Exercise Articles for Drama Teachers

Unless you have perfect timing, when you’re producing a show with your students, you will be performing it at a different time of year than what the show is set in. For example, you might be...

First things first: what is a musical revue? A musical revue is a style of musical theatre that combines singing, dancing, music, and sketches. The material included in the revue focuses on a...

The following distance learning exercise is active and flexible. It focuses on mask work, and challenges students to use their skills of observation, critical thinking, and creative thinking. It...

The following exercise is flexible. It can be completed via distance learning or live in class. If students are completing this exercise online, they do not need to turn on their cameras or...

The following warm-up game uses found objects and allows students to work on their improvisation, storytelling, and character building skills. Take the well-known elementary school activity — show...

Teachers, you work so hard to make amazing virtual lesson plans for your students. And for that, we applaud you all — you are awesome! But we know, the burnout is real. If that time comes, when...

Welcome to part three of Theatrefolk’s The Other Side of the Story series! We’ve written about exploring the perspectives of the villain and the best friend. Today’s post brings into focus a...

Welcome to part two of Theatrefolk’s The Other Side of the Story series! (Find part one here.) Today’s post brings into focus a character that’s normally just outside of the spotlight: the main...

Welcome to our second series of exercises for 2021: The Other Side of the Story! This series of exercises will focus on exploring, expanding, and creating new stories from the perspectives of...

Welcome to Part 5 of Theatrefolk’s Superhero Series. Your students have accomplished a lot: They created their own original superheroes, super sidekicks, and supervillains, and have experimented by...

Welcome to Part 4 of Theatrefolk’s Superhero Series. So far, your students have created their own original superheroes, super sidekicks, and supervillains. Now, we need to get those characters into...

Welcome to Part 3 of Theatrefolk’s Superhero Series! In our last posts we’ve created original superheroes and super sidekicks. Now it’s time to create some conflict and add a dash of mayhem with...

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,...

We’re starting 2021 off with a fun series of exercises focused on superheroes, supervillains, and super sidekicks! You’ll find ideas for character creation, playwriting opportunities, different...

Whether we choose it or it’s chosen for us, change is hard. Further, change is a risk, and when something is both hard and risky, it opens up the possibility of failure. And if there’s anything...

It’s not unusual to feel slightly disconnected from students while teaching virtually (and we don’t mean when the internet stops working!). Drama classes are all about human connection and trust,...

The following exercise, Lipdub, brings together observation, critical thinking, scene writing, and vocal performance. As well, it’s a lot of fun! Lipdubs are commonly seen on YouTube as musical...

Here’s a playwriting prompt exercise that takes advantage of something that’s frequently around us: advertisements! Ads are everywhere, and their main purpose is to sell us stuff. But we’re going...