Theatre Resources for Students and Educators
It’s that time of year for high school seniors interested in theatre who are looking to find the right college. College application time! If you are a high school student interested in the theatre or a drama teacher or guidance
Know Your Limits Actors should use material at which they excel. If you are auditioning at nine or ten in the morning, be sure you can hit your money notes. If not, choose a different song for that morning. Auditions
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
Be Understanding of the Need to Explore In Part I of this two-part series, we looked at how theatre directors working with kids on a show may have unreasonable expectations and how those expectations may work against their production. In
If you direct students at any level, community members, and/or professionals, you want to give them all the power they possibly can possess on stage. However, many times directors undercut their actors without realizing they are doing so. Often this
A Summer Learning Opportunity This summer, I took on the role of Theatre Director at a summer camp. My task was to direct two musicals in a limited amount of time. The kids were wonderful, but the one thing I
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
Bringing students together with theatre professionals can be a rewarding experience for students, teachers, and theatre artists. Professionals who work with students tend to do so because they enjoy engaging with and teaching those who are enthusiastic about and/or interested
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
Teaching Les Misérables in the classroom offers educators the chance to include a range of diverse subjects. Plus, with the return of Les Misérables to Broadway in 2014, a hit movie version of the musical, the book, and many other
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
Over the years I’ve directed my share of professional and university productions. Recently, I was working on a production of Steel Magnolias. It was an Actors Equity production and all of the actresses were professionals, many with more than 20
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
It’s essential that actors understand subtext, including what it is, how it works and how to identify and analyze it. Here is an exercise designed to do just that. You may download the exercise here: Acting subtext exercise. What is Subtext?
Focus: When saying “I love you” has a devastating effect. In this exercise, playwrights create a scene with two characters in which one tells the other that they love them. The statement of love should in some way have a
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
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.
MATILDA THE MUSICAL presents rather dark themes, the major one being bullying. Although the bullies in this musical are primarily adults, bullying in general is a huge issue in schools today and it can be a challenge to ensure that
In Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning, the preeminent study on the usefulness and importance of the arts as a teaching and achievement tool, Richard Riley, Secretary, Department of Education, wrote. “The ultimate challenge for American
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
When using this exercise be sure to reference this blog post. Tempo How slowly or quickly something occurs, which can be physical, vocal, or internal. I ask a brave student to volunteer for this one, and in a whisper ask
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
In Part 2 of this two-part series on themes in PIPPIN, we consider how his family influences him, why we are interested in and have empathy for his character, and what young adults can learn from his character and the
The current production of PIPPIN on Broadway offers some important themes for adolescents and teens as they work towards adulthood. In Part I of this two-part series on themes in PIPPIN, we consider the “American Dream,” illusion, reality and how
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
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
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
Often in the theatre as designers we’re given challenges to create a scenic element that at first glance may appear to be too expensive, time consuming or unwieldy. In the summer of 2012, I designed Dirty Rotten Scoundrels for Papermill
History The musical NEWSIES is a dramatized, but overall accurate description of what life was like for children in the U.S. back in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. The newspaper boys (aka the “newsies”) were the primary way that
For several summers, I have had the privilege of counseling and teaching at Camp CenterStage, a performing arts summer camp where the staff’s goal is achieving excellence through the arts. I have worked at various terrific camps, but I find
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