LGBTQ+: Inclusivity in the Drama Classroom Toolkit

The purpose of this resource is to offer opportunities through discussion, exercises, activities, unit add-ons, research links, and lesson plans to visibly support LGBTQ+ students in your classroom.

A common unit to start the year has teachers and students setting classroom expectations, identifying procedures and at the same time establishing community through ensemble-building exercises. The two concepts go hand-in-hand if you want a smooth running classroom. This also makes it the perfect unit to introduce inclusivity. This section includes suggestions for discussions around respect with regard to classroom expectations, and ensemble building exercises with a focus on “Who am I?” and “Who are We?” This section also includes a document on creating an Anti-Slur Policy.

Improv sketches are often based on heteronormativity. From characters, to audience suggestions, to scenarios, it’s easy to slip away from anything inclusive. This section includes questions you can ask yourself and discussions you can have with students about current Improvisation guidelines; the use of character names and pronouns; being aware of using accents and affectations for a joke or punchline; occupations without gender and character/relationships.

The study of design is visual and the internet can be a valuable resource for examples. To that end, for an inclusive design unit, include LGBTQ+ individuals working in the different theatrical fields. In this section we will mainly focus on LGBTQ+ theatre professionals Set Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, and Costume Design. There are lesson plans, activities, and resource documents that you can use to supplement your various design units.

This section focuses on some of the fundamental skills involved in acting, movement, voice, and character development, through the lens of LGBTQ+ students. There are also trans and non-binary actor interview links, lesson plans with an LGBTQ+ actor focus, and scenes that feature either LGBTQ+ characters or “any gender” characters.

This section offers a variety of lesson plans, activities and resource documents to allow students to analyze, infer and synthesize within the context of LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the world of theatre.