What is Character Education? Character education is a term used to describe the educating of children in a way that will help them foster the skills necessary to be morally, non-bullying, healthy, successful, and socially acceptable human beings.
Learning Through the Experience Auditioning for musical theatre can be more stressful and exhausting than preparing for a job interview. In college, I took several audition and musical theatre classes where they did their best to help prepare students for
Fathers and Sons, Mothers and Daughters, Parents and Children Based on the 1998 novel by Daniel Wallace, Big Fish The Musical is about a former traveling salesman (Edward Bloom) from the South who has a passion for storytelling. His son,
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
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
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
If you’re a teacher taking a class to see a Broadway musical or play, you may want to utilize a study guide. Broadway study guides can be helpful to teachers. There are a range of study guides available for free
When teaching acting to high school and college students one of the things you are trying to get them to do is to make their performance real in terms of it being genuine and believable. This is not an easy
If you are a teacher or drama director working with school students, then you have your work cut out for you. When directing a school or after-school play with those in primary or secondary grades drama directors must spent a
When working with young actors in a primary and secondary school setting drama teachers and directors can find that it’s a major chore to get them to open up to an audience. Often young actors will work against themselves on
In the classroom, teachers can focus on numerous topics in relationship to Les Misérables. In Part Two of our consideration of Les Misérables, we’ll look at a few of the many areas, themes, and subjects that you can investigate with
In the first installment of this two-part series on Insights for Actors through Storytelling, I discussed why and how I developed this directorial technique. We also considered the foundation elements that are a part of this directing method. It’s interesting
A Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway on March 11, 1959. To the surprise of many, the play became a huge success, earning four Tony nominations, the New York Critic’s Circle Award for Best play, and running for two
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
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
Viewpoints is active and works on various levels. What Are Viewpoints? As a teacher in the classroom, I always become excited for the next time I teach an acting lesson, when a group of students tell me that they joined
You can use this side coaching exercise when working with actors in class or on a show. Side coaching can be useful in a few ways. Primarily, it gets performers to act and react without thinking. That is to develop and
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
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
In the first part of this two part series, we discussed some of the benefits of playwriting in the classroom, how teachers can get basic playwriting training and how to use playwriting exercises when teaching. Plays by their very nature
I am positive that every scenic designer in the U.S. reading this blog understands the drill: Carefully read the script. Discuss it with the director. Do your research. Take time to conceptualize. Repeat. The process involves engaging in these steps
What better way is there to apply the Spanish language and culture in the classroom than through theatre? It definitely helps to have classes where the students engage in traditional learning, such as writing down Spanish vocabulary, watching movies in
Using theatre as a means to teach mathematical subjects makes class more interesting and enables greater learning for students. Theatrical approaches can be used for other educational subjects too, but as a former student who struggled in trying to understanding
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
The Magic of Matilda Matilda is a magical musical, mesmerizing imaginative young minds. If you are an educator who has read the original book by Roald Dahl, or seen the 1996 movie directed by Danny DeVito starring the young
Why Dramatic Writing and Reading? Playwriting can be a useful tool in active learning, especially if you take the stance that plays are meant to be heard and seen and not simply read silently by individuals. Just about any subject
It is more than just the three R’s of “reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic” in this day and age, as the arts are taking on a whole new importance in the cognitive process and social development of children, adolescence, teenagers, and
The wonderful aspect of teaching theatre in the classroom is that teachers do not have to follow a lesson plan where students are stuck sitting at their desks doing bookwork. The class will be able to spend the majority of
At Broadway Educators, we hear from teachers who say that students have difficulty in reading and understanding plays. It’s great if you can see the play. But that’s not always possible. Yet reading a play script is a good skill
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