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Gai Jones, long time theatre educator, a member of many educational theatre associations, and an advocate of theatre competitions with sound educational theatre values, has developed this resource. Competitions are opportunities for students to succeed. Competitions encourage students to work toward a standard and goals. Evaluation can take the form of both formative and summative assessments. Competitions provide learning beyond the classroom as students are exposed to many types of performances and take part in receiving evaluations. This resource was created to help drama teachers consider these goals when taking students to competition (or not): • Celebrating growth and student success. • Learning how to evaluate judges’ comments. • Helping students develop strategies for competition stress. • Providing learning experiences beyond the classroom.

In this project, students will be introduced to the steps of a concept-based design process and apply it to simple stories. This process gives students a new framework to approach creative challenges in the design process. Students will present design portfolios utilizing the elements of MELT. (Mood, Era, Location, Theme) with the use of the “What If” game. These elements are the building blocks of both the exploration and execution of their designs. By employing MELT and What If, students will generate the details and circumstances of the concept-based designs they will present.

By applying the elements of MELT, students will re-envision a classic story, myth, or fairy tale. Students will then share the newly envisioned story with their peers.

By identifying required elements (as dictated by the content of their assigned stories), students will compile a list of materials that are the essential components of their designs. From there, they can alter and expand their designs based on the conceptual interpretation of their stories.

Students will generate a simple conceptual statement for their stories. Working from their list of “must haves,” students will brainstorm various ways of achieving the requirements of their stories based on this concept statement, using newly imagined objects, items, or materials aligned to their stated concept. By asking “What if,” students will begin to reimagine the design of the world of their stories in unexpected ways. This will provide them with a much more complex approach to their designs.

Students will reconstruct the world of their stories based on the information they visualized in the “What If” game. Using that information, students will complete the Group MELT Exercise worksheet, research images/materials that best represent the new story world they have designed, and create a design presentation for their new story concept.

Students will present their completed design collages, including scenic, costume, and lighting designs for their assigned stories; give a presentation of the reimagined design elements of their stories based on the concept and imagery created throughout this project; and give an oral presentation that describes their concepts and the process they used to create their concepts. Students will take questions from both their teacher and their peers in order to clarify their concepts.

Students will analyze and rehearse a monologue based on their research and answers of various SEL monologue worksheets. By approaching their monologues through the lens of social-emotional learning, students will connect to their scripted material in a more authentic way. In addition, through the process of applying SEL concepts to their monologue performances, students will observe how the components of SEL can be applied to their own real-world situations.

Students will build a deep self-awareness of their characters by answering a series of questions about aspects of their characters’ psychological profile.

In Part 2 of the Monologue Project, students will examine various methods of self-management with managing emotions and behaviours. Students will analyze their characters by identifying the emotional arc of their monologues, map the emotional changes that occur over the course of the work, and predict potential emotional changes that may occur.

In Part 3 of the Monologue Project, students will demonstrate social awareness by generating and building the given circumstances that define their monologues. Students will answer a series of questions designed to expand the foundations and depth of their monologues. This includes creating empathy by exploring their monologues through the eyes of a different character.

In Part 4 of the Monologue Project, students will identify who they are speaking to and how they feel about that person. Students will examine the relationship dynamics of their characters in relation to other characters in the world of their monologues. This will allow them to approach their monologues from a variety of emotional perspectives.

Part 5 of the SEL Monologue Project will explore responsible decision making for both performer and audience. In order to successfully prepare and present a monologue, a series of responsible decisions must be made. In addition, audience members are also required to make good decisions while observing and responding to the presented monologues. In this final portion of the SEL Monologue Project, students will practice responsible decision making as both performer and audience. Students will present and reflect on their monologues while their peers provide thoughtful and appropriate feedback.

Do you have trouble rehearsing scenes in class because of absenteeism or school testing or any number of other events that pull students from your classroom? The rehearsal and performance of scenes are a key part of the drama curriculum, and all of these obstacles can bring scene work to a halt. The Group Scene Project is designed to help circumvent obstacles of missing scene partners and give those students who are in class the ability to continue working on their scenes.