Creative Drama For The Classroom: Line Games

Pocket Lines: Pulled it Right Out of Their… Pocket The first lines acting game requires a great deal of preparation from the teacher beforehand. As the teacher, you must compile a variety of numerous different brief lines that might be

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Teachers Can Help Student Actors Create a Positive Self-Image

Over the years, I’ve found that many student actors at the high school and college levels have a very difficult time with their self-image, especially in terms of their physicality. Exactly what they are troubled by depends upon the individual.

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Teaching Commedia dell’ Arte, Part II

Character Walks Since Commedia Dell’ Arte is a physical theatrical art form, it is essential and fun to have students experiment with various ways of moving their bodies. Have the students walk around the classroom as a character of their

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What Every Student Actor Needs to Know About Being Professional

If you’re a student actor who is serious about being a professional, there are a few things of which you must be aware to succeed. Actually, there are more than a few, but this blog will offer you 5 basic,

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Teaching Commedia Dell’ Arte, Part I

Benefits for Students Commedia dell’ Arte is an older theatre style, but it allows students the opportunity to be innovative. Commedia dell’ Arte teaches kids physical discipline, spontaneous use of their imagination, and the ability to think on their feet.

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Stanislavski Method: Magic If and Illusion of the First Time

In teaching acting two important concepts that are connected to the Stanislavski method or system are the Magic If and the actors need to create the Illusion of the First Time. Understanding the Magic If can help an actor make

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Acting Styles: The Importance of Having Student Actors Go Beyond Realism

If you’re a teacher or director working with young actors in high school or an undergraduate college program, then chances are your actors are primarily familiar with scripts that focus overall on realism. If they do know plays that demand

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Teaching Acting: Using Stanislavski’s Three Questions

In teaching acting or working with student actors on a show there are some basic techniques that should be stressed in regards to how to create a character that is actively engaged on stage at all times. An important technique

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Classroom Teaching: Theatre, Subtext and Understanding Plays

When teaching a play written in verse you find that overall the characters say what’s on their minds. Shakespeare, Sophocles, Racine and others don’t utilize what we call subtext. But when dealing with plays written from around the time of

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Classroom and Rehearsal: Mask Work Can Free the Actor’s Body

Working with masks offers various challenges to young actors. This is because masks take away one of an actor’s primary methods of communication- facial expression. But it also works to free the body. Here are some suggestions on how to

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Viewpoints of Space

In utilizing this exercise be sure to read this post. Shape This is literally how you shape your body, as well as the shapes you create onstage using the environment around you and other bodies. At this point, I will

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