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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.

In this class, Serious Play, the instructor will lead you through a series of games in risk, movement, focus, and voice. You will get access to a series of all inclusive games that you can string together to make one giant game that is great to use in rehearsal. You will learn how and when to use these games. You'll get ideas on how to craft your own warm-up lesson plan; and, most importantly, you'll learn about about a pre-class warm-up that you can do on your own so that you can get yourself into that third stage of the creative brain, so that you can begin trying out interesting, creative, and risky choices for yourself in your classes and in rehearsals.

In The Production Classroom, instructor Karen Loftus will show you how to explore ways that you can produce shows during your regular class time. The course gives you a series of exercises and reflections that help you determine everything, from the type of show you may want to do, to the way you can divide up your class and responsibilities, to specific assignments that will keep your students engaged and focused. The Production Classroom is the ultimate in project-based learning. Students learn to work collaboratively while setting goals and working towards a successful finished project. The course includes exercises and strategies to use with students to help assure their success in the production. Multiple examples and anecdotes help you to envision what the production classroom could look like in your room, performance space or theatre.

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!

This unit focuses specifically on the technical aspects of vocal production. By understanding how voice is created, students will be more aware of how to improve their vocal production. Students will explore posture and breathing exercises, as well as how to use the diaphragm, projection, and articulation. The final project will test students’ ability to properly project and articulate a joke across a large space.

This unit has six lessons that you can use in the first week of your middle school program. What do you do in the first week? The most important elements are creating routines such as journal prompts, opening and closing circles, and giving strong feedback; creating an ensemble and ensemble-building games; and introducing a Weekly Ensemble Rubric. Students will define and build ensemble as a group, learning specific ways they can SAY YES and BE SAFE in class. They will understand the daily grading system and the basic routines of class. Finally, students will learn to give strong feedback by connecting specific evidence from performance to the Rubric language.

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.

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.

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.

An overview of The Empathy Project resource.

The first step on the empathetic journey is with yourself. How can you connect with others if you don’t know who you are? Students will explore activities that allow them to think and reflect inward.

The New Drama Teacher toolkit has links and resources to help you with your first year in the drama classroom.

There are a lot of challenges that come in the first few years of teaching, especially for new theatre teachers, including non-traditional teaching spaces, entire classes of students who have no interest in theatre, a lack of a standard curriculum, and creating objective assessments for subjective materials, just to name a few. This book will help you anticipate the preparations you will need to address before a student ever walks into your classroom and the kind of philosophical questions you need to ask, and answer, as you begin your teaching career. This toolkit examines four fundamental building blocks of teaching: Classroom Setup, Classroom Management, Lesson Planning, and Assessment. It also provides you with tools and activities that will help you integrate these fundamentals into a drama classroom. If you are a new teacher, or are still in your teacher training, these tools will provide you with a lot of supplemental, practical information that will help you prepare for your first few years of teaching.

Inspirational quotes for a new school year, all quotes credited to Steven Stack, from a variety of DTA professional development courses. Printable calendar to customize for any school year.

Based on the quotes from the 2024-2025 DTA School Year Calendar, a set of 12 posters with quotes by Steven Stack, from a range of the PD courses he instructs in the Drama Teacher Academy.

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.

Get your students to say "YES" Tips for getting your classes started on the right foot by getting buy-in from your students. Learn how to start small, the importance of scaffolding, and some great first-week of school games to get your students engaged. Hosted by DTA instructors Todd Espeland and Matt Webster. Recorded on August 14, 2015 at 8pm.

Our host and panel discuss budgets, production options, student/parent contracts, and the tips that make staging a musical worthwhile. Hosted by Matt Webster, joined by Tricia Oliver, Roxane Caravan, and Lindsay Price. Recorded on January 12, 2016 at 8pm

Summer has flown by and any day now your students will be coming through the door. Are you ready for them? Is your classroom?? Believe it or not, much of the success the coming school year will depend on how you set up your classroom now. Discipline, organization, concentration and classroom management all hinge on a well planned classroom space. Whether you teach in a classroom, a theatre, or something in between, this is a PLC that will help you put your best space forward!

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.

Middle School theatre teachers are a special breed. Their highs are higher, their lows are lower, and the drama in their classroom is much more dramatic! But for all of that, middle school drama teachers don't typically get the respect and attention they deserve. Well we have something to say about that! That's right, we are dedicating this PLC to the trials, tribulations and triumphs that can only be found in a Middle School Drama classroom. Join in as we talk about the bravest, the craziest, the awesomest teachers in the whole school: Middle School Drama Teachers! Because Middle School Matters...