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Displaying items 221-240 of 2345 in total

Screenplays 101 - Part 1: Basic Structure

by Nicholas Pappas

Screenwriter Nick Pappas leads a two-part course on screenplays 101. Great scriptwriting is not something that can be covered in a single course: so we're going to start with the basics. Those basics are going to be split up into a Part 1 and a Part 2. Part 1, this course, will concentrate on basic film structure. Part 2 will concentrate on screenplay formatting. By the end of this course, students should have a basic understanding of history, terminology, and are able to identify the barest bones of the three-act structure, all with an eye toward developing their own screenplay.

Screenplays 101 - Part 2: Basic Formatting

by Nicholas Pappas

This course is a Part 2. In a Screenplays 101 course, screenwriter Nick Pappas covers both Structure and Formatting. Here in Part 2 we'll cover Basic Formatting. If you have not already watched Screenplays 101 – Part 1: Basic Structure, I highly recommend you go back and do so now. Having that knowledge under your belt will help you navigate Part 2 of this course. The goal is that, by the end of this course, your students have a basic understanding of how a screenplay is formatted and why it is formatted that way, all with an eye toward developing their own screenplay.

Teaching Theatre with Divergent Students and Class Sizes in Mind

by Steven Stack

Have you ever wondered how in the world you can have a successful theatre classroom with so many variables that you have absolutely no control over? The two biggest ones being the size of your class and the students that you’re in charge of turning into some truly talented theatre geeks. This course by Steven Stack explores that wonderful and often ridiculous world of theatre classrooms while giving you the tools for you and your students to not only succeed but to flourish as well. Lessons will include how to make any size class the Goldilocks class as in "just right", defining and working with all types of students you may encounter in your classroom, the seven must-haves of any theatre class, and the importance of structure in the theatre classroom by providing a guideline for setting up your day-to-day class time. The course also provides tons of ideas, games and activities that you can use instantly in your classroom. So, if you’re a first-time theatre teacher or one just looking for new ideas, this is the course for you.

Close Reading in the Drama Classroom

by Lindsay Price

Close reading is an activity that puts curriculum standards into practice and it can be easily applied to the drama classroom. Close reading asks a lot of your students. They have to read and think at the same time. This course teaches drama teachers how the close reading process works, and gives them exercises and tools to apply it in the classroom.

Laban: Advanced Characterization

by Todd Espeland

Learn about the Laban system to teach your students to physically and vocally discover character. This is an advanced course, which means that the course goes deep into exploring character and exploring character work through the work of Rudolph Laban.

Drama One

by Karen Loftus

This is a curriculum map for a comprehensive theatre class. The purpose of the curriculum is to give students an overview of theatre in general. The super objective of this course is to have students “bring it all together” at the end in a culminating project. The essential questions for the year: * What are the most important tools of the actor? * Who’s who in the theatre? The answer to the first question is mind, body, and voice. Each unit reflects one of those tools: pantomime—body, improvisation—mind, etc. The answer to the second is explored throughout the curriculum.

Drama Two

by Matt Webster, Matthew Banaszynski, and Corinna Rezzelle

The Drama Two Curriculum is performance based. It has been developed to expand and deepen the students’ skills as artists. They will do so by building on material covered in the Drama One Curriculum, with units in: Character Analysis, Monologue Writing and Performance, Shakespeare Performance, and Design. The curriculum will culminate in a Devised Class Play.

Technical Theatre Mini Units

by Josh Hatt

This collection of technical theatre mini-units will give you the opportunity to introduce lighting, sound, costuming, staging, and makeup into your program. Each mini-unit can be used independently, or you can build one upon the other toward the culminating project. These units were developed with middle school students (grades 6 to 8), and can also suit an introductory level high school class in tech theatre.

Production Classroom Units

by Karen Loftus

Producing a show together as a class is the ultimate in both project-based learning and using higher-order thinking skills. Students will gain experience in working in a group, time management, conflict resolution, and other interpersonal skills necessary to working as part of a creative team. By breaking down the production process into specific sections, you can ensure that your students have the necessary skills to produce a successful show. In addition, whereas trying to take a show from audition to performance usually feels rushed, The Production Classroom allows you to really dive deep into the production process. These units could easily be spaced out over the course of a semester or over the course of an entire year.

Middle School

by Lindsay Johnson

This is a curriculum for a scene study semester at the middle school level. The goal for each unit is to build off the knowledge and skills gained in the previous unit so students are gradually adding to their abilities as they progress through different types of scene performance assessments. Students begin with the acting basics they need to create a successful scene: ensemble skills, improvisation, projection, vocal clarity and expression, characterization, pantomime, objective and tactics. They will learn script structure, blocking, and stage directions and how to give, receive and apply feedback. They will explore aspects beyond acting such as directing and simple set design.

Stagecraft Without a Theatre

by Karen Loftus, Holly Beardsley, Kerry Hishon, and Josh Hatt

Instructor Karen Loftus has an impressive stage management resume, but she has also taught Stagecraft in a portable classroom. There was no lighting grid, no sound equipment, no place to build sets, props or costumes. This experience led to this curriculum: Stagecraft without a Theatre. Through exposure, exploration, and project-based learning, students identify and understand the various areas of technical theatre including scenic design, lighting, sound, costumes, and makeup. The curriculum culminates with a project where students work in groups to design and plan technical elements as they would for a production, and then simplify those designs to work in a classroom setting: Stagecraft without a Theatre.

Distance Learning

by Lindsay Price, Karen Loftus, and Lea Marshall

Distance Learning is defined as synchronous activities in an online class session, with some asynchronous assignments to be completed and submitted. The curriculum offers the following units in a distance learning format. All of these units exist in a traditional drama classroom form on the Drama Teacher Academy site.

Theatre History

by Drama Teacher Academy

There are many ways to build a curriculum for the drama classroom. One of them is to base each unit in an era of theatre history and have students apply what they learn in a theatrical manner. This theatre history curriculum starts with Ancient Egypt, Sanskrit drama, and Indigenous storytelling, then moves on to Ancient Greek theatre, and ends with 19th century Romanticism. Feel free to adapt the units in this curriculum to fit your students and your situation. Or pick and choose different units to supplement your program. The goal of this curriculum is to focus on how students learn, how they plan, and strategies for their learning, and what social and emotional skills can be applied through discussion and effective and efficient group work. Refer to the Distance Learning guide for ideas on how to adapt this curriculum to a remote teaching or hybrid environment.

Story vs Monologue

by Lindsay Price

Students will discuss and answer questions regarding the differences between a monologue and a story using The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as a model.

Status Monkeys

by Anna Porter

Students will understand how status affects characterization and character actions by participating in the “Status Monkeys” game as well as other status-based interactions. The lesson begins with a status demonstration using students. It then moves onto an "unknown status" activity where students react to the status of others without knowing their own status. How do you treat a low status character compared to a high status character? The final activity is an animal imagery exercise where the students are all monkeys in a jungle with an assigned status. They must explore survival tactics available to someone of their particular status.

Subtext with Secrets

by Anna Porter

Students will understand how background and subtext can help create a scene with honest emotion and depth by exploring secrets. Students create a secret to explore their character and apply it to a scene.

Shakespeare: Finding Emotion and Action in Text

by Anna Porter

Students will understand how to uncover the directorial clues that Shakespeare left in his work by doing a textual analysis. They will explore Emotional Outbursts, Action words, and Emotion words through a structured color coding analysis of a Shakespeare monologue.

Show and Tell Switch

by Anna Porter

Students apply the questions used in a Character Analysis Worksheet to create a character background for themselves. Students use this to help them understand the importance of details and commitment to character choices by creating a believable Show and Tell presentation with an unknown object.

Active Listening

by Anna Porter

Students will understand the importance of actively listening and using active listening to inform their character choices in performance. They will participate in listening exercises and apply active listening to their scene work.

Improvisation Unit (Three Lesson Plans)

by Anna Porter

This is a three lesson plan unit on introducing Improvisation. Part One: Introduction to Improv Students will understand what improvisation is and how to use the following rules: Trust Yourself and Accept all Offers. Part Two: Characterization & One Focus Students explore Characterization and One Focus by participating in activities and playing Ding, Emotional Waiter and Party Quirks. Part Three: Conflict and Tell a Complete Story Students will understand what conflict is and how to create it. Students will also understand how to use conflict to tell an improvised story with a beginning, middle and end. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the rules of improvisation through their final performance in Freeze as well as a written quiz.
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