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Introduction to Technical Theatre: Flipped Learning

Created by Lindsay Price

When an audience watches a piece of theatre, they never see what goes on behind the scenes or know the people who work to make the production look its best. But theatre is a collaboration between what happens onstage and off.

This flipped learning unit will introduce students to the world of technical theatre. Through video, they will learn information on specific technical theatre roles and how they work together, types of stages, parts of a theatre and stage geography, and then apply this knowledge through in-class active-learning exercises.

For example, students will take on the role of a producer and decide how a budget will be divided among different departments. They will practice the calls a stage manager uses. The culminating assignment has students solve a common technical theatre issue: to design, create, and implement a solution for a unique stage direction in a play.

Overview
The overview lays out the structure of the unit, including time management, procedures for flipped learning, video details, and an overview of the lessons.
Additional Attachments
1: Pre-Knowledge
Experience Tech Theatre: Students will explore how technical theatre affects storytelling.
2: Theatre Hierarchy
This lesson introduces students to the various roles in the theatre and how they make up a hierarchy. Students take on the role of one of these three important roles in a theatre production through an activity.
Attachments
3: Technical Director and Tech Crews / Stage Manager and Running Crews
Students are introduced to two groups of technical theatre roles and the people in charge of those groups: the technical director and tech crews and the stage manager and running crews. Students will take on the role of a stage manager and practice the calls a stage manager would use.
Attachments
4: Common Types of Theatres & Stages
Students review the three most common types of theatre stages used today: proscenium, thrust, and arena stages. Students create the audience for a specific type of stage in a warm-up, and then in groups, students work to stage a fairy tale using the three different theatre configurations.
Attachments
5: Stage Geography & Parts of a Theatre
Students learn about stage geography and parts of a theatre. Students practice stage geography in a warm-up, and then participate in a group activity where they are given random stage geography positions and have to present a scene from those positions.
Attachments
6: Culminating Activity
Students design, create, and implement a solution for the famous “exit, pursued by a bear” stage direction from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

Standards Addressed

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