Classroom Exercise Articles for Drama Teachers

These games and exercises are my go-to activities for teaching beginning drama students. They’re fun, engaging, effective, and give students a well-rounded overview of topics such as drama...

Looking to bring some seasonal fun into your drama classroom? We’ve rounded up quick and creative activities — improv games, writing prompts, and ensemble exercises — that will keep your students...

The Halloween season brings a special kind of chaotic energy to the classroom. It’s the perfect opportunity to move beyond the usual games and lean into the spooky, mysterious, and transformative...

Are you curious to know what your students know about a particular topic? Or do you wonder about what they actually retained from your last lesson? The following activity is a good way to find out...

Sometimes you have a few minutes at the end of class where you need to keep your students occupied, but you don’t want to start a new exercise or let the class devolve into mindless chatter. Enter...

In Part 1 of our How to Use a Small Cast Play in Your Drama Classroom article, we shared two different analysis-based exercises that focus specifically on small cast shows. Now we’re going to focus...

Many drama teachers look for large cast plays with huge ensembles so they can include every student who wants to participate. But sometimes you don’t need something that big. Maybe you have a new...

Live special effects are exciting! They create memorable moments onstage that audience members will talk about long afterwards. But how is this theatre magic created? What elements go into bringing...

If you have a smartphone, it’s a guarantee that you’ve used emojis. Emojis are more than cute graphics on your phone — they’ve evolved into a unique visual language. While emojis themselves are a...

This costume challenge builds on the costume design skills that students practiced in two recent blog posts: Rehearsal Blacks, Elevated and One Item, Three Ways. Students will work in pairs to...

In our last post, we challenged students to create elevated costume looks using only black clothing and accessories. This time, we’ll have one costume item and challenge students to style it...

Drama class is a fantastic place to learn transferrable skills and work towards applying them to real-life situations. No matter what the exercise is, there is always a transferable skill to...

In this small group exercise, students will write a creative summary of the plot of a play using the ABCB, or “simple 4-line” rhyme scheme. This exercise focuses on creative thinking and teamwork....

What better way to welcome students into the drama department than allowing them to make a grand entrance through a decorated door? Many teachers enjoy door decorating for holiday contests, spirit...

One of the (many!) wonderful things about theatre is that magic becomes real on the stage. Fantastical stories are brought to life in the most inventive and interesting ways to keep audiences...

The following exercise gives students the opportunity to practice active listening, teamwork, taking direction, and problem solving as a group. Acting as an ensemble with a student director, group...

The following exercise gives students the opportunity to explore different ways of approaching and performing a two-person scene, using two different levels of volume: only whispering and shouting....

Can you tell a great story in six minutes? How about in six seconds? You definitely can. Prior to TikTok, there was Vine — a short-form video hosting app where users created and shared...