Items tagged "Lgbtq+"

Welcome to LGBTQ+ Inclusion 101 & Affirming Practices. This course is led by c.j Bell, pronouns they/them. By the end of this course, you'll be able to successfully implement LGBTQIA+ and LGBTQ2S+ practices in the classroom. And you will learn more information on how you, yourself, can relate to these specific margins, as an educator.

Students will review quotes from LGBTQ+ theatre professionals in set design, lighting design, sound design, and costume design. They will write out their first impressions, reflect on the quote, and then create a theatrical design expression. The focus here is time management and self-management. How will students use their time to complete their tasks?

Students will start with pre-reading questions about lighting design. They will then read an article about prolific lighting designer Tharon Musser who revolutionized the field of lighting design. Finally, students will reflect on what they have learned.

Students will start with pre-reading questions about costume design. They will then read an article about costume designer Machine Dazzle, who specifically identifies himself as an artist before a costume designer. Finally, students will apply what they have learned about Dazzle’s design philosophy in their own costume designs.

Students will choose a LGBTQ+ designer that is unknown to them and has not, as of this writing, worked on Broadway. The chosen designer has to have a website with visual examples of their work, a bio or about page, and a resume. Students will analyze the work of the designer using the Analysis Worksheet. They will then reflect on what they have learned. If you want to extend the length of the lesson, have students put together a brief presentation on their designer and share their findings with the class.

Students will reflect on their own identities and the components of their identities. They will then reflect on how often they see themselves in current entertainment. Students will discuss common identities in fairy tales and then change a fairy tale character to reflect their identity in a scene. How does the change in identity affect the story? How does the story change?

Using a set of criteria, students will watch a movie (or read a play) and analyze it based on the criteria. The Vito Russo is specific to LGBTQ+ representation in a work. Does the movie meet the criteria and, therefore, pass the test? Students will then reflect on the results: Is the criteria a good way to assess representation? How could the movie be changed to meet the criteria?

Students will research the character of Jo from the musical Jagged Little Pill. The character, allegedly, started out as nonbinary and was changed to cisgender for the Broadway run. When confronted with this change, those involved with the production stated that Jo was always intended to be cisgender and was written as cisgender. This confused many in the LGBTQ+ community. What is the background to this situation? What is the origin story to the character and the actor playing the character? Why did the creative team react the way they did and what was the response to their reaction? Who is right? Students will research, analyze, and come to their own conclusions and then express their conclusions in a response.

Students will reflect on common societal norms and expectations. Who decided these norms? Why do we follow them? What happens when we don’t? They will then write a monologue for a character who doesn’t fit within the common societal norms and expectations construct.

Students will research how the character of Anybodys was changed from a tomboy in the original West Side Story movie (and musical) to a transgender character (played by nonbinary actor iris menas) in the 2021 Steven Spielberg version. Students will research the change through articles and video and come to their own conclusions about the change. Students will then apply what they have learned by creating their own scenes with a character change.

She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen is a play that comes up time and time again in our drama class communities. To that end, we wanted to provide questions for reading the play in the classroom. • The Reading Questions provide pre- and post-reading questions for the play as well as questions throughout. • The Close-Reading Questions provide in-depth text-dependent questions for one scene of the play.

This resource is designed to assist you in making your improvisation work as inclusive as possible. It includes questions to ask yourself, improv guidelines discussion, character names and pronouns, and additional discussion points. Use this guide to help create inclusive, safe spaces for all within an improvisation framework.

This resource offers guidance on working with your students to create an anti-slur policy. Included are two additional resources - Start With One Thing, and Social Awareness documents.

The goal in this ongoing work to be a loving, inclusive teacher in a loving, inclusive space is to continue to build the library in your room to represent every student. Providing access to these materials within the walls of a classroom allows students to engage in the literature without judgment. This document offers a teacher self-assignment task to populate your bookcase with inclusive, diverse material and then a couple of classroom tasks you can do to make sure your books get noticed.

A common unit to start the year has teachers and students setting classroom expectations, identifying procedures and at the same time establishing community through ensemble-building exercises. The two concepts go hand-in-hand if you want a smooth running classroom. This also makes it the perfect unit to introduce inclusivity. This section includes suggestions for discussions around respect with regard to classroom expectations, and ensemble building exercises with a focus on “Who am I?” and “Who are We?” This section also includes a document on creating an Anti-Slur Policy.

Improv sketches are often based on heteronormativity. From characters, to audience suggestions, to scenarios, it’s easy to slip away from anything inclusive. This section includes questions you can ask yourself and discussions you can have with students about current Improvisation guidelines; the use of character names and pronouns; being aware of using accents and affectations for a joke or punchline; occupations without gender and character/relationships.

The study of design is visual and the internet can be a valuable resource for examples. To that end, for an inclusive design unit, include LGBTQ+ individuals working in the different theatrical fields. In this section we will mainly focus on LGBTQ+ theatre professionals Set Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, and Costume Design. There are lesson plans, activities, and resource documents that you can use to supplement your various design units.

This section focuses on some of the fundamental skills involved in acting, movement, voice, and character development, through the lens of LGBTQ+ students. There are also trans and non-binary actor interview links, lesson plans with an LGBTQ+ actor focus, and scenes that feature either LGBTQ+ characters or “any gender” characters.

This section offers a variety of lesson plans, activities and resource documents to allow students to analyze, infer and synthesize within the context of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the world of theatre.

The purpose of this resource is to offer opportunities through discussion, exercises, activities, unit add-ons, research links, and lesson plans to visibly support LGBTQ+ students in your classroom.