Visual-Based Ice-Breakers

We use a lot of ice-breaker activities in theatre classrooms. These often included revealing information about one’s self or emoting in some way. You can surprise your students with either of the following two activities that do not require any

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Dancing Feet and Other Bad Habits

Dancing Feet and Other Bad Habits

Whether they’re tap dancing, doing a move across the floor, or able to do a million pirouettes in a row, dancing feet are a beautiful thing. As long as they’re doing the right choreography and the student understands their weight

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Teaching Students to “Look It Up”9

Teaching Students to “Look It Up”

How much do you remember of your high school vocabulary lessons? You would write down your word lists, find the parts of speech, the definitions, and put each word into a sentence. This educational tool would help young students to

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Browser-Based Light Labs

Demonstrating theatrical lighting in an educational environment takes a lot of setup.  I have some standard lectures where I take my entire class down to one of our theatres and spend the class powering different instruments on and off while

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Teaching Abstract Concepts Through Theatre, Part 1

Teaching Abstract Concepts Through Theatre, Part 1

I recently was faced with the challenge of teaching a classroom of second graders how to measure time. They were at a level in their learning where they were expected to know how to tell time by reading a clock,

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Dealing With Students with Performance Anxiety

Dealing With Students with Performance Anxiety

As a voice teacher, I work with pretty young kids. Sometimes I have to play the role of “Pretty Princess” and sing Disney songs with 5 year olds. Other times, I’m working with middle and high school students on repertoire

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Accessing Broadway: Learning experiences that bring life and light to the world of theatre.

Broadway Educators is hosted and maintained by All Tickets, Inc., which specializes in group experiences and educational theatre experiences in New York City. One of the services offered by All Tickets, Inc. is access to a huge range of workshops

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The Drama Machine

Behold, The Drama Machine.  This is an interactive application that demonstrates the variables that we always deal with in production.  It randomly combines factors: Script, Director’s Concept, Venue, Budget, and Time. It churns out the circumstances for a hypothetical production

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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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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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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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Playwriting: Using Subtext Effectively

Focus: Subtext and Conflict Subtext, the meaning that is inside or under the text (a line of dialogue) is an important tool for playwrights as it enriches a play on many levels, making for more complex characters, more twists and

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Acting: Mask Work Lesson Plan For Kids

Paper Masks This particular lesson plan can be used in various classroom settings. Some teachers may opt to use it in an elementary Social Studies class when teaching a unit on Ancient Greece as actors in Greek Theatre wore masks.

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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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Creative Drama for the Classroom: Side Coaching Actors

Why Side Coaching? Side coaching is the process of giving directions to actors while they are playing a scene. Acting students love side coaching, becomes it forces them to think on their toes. They have to instantly take on whatever

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Reader’s Theatre in the Classroom: Part 2, Reading Rock Stars

I found inspiration for the following Reader’s Theatre activity at www.readwritethink.org. Visit this site to discover ways in which you can expand the following activity, for links, and even more Reader’s Theatre ideas to use in the classroom! Reading Rock

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Reader’s Theatre in the Classroom: Part I, The Basics

What It Is Reader’s Theatre is a fun approach for developing reading confidence in children. It engages kids to engage in oral reading by reading characters in scripts that has been developed from a short story or novel. It is

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Theatre History II Mini-Assignments

This second grouping of theatre history Mini-Assignment covers the period staring at the English Restoration and goes through to the present and the future. These exercises from Sharon Paquette are creative, insightful and fun. View or download the exercises here: Theatre History

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Haiku Creative Assignment

This exercise offers students an innovative way to respond to a production they have seen by creating a haiku. It helps them focus on production specifics and create an intelligent reaction. This is appropriate for college and high school students.

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Creative Drama for the Classroom: Life & Three Entrances Activity

  Many solid acting exercises are simply an extension of or associated with everyday life. That’s certainly the case with the Three Entrances activity in this blog which was inspired by Uta Hagen’s Three Entrances acting exercise. Here’s a considered

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Design: Experimental Design

  In what is the last of 10 exercises on design aesthetics, professor Rostampour allows for a wide range of experimentation. Students “will experiment with deconstructing a natural phenomenon, an insect.” They then utilize the insect’s form and reconstruct it,

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Design: Progression, a 3D Storyboard

There’s a lot of room for creativity in what is the ninth of 10 design aesthetics exercises from lighting and set design professor Fereshteh Rostampour . Students create a three-dimensional storyboard based on the theme “Progression.” Design process, use of material,

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Design: Mask Design & Creation

Design: Mask Design & Creation

In what is the eighth of 10 exercises focusing on design aesthetics from Associate Professor Rostampour, students design a character mask based on one of the following- Kabuki, ancient Greek, African, Commedia dell´Arte, or virtual game character/anime. They must also

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Design: Visual Narrative

Design: Visual Narrative

This exercise asks students to create a triptych that tells a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The three panels, which are developed as collages, must utilize the principles and elements of design. This is the sixth of 10

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Design: Music Composition

Design: Music Composition

In the fifth of 10 design aesthetics exercises from Auburn associate professor Fereshteh Rostampour, students are given the creative task of translating a 3 to 5 minute piece of music into a visual display. This is a wonderful mid-range exercise

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Design: Composition

Design: Composition

This design aesthetics exercise focusing on composition requires that students convey a focal point, asymmetrical balance, and movement. Students write a short story or develop a theme and then illustrate their central idea through collage. The point is to create

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Design: Color Wheel and Tones

Design: Color Wheel and Tones

This exercise, which is the third of 10 focusing on design aesthetics, demands that students create their own color wheel and tones. Tones are developed by using varying amounts of black and white. This is an exacting exercise from designer

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Design: Articulate with Lines

Design: Articulate with Lines

In this innovative exercise from theatre designer Fereshteh Rostampour, students are given 9 adjectives and they must draw lines to illustrate the emotion each evokes. Creativity, execution and presentation are all important in what is the second of 10 design

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Design: Creating Art with Point

Design: Creating Art with Point

is is the first of 10 exercises from Auburn professor Fereshteh Rostampour focusing on design aesthetics. The exercise involves some basic research, the use of a specific artistic technique and incorporation of fine motor skills as students recreate painting using

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Playwriting Exercise: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

It’s not uncommon for writers to observe people in everyday life and get ideas for characters and even entire plays. This playwriting exercise offers 30 pictures of 30 different people. The assignment is to create a play creating and using

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Basic Playwriting Exercise: Character Conflict

This is a simple playwriting exercise designed to get students writing dialogue and creating conflict on stage. As it is with all exercises, there are rules for this one. Sometimes students will protest the fact that there are rules for

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Directing Exercise: The Sound of Music

Directing Exercise: The Sound of Music

This is a great group exercise for advanced high school students or college students. The exercise refers to each group creating a set. The elements used are whatever happens to be handy such as rehearsal blocks, chairs, benches, some hand

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Directing Exercise: Objects in Space

Directing Exercise: Objects in Space

The Objects in Space exercise is not about creating a playing space for actors. It is about learning to create an interesting, dynamic space that captures and holds the viewer’s attention. Directing students are divided into groups of four or

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