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What is a closure practice? A closure practice is a way for students to separate the work done in drama class or rehearsal from their everyday life. When working on intense exercises or scenes in the drama classroom, the body doesn’t know the difference between the made-up stress that students...

Episode 79: Playwright Jeffrey Harr Jeffrey Harr is a English Teacher with a sparse theatre background. He was handed the student one act play festival with no guide or instruction. How did he turn the festival into a mostly student-written venture? We also talk about the universal and relevant high...

So much emphasis in theatre and drama classrooms is placed on acting, that we often forget the unsung heroes of the theatre – the crew (also known as the “techs” or “techies”). This includes technical designers for sound, lighting, costumes, props and set; operators for all the technical aspects (sound,...

Cheers to the classics! In the brilliant full-length adaptation, The Canterbury Tales by Lindsay Price, Chaucer’s classic collection of tales come to life. A group of travelers set out for Canterbury on a pilgrimage. To pass the time they entertain each other with a storytelling contest. Best story wins a...

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * who are we, who we are by Forrest Musselman is an excellent ensemble piece with a variety of movement and staging opportunities. who are we, who we are addresses anxiety and depression in teens. Clay is having issues because of his mother’s failing...

Who am I? It’s a question not a lot of people ask. Who am I? What defines me? Effective artistic expression begins with you. If you’re going to write a well detailed character, you should know those details about yourself. If you’re going to write an opinion on an issue,...

Blind Robot is the ultimate verbal communication game. It requires players to CLEARLY communicate verbal commands to a “robot.” The robot then has to physically interpret those instructions in a way that makes sense to them, even if it’s not what the instructor had in mind. This ‘command and respond’...

Welcome to Part 2 of Theatrefolk’s Superhero Series! In our last post, we talked about creating an original superhero character. Now we’re going to give the superhero a sidekick. Batman has Robin, Harry Potter has Ron and Hermione, Mario has Luigi, Iron Man has War Machine. A great sidekick helps...

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays About…Dramas. Issue plays that don’t talk down to your students. Theatrical explorations of serious topics. Read one, read them all! Click the link and you’ll be taken to the webpage for each play. There you’ll get the details and read sample pages. All...

Dramatic events are absolutely fantastic for reaching out into the community, fundraising, raising awareness for various causes, and having a great time while you’re at it. If your school has a requirement of community service hours in order for your students to graduate, it’s a great way for students to...

“I don’t want to be an actor!” is one reason why students may not want to take drama class. However, there are a whole host of careers in the theatre that aren’t acting. The following individual exercise gives students the opportunity to discover and explore different jobs in the theatrical...

Time for a Tfolk Top Ten Plays For….Classroom Production. Are you putting on a play with your class? Do you need flexible casting? Do you need ensemble driven works? Material that’s easy to stage? A show that can actually be rehearsed in a class period? We’ve got plays just for...

Distance learning using video conferencing software is full of surprises and challenges. Some days, connecting and running your class goes off without a hitch. Other days, it seems like anything that can go wrong, does go wrong, and your lesson plan ends up not looking like much of anything. We...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. Home of the Brave by Lee Cataluna is an excellent character-driven piece filled with incredible monologues and universal themes. The military has its own language, with many short ways of saying long things. PCS means Permanent Change of Station, or “to move.” The young...

Theatre is all about conveying emotions onstage through our voices, gestures, facial expressions, and body language. With middle schoolers, who are often in the midst of learning how to deal with their own emotions, it’s not always easy for them to know how to portray feelings onstage, or even have...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. A response to the classic novel, Lord of the Flies, Baalzebub by Rachel Atkins is a full-length or one-act ensemble piece that offers excellent inclusive, diverse and gender-expansive opportunities in casting. What would a group of girls do if they were abandoned alone, at...

*Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. * High school is full of stereotypes – or is it? Told in a series of interlaced vignettes, Stereotype High by Jeffrey Harr examines these “stereotypical” teens and how they fight tooth and nail to reinvent themselves. The geek. The freak. The stoner. The...

Since Shakespearean plays have been around for hundreds of years, we need to shake things up by trying new ideas in order to make these shows different and exciting. One of the most wonderful things about Shakespearean plays is the freedom to be able to set them in another time...

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The Art of Rejection: Two One-Act Plays by Christian Kiley consists of two one-act plays that expertly combine realism with the abstract, and include characters that high school students can really relate to. R is the only letter in a sea of numbers. Potential...

When teaching virtually to students with their cameras on, teachers get to witness all sorts of interesting student antics — students tuning in from strange locations (their closet, their family’s car, under the table), students in various states of dress (pajamas, anyone?), and students in a variety of body positions....