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In order to partake in the audition process, students need to identify and comprehend the necessary steps in that process. What is the auditioning process? Why is it used? Is the process fair? Why or why not? The class ends with students playing director in the “Who Would You Cast?” Exercise.

Along with paperwork, there are other tasks a stage manager must undertake to prepare for rehearsal. Students will perform tasks that a stage manager must carry out to prepare the rehearsal space and communicate with actors/crew.

In this lesson, students will complete a rehearsal checklist, focusing on objectives, tactics, and blocking.

This lesson combines the work done in Lesson 2 (scoring scenes by beats) with the physical work done in Lesson 3 (creating dynamically staged scenes by connecting choices in blocking/staging to the underlying structural elements in a scene).

To be able to demonstrate knowledge of sound effectiveness.

To practice planning and performing transitions between scenes in a smooth and well-prepared manner, with increasingly shorter time frames and other challenges.

This is the project section of the Ancient Greek Theatre unit. Divide students into groups, then give them an information sheet on their subject. Their job is to present the information in a theatrical manner to the class, create an activity that the class can do as a whole, and write a reflection/exit slip for the class to complete. Within this unit students are given three to four class periods to work on their presentations. Instruct each group to divide up tasks evenly within their group, so that they can meet the deadline. You can certainly give them more time, or establish that students must spend time working on the project outside of class. Depending on the size of your class, it may take one or two classes to complete the presentations.

In this lesson students are introduced to the definition of a stage manager, learn what a stage management team may look like, and take on their first stage management tasks: reading the script and creating a props list.

Students are introduced to staging through video demonstration and discuss the role of staging in a performance. How does staging help to visualize a location? The lesson concludes with a Greek Myth Staging Activity.

Students complete a Staging Vocabulary Activity. They are then given a setting description and have to draw a set based on the description. The point of the activity is not to excel in drawing but learning how to plan and translate a description into a physical setting.

Students will analyze the role of a stage manager as well as employ service skills to facilitate solutions to issues that a stage manager may face.

Students will be able to identify the various elements of a stage flat and comprehend the skills, process, and math required to construct a stage flat.

In this lesson, students will explore nonverbal communication. How do students determine what others are thinking and feeling? Can they read body language and other forms of nonverbal communication? When they look at a photo can they identify what someone is thinking?

During this lesson, students are challenged to devise interesting characters by creating a character history and then using that information in a character improv. This exercise will allow students to practice a portion of the necessary work to build a multi-dimensional character.

Learning to deal with rejection and turn rejection into a positive motivator is a lifelong skill. In this multi-class lesson, students will reflect on and discuss their views on rejection, theatricalize that view through movement, research someone who has found success only after rejection and failure, and theatricalize that information.

In this lesson, students have an opportunity to explore all the different areas of the stage and the positions which an actor uses to command attention.

Stage Managers have numerous responsibilities in the production process. This lesson will focus in on the things a stage manager does prior to and during blocking rehearsal from preparing for rehearsal, to taking blocking notation, to communicating important notes to other members of the production.

The director Max Reinhardt said that, “Our standards must not be to act a play as it was acted in the days of its author.” Use this quote as a reflection point for students. Students will take a play from another era and create a 1-minute presentation that demonstrates how a production can take a play beyond how it was acted in the days of its playwright.

To identify and physically locate the nine areas of the stage. Students play a life-sized game of tic-tac-toe on the stage using stage directions to navigate the different squares. Lesson Plan comes with a stage positioning template for assessment.

In this lesson, students will participate in several activities that will help them devise, create, and rehearse movement that can be used in abstract scenes. They will practice and demonstrate their understanding of blocking and physicality by being able to add and execute movement in their abstract scene.