Unit
in Technical Theatre Mini Units Curriculum
Culminating Project
Created 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.
Start here
In this project-based assignment, students will present an original scene and collaborate to produce a technically effective production. Students will work in technical specialist areas, designing all plots and technical scripts necessary.
As students prepare, they should always refer back to the driving question for the project: “How can we, as theatre technicians, create a technically effective production?”
Standards Addressed
Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work - Grade 6
Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work - Grade 7
Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work - Grade 8
Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work - High School Proficient
Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work - High School Accomplished
Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work - High School Advanced
Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation - Grade 6
Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation - Grade 7
Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation - Grade 8
Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation - Grade HS Proficient
Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation - Grade HS Accomplished
Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation - Grade HS Advanced
Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work - Grade 6
Refine new work through play, drama processes and theatre experiences using critical analysis and experimentation - Grade HS Proficient
6.TH:Cr1 Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
7.TH:Cr1 Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
8.TH:Cr1 Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
Prof.TH:Cr1 Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work
Acc.TH:Cr1 Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Adv.TH:Cr1 Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
6.TH:Pr5 Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
7.TH:Pr5 Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
8.TH:Pr5 Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Prof.TH:Pr5 Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Acc.TH:Pr5 Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Adv.TH:Pr5 Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
6.TH:Re9 Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Prof.TH:Cr3 Refine and complete artistic work.
Sixth Grade
- DT.6.1.1.b Students Can: Identify possible solutions to design challenges in a drama/theatre work.
- DT.6.2.2.b Students Can: Articulate how technical elements are integrated into a drama/theatre work.
- DT.6.3.4.b Students Can: Analyze the production elements used in a drama/theatre work to assess aesthetic choices.
Seventh Grade
Eighth Grade
- DT.8.1.1.b Students Can: Imagine and explore possible solutions to design challenges of a performance space in a drama/theatre work.
- DT.8.1.3.b Students Can: Identify and use research and design choices in a drama/theatre work to enhance the work.
- DT.8.2.2.b Students Can: Implement a variety of technical elements to create a design for a rehearsal or drama/theater production.
High School - Fundamental Pathway
- DT.H1.1.1.a Students Can: Apply basic research to construct ideas about the visual composition of a drama/theatre work.
- DT.H1.1.1.b Students Can: Explore the impact of technology on design choices in a drama/theatre work.
- DT.H1.1.4.c Students Can: Refine technical design choices to support the story and emotional impact of a devised or scripted drama/theatre work.
- DT.H1.2.2.b Students Can: Use research and script analysis to discover the impact design has for a drama/theatre production.
High School - Advanced Pathway
High School - Professional Pathway
Speaking and Listening
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2 Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Language
Reading: Literature
Critical Thinking & Reflection
- TH.68.C.1.1 Devise an original work based on a community issue that explores various solutions to a problem.
- TH.68.C.1.2 Develop a character analysis to support artistic portrayal.
- TH.68.C.1.4 Create and present a design, production concept, or performance and defend artistic choices.
- TH.68.C.1.5 Describe how a theatrical activity can entertain or instruct an audience.
- TH.68.C.2.1 Use group-generated criteria to critique others and help strengthen each other's performance.
- TH.68.C.2.2 Keep a rehearsal journal to document individual performance progress.
- TH.68.C.2.3 Ask questions to understand a peer's artistic choices for a performance or design.
- TH.68.C.2.4 Defend personal responses to a theatre production.
- TH.68.C.3.1 Discuss how visual and aural design elements communicate environment, mood, and theme in a theatrical presentation.
- TH.912.C.1.8 Apply the components of aesthetics and criticism to a theatrical performance or design.
Historical & Global Connections
- TH.68.H.1.1 Explore potential differences when performing works set in a variety of historical and cultural contexts.
- TH.68.H.1.2 Analyze the impact of one's emotional and social experiences when responding to, or participating in, a play.
- TH.68.H.1.4 Create a monologue or story that reflects one's understanding of an event in a culture different from one's own.
- TH.68.H.1.5 Describe one's own personal responses to a theatrical work and show respect for the responses of others.
- TH.68.H.1.6 Discuss how a performer responds to different audiences.
- TH.68.H.2.4 Discuss the differences between presentational and representational theatre styles.
- TH.68.H.2.5 Compare decorum, environments, and manners from a variety of cultures and historical periods to discover and influence historical acting styles and design choices.
- TH.68.H.2.6 Describe historical and cultural influences leading to changes in theatre performance spaces and technology.
- TH.68.H.2.8 Identify and describe theatrical resources in the community, including professional and community theatres, experts, and sources of scripts and materials.
- TH.68.H.3.3 Use brainstorming as a method to discover multiple solutions for an acting or technical challenge.
- TH.68.H.3.6 Discuss ways in which dance, music, and the visual arts enhance theatrical presentations.
Innovation, Technology & the Future
- TH.68.F.1.1 Manipulate various design components to imagine the world of the character.
- TH.68.F.1.2 Use vocal, physical, and imaginative ideas, through improvisation, as a foundation to create new characters and to write dialogue.
- TH.68.F.1.3 Demonstrate creative risk-taking by incorporating personal experiences in an improvisation.
- TH.68.F.1.4 Survey an aspect of theatre to understand the ways in which technology has affected it over time.
- TH.912.F.2.4 Apply the skills necessary to be an effective director, designer, stage manager, and/or technician in the mounting of a theatrical performance.
Organizational Structure
- TH.68.O.1.1 Compare different processes an actor uses to prepare for a performance.
- TH.68.O.1.2 Discuss how color, line, shape, and texture are used to show emotion in technical theatre elements.
- TH.68.O.1.3 Explain the impact of choices made by directors, designers, and actors on audience understanding.
- TH.68.O.1.4 Discuss how the whole of a theatre performance is greater than the sum of its parts.
- TH.68.O.2.1 Diagram the major parts of a play and their relationships to each other.
- TH.68.O.2.2 Explain how a performance would change if depicted in a different location, time, or culture.
- TH.68.O.2.4 Perform a scene or pantomime to demonstrate understanding of blocking and stage movement.
- TH.68.O.2.5 Explain how the contributions of significant playwrights, performers, directors, designers, and producers from various cultures and historical periods have influenced the creative innovations of theatre.
- TH.68.O.3.1 Compare theatre and its elements and vocabulary to other art forms.
- TH.68.O.3.3 Discuss the collaborative nature of theatre and work together to create a scene or play, respecting group members' ideas and differences.
- TH.912.O.1.3 Execute the responsibilities of director, designer, manager, technician, or performer by applying standard theatrical conventions.
- TH.912.O.3.5 Design technical elements to document the progression of a character, plot, or theme.
Skills, Techniques & Processes
- TH.68.S.1.1 Describe the responsibilities of audience members, to the actors and each other, at live and recorded performances and demonstrate appropriate behavior.
- TH.68.S.1.2 Invent a character with distinct behavior(s) based on observations of people in the real world and interact with others in a cast as the invented characters.
- TH.68.S.1.3 Describe criteria for the evaluation of dramatic texts, performances, direction, and production elements.
- TH.68.S.1.4 Discuss the ways in which theatre experiences involve empathy and aesthetic distance.
- TH.68.S.2.1 Discuss the value of collaboration in theatre and work together to create a theatrical production.
- TH.68.S.2.2 Discuss and apply the theatrical production process to create a live performance.
- TH.68.S.2.3 Analyze the relationships of plot, conflict, and theme in a play and transfer the knowledge to a play that contrasts in style, genre, and/or mood.
- TH.68.S.2.4 Memorize and present a character's lines from a monologue or scene.
- TH.68.S.3.1 Develop characterizations, using basic acting skills, appropriate for selected dramatizations.
- TH.68.S.3.2 Use the elements of dramatic form to stage a play.
- TH.68.S.3.3 Lead rehearsals of improvised and scripted scenes, communicating with cast and crew to create appropriate characterization and dramatic environments.
- TH.68.S.3.4 Lead small groups to safely select and create elements of technical theatre to signify a character or setting.
- TH.912.S.2.1 Create one or more technical design documents for a theatrical production.
- TH.912.S.2.2 Apply technical knowledge of safety procedures and demonstrate safe operation of theatre equipment, tools, and raw materials.
- TH.912.S.3.1 Articulate, based on research, the rationale for artistic choices in casting, staging, or technical design for a scene from original or scripted material.
- TH.912.S.3.4 Apply scientific and technological advances to develop visual and aural design elements that complement the interpretation of the text.
Grade 6 - Performing
Grade 6 - Responding
Grades 9-12 - ADVANCED DRAMA LEVELS I-IV -Performing
Grades 9-12 - MUSICAL THEATRE LEVELS I-IV - Performing
Grades 9-12 - THEATRE MANAGEMENT - Creating
Sixth Grade Create
Sixth Grade Present
Seventh Grade Create
Seventh Grade Present
Seventh Grade Respond
Eighth Grade Create
Eighth Grade Present
Beginning High School Create
Beginning High School Present
Intermediate High School Create
Intermediate High School Present
Accomplished High School Connect
Accomplished High School Create
Accomplished High School Present
Advanced High School Create
Advanced High School Present
Beginning High School Standards - Aesthetics
Intermediate High School Standards - Aesthetics
Proficient High School Standards - Aesthetics
Advanced High School Standards - Aesthetics
MS 117.211 LI - Creative Expression: production
MS 117.212 LII - Creative Expression: production
MS 117.213 LIII - Creative Expression: production
- B.3.A recognize and select specific technical elements to suggest environment, establish mood, and support character and actions for performance.
- B.3.B create theatrical elements such as scenery, properties, lighting, sound, costume, makeup, and publicity using the principles of design.
- B.3.D use technology in theatrical applications such as live theatre, video, and film.
MS 117.213 LIII - Critical evaluation and response
HS 117.315 LI - Foundations: Inquiry and Understanding
HS 117.315 LI - Creative Expression: production
- C.3.A develop and practice technical theatre skills.
- C.3.B apply technical knowledge and skills safely to create or operate theatrical elements such as scenery, properties, lighting, sound, costumes, makeup, current technology, or publicity.
- C.3.C perform a role such as actor, director, designer, technician, or editor in production decision making and collaborate with others in a production role to tell a story through live theatre or media performance.
- C.3.D demonstrate responsibility, artistic discipline, and creative problem solving by concentrating in one or more areas of theatre production such as acting, technical theatre, or theatre management.
HS 117.316 LII - Creative Expression: production
- C.3.A develop and practice safe and effective stagecraft skills.
- 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.
- C.3.E develop responsibility, artistic discipline, and creative problem solving by concentrating in one or more areas of theatre production such as acting, technical theatre, or theatre management.
HS 117.317 LIII - Creative Expression: production
- 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.
- C.3.E perform the role of actor, director, or technician, demonstrating responsibility, artistic discipline, and creative problem solving.
Technical Theatre/Design 10-20-30 - Costume
- 1 demonstrate understanding of the purpose of costume
- 2 recognize the importance of illusion in costume design
- 3 recognize the importance of artistic unity in costume design
- 5 demonstrate understanding of symbolism and psychological implications of colour, texture, line and shape
- 8 prepare rough costume plot based on a script
Technical Theatre/Design 10-20-30 - Lighting
- 1 demonstrate understanding of the purpose of stage lighting
- 2 recognize the importance of illusion in lighting design
- 3 demonstrate understanding of the important of artistic unity in lighting design
- 5 demonstrate understanding of functions of standard lighting instruments: flood, fresnel, ellipsoidal, follow spotlight, border lights
- 7 demonstrate understanding of basic functions of lighting control systems
Technical Theatre/Design 10-20-30 - Makeup
- 1 demonstrate understanding of the purpose of makeup
- 2 recognize the importance of illusion in makeup design
- 3 demonstrate understanding of the importance of artistic unity in makeup design
- 4 show awareness of need for safety and cleanliness when working with makeup
- 6 compile a makeup morgue
- 7 identify basic makeup supplies: bases, highlights, shadows, liners, powders, cleansers, brushes, sponges, crepe hair, adhesives
- 8 differentiate between abstract, straight and character makeups
Technical Theatre/Design 10-20-30 - Management - Properties
Technical Theatre/Design 10-20-30 - Management - Set
- 1 demonstrate understanding of the purpose of stage scenery
- 2 recognize the importance of illusion in set design
- 3 recognize the importance of artistic unity in set design
- 4 recognize and use theatre terminology related to the proscenium
- 6 recognize different types of stages: proscenium, thrust, arena, flexible
- 7 demonstrate understanding of symbolism and psychological implications of colour, texture, line, mass and form
Technical Theatre/Design 10-20-30 - Management - Sound
Junior Orientation
- demonstrate a willingness to take calculated and reasonable risks
- focus concentration on one task at a time
- generate imaginative and creative solutions to problems
- listen effectively
- meet deadlines and follow through on individual and group commitments
- offer and accept constructive criticism, given specific guidelines, with a desire to improve
- share ideas confidently with others
- support positively the work of others
- work cooperatively and productively with all members of the class in pairs, small groups and large groups
Junior Goal I Objectives
- develop a sense of responsibility and commitment
- develop self-discipline
- develop the ability to initiate, organize and present a project within a given set of guidelines
- develop the ability to interact effectively and constructively in a group process
- develop the willingness to make a decision, act upon it and accept the results
- extend the ability to explore meaning through abstract concepts
- extend the ability to think imaginatively and creatively
Technical Theatre - Levels I, II, III - Awareness
- 1 recognize the basic terminology associated with the component being studied
- 2 demonstrate understanding of the basic functions of the component being studied.
- 3 show awareness of the importance of research
- 4 show awareness of available resources pertaining to the component being studied; e.g., supplies, libraries and theatre companies
- 5 demonstrate understanding of the various conventions of the components being studied
Technical Theatre - Levels I, II, III - Readiness
- 10 demonstrate understanding of and use appropriate methods and tools for designing the project; e.g., makeup charts, cue sheets, working drawing
- 11 arrange and sequence time, ideas, information, materials and/or personnel for achievement of the project
- 6 demonstrate understanding of the importance of planning and organization
- 7 select a project appropriate to the component being studied
- 8 demonstrate understanding of the use of colour, shape and texture to achieve a desired effect
- 9 use sketching to explore ideas for the project
Technical Theatre - Application
- 12 demonstrate understanding of and apply appropriate regulations, procedures and precautions to ensure safe working conditions
- 13 determine and acquire necessary supplies or substitutes to construct the planned project
- 14 use appropriate tools and skills to assemble or construct the planned project
- 15 use the project
- 16 demonstrate the integration of technical theatre with other disciplines in order to enhance dramatic communication
Senior Goal I Objectives
Senior Goal III Objectives
GRADE 9 - DRAMA - Exploring and creating
GRADE 9 - DRAMA - Reasoning and reflecting
GRADE 9 - DRAMA - Communicating and documenting
GRADE 10 - DRAMA - Explore and Create
GRADE 11 - DRAMA - Explore and Create
GRADE 11 - DRAMA - Reason and reflect
GRADE 12 - DRAMA - Explore and Create
GRADE 12 - DRAMA - Reason and reflect
Grades 9 & 10 - Foundations - Responsible Practices
- C.3.1 identify and follow safe and ethical practices in drama activities (e.g., exhibit safe use of sound and lighting boards; follow procedures for the environmentally responsible use of materials and energy; prepare an individual or group seminar report on the nature and purpose of one or more of the following: copyright protection, royalties, public domain, intellectual property rights)
- C.3.2 identify and apply the skills and attitudes needed to perform various tasks and responsibilities in producing drama works (e.g., use active listening and cooperative problem-solving skills; practise punctuality; use tact in suggesting changes and improvements; demonstrate willingness to accept criticism and build consensus)
Grades 9 & 10 - Foundations - Concepts and Terminology
Grades 9 & 10 - Reflecting, Responding and Analyzing - The Critical Analysis Process
Grades 9 & 10 - Creating and Presenting - Presentation Techniques & Technologies
Technical Theatre
Technical Theatre
Technical Theatre
- TT.12 The student will identify and apply safety guidelines for all aspects of technical theatre work.
- TT.15 The student will identify the responsibilities of the running crews.
- TT.17 The student will demonstrate scenic design.
- TT.19 The student will demonstrate lighting design and production.
- TT.20 The student will demonstrate use of sound to enhance performance and convey mood and information.
- TT.21 The student will demonstrate costume design and production.
- TT.22 The student will demonstrate hair and makeup design.
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