process, samples and forms, a suggested pacing, role definitions and task checklists, an outline for a typical class, as well as performance duties. This section also outlines the assessment piece for The Production Classroom – the production binder.

Part Two - Documents

by Karen Loftus

This section provides samples and worksheets for actor forms, costume department, general binder, lighting and sound, marketing samples, scenic and prop samples, and stage management and production manager samples and forms.

Part Three - Reflection and Assessment

by Karen Loftus

Part Three provides a Post-Performance Reflection. Unpack the experience with students, reflect back on what went right and what could be changed for next time. A written Reflection is included as well as a Rubric for student production binders.

Introduction to Theatre Production

by Karen Loftus

Students will explore the question of “what is theatre production?” They’ll be able to identify and describe each of the crafts of technical theatre as well as who does what in theatre production.

Make-Up Design

by Karen Loftus and Josh Hatt

Students will be able to explore the use of make-up as a theatrical tool and demonstrate their knowledge of make-up effectiveness.

Unit Six: Directed Scenes Take 1: Same Scene, Different Visions

by Lindsay Johnson

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.

What is Theatre?

by Lindsay Price and Karen Loftus

Students will establish a definition of theatre, know the difference between theatre and film, and start to explore who’s who in the theatre.

Acting for the Camera

by Ruthie Tutterow

The purpose of this unit is for students to know the differences and practice skills for film versus stage acting. They should also know the basic vocabulary of acting for the camera. It will also be helpful for them to get practice in editing. By seeing both sides of the camera, they will gain valuable experience in seeing what works from both the producing and acting side. Students will be able to see and reflect on their work.

Virtual Acting for the Camera

by Ruthie Tutterow

The unit is adapted for a virtual environment. The purpose of this unit is for students to know the differences and practice skills for film versus stage acting. They should also know the basic vocabulary of acting for the camera. It will also be helpful for them to get practice in editing. By seeing both sides of the camera, they will gain valuable experience in seeing what works from both the producing and acting side. Students will be able to see and reflect on their work.

View all Standards for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Theatre Arts    Standards Master List