Theatre 1-4
Theatre Classes are ways for students to build creative thinking, public speaking, world building, teamwork, physical skills, and problem solving. The process of creating a production or even analyzing a script takes immense focus and the ability to think outside-the-box. My Theatre 1-4 classes are set up in the order of Theatre History, Acting and Performance, Script Analysis and Writing, and Directing and Production. This way every student is able to fully round out their Theatre knowledge while also creating useful skills that can be applied to other subjects.
Theatre 1
Theatre History
Projects/Assesments:
Week 5: Students must choose a character in the play we have read and create a timeline for their "beginning-middle-end" actions, and how they effect the play.
Week 12: Students will choose an early musical film to watch from a provided list and write a small essay on the history of it, their impressions of it, and why it effected the trajectory of musical theatre.
Week 17: Final projects as described, can either be a performance, an essay, a presentation, a visual, etc.
Week 1: Students are welcomed into the classroom, and we begin on working with improvisation games to join the class together as a group, which will later be used as reference for acting theories.
Week 2-3: Students learn the beginnings of Theatre History, starting with Greek, Roman and Chinese plays, as we partially read through Oedipus.
Week 4-5: Students approach the Golden Age/Rennaissance of Theatre with Shakespeare. We learn about his language and why he was so influential as we read through Hamlet (Plays will change each year).
Week 5-8: Now students have reached the beginning of "living theatre" or modern drama. We cover A Doll's House, Woyzek, and Pygmalion, briefly reading through each.
Week 9-12: Beginning on the arrival of Musicals and Broadway we watch the film Show Boat and Carousel, the earliest of musicals and read Glass Menagerie and Rasin in the Sun.
Week 13- 14: Finishing the learning portion of the course, we cover modern theatre, and how theatre is adapting to the modern age and modern advancements.
Week 15-17: During the final two weeks of the course, students will prepare a presentation about any author, composer, actor or play that was not covered in class for their final assessment.
Theatre 2
Acting and Performance
Projects/Assesments:
Week 8: Over the course of their self-rehearsal process student's must keep a journal on their progress to turn in at the time of their performance.
Week 12: Over the course of their self-rehearsal process student's must keep a journal on their progress to turn in at the time of their performance.
Week 17: While students are scored on their final performance and growth over the semester, student's must keep a journal on their progress to turn in at the time of their performance.
Week 1: Welcoming students into the classroom, we learn improvisation activities and team building exercises to familiarize ourselves with the class.
Week 2-3: Students learn basic acting terms and stage directions, along with historically significant acting teachers and actors that have changed the profession.
Week 4-6: Students are split into small groups and are given a script, pre-casted, and as a whole we analyze the show together, reading through it. Then students are asked to go through and pick two scenes the involve the entire cast and begin to analyze their character's motives as they re-read together, then begin self-rehearsal.
Week 7: First performances. Student groups perform for the class and learn how to give/receive critiques.
Week 8: Students perform again for the class and reflect on the effect the critiques had on their performance as a whole. We reflect on what skills were learned and what other skills the students want to learn.
Week 9-12: We repeat the same process as above but with a new script and different groups. This time having students play roles they would not usually see themselves in, to expand their comfort zone.
Week 13-14: Students spend the next two weeks reading/watching Arsenic and Old Lace, On Golden Pond, Boys in the Band and Fences. We analyze how we were interpreted how the actors were going to portray the character, what we thought was important about how they did perform them, and how we would have done differently.
Week 15-17: For their final project, students choose a scene from a provided list and spend their time working on staging and self-direction. This scene can also be a song, dance, or a speaking role at the level of acting they are able to achieve.
Theatre 3
Script Analysis and Writing
Projects/Assesments:
Week 4: Students must write a small essay on their opinion of The Children's Hour, what they liked, disliked and what they would have changed using evidence from the text.
Week 6: Students must fill out a report form about how their chosen play or musical followed or strayed from traditional writing techniques.
Week 7: Students will write a comparison essay between Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story.
Week 10: Progress assessment of scene following rubric on script building and writing techniques.
Week 16: Students turn in their final script to be graded on basic technique, formatting and story growth. Later peer grading will be applied as extra points.
Week 1: Welcoming the class to the room and beginning on improvisation activities that enhance their abilities to create stories based on group work.
Week 2-3: Students learn basic script-writing tools such as format, foreshadowing, parenthetical notation and audience involvement through words.
Week 4: Students are given The Children's Hour to read as a group. Then discussing the author's tools used to help move the story forward while also keeping suspense.
Week 5-6: From a pre-approved list, students must choose a play or musical to analyze and write a report on, following basic analytical values taught in class.
Week 7: Together as a class, reading Romeo and Juliet followed by watching West Side Story students learn how small choices in plays effect the greater outcome of the performance.
Week 8-10: Students are now individually to work on an original script. The requirement for the project must include more than three characters of opposing goals, a scene where all characters interact, and where the stasis of the play is broken and advances.
Week 11-12: Now, students must mesh their script with a partner's script, adding characters together, creating connections between both plots, and re-writing the previous scenes to include one or more characters from the partner's script, and make the two individual scenes apply to the same show.
Week 13-16: In the final process of their production creation, the authors must write the scene/s necessary to connect the two first written scenes into a cohesive story. At the end, their full script should include a stasis, trigger action, compelling climax and an ultimate finale.
Week 17: During this week all groups will hand out copies of their script, casted by the writers and read throughout the week.
Theatre 4
Directing and Production
Projects/Assesments:
Week 4: Students must present their concept art, vision boards, blocking/dance notation, etc, and must be overviewed in relation to class rubric before students can continue.
Week 8: Students will present their final production work to be overviewed in relation to the rubric before continuing onto acting work.
Week 12: Students will perform before the class and be given a grade based on performance rubric, and classmate grades given for extra points.
Week 16: Progress assessment following their change and their ability to adapt based on rubric grading.
Week 17: Students perform their final piece to an audience.
Week 1: Welcoming students into the classroom with improvisation activities that develop decision making and cooperative skills.
Week 2-3: Students separate into groups of four or more, each person taking on a role of one of the following: Director, Costumer, Lighting Technician, Sound Designer, Advertiser, Choreographer, etc. So, each group covers the needed roles of a theatrical production, with everyone except the Director doubling as an actor. Then the groups would find a small script/scenes/song of a show of their choice (minimum two scenes) to use for their final project. Roles other than Director that are required are Advertiser, Lighting Technician/Sound Designer and Costumer (Any of these roles can be changed to Chorographer if scene requires dancing). Students begin concept work and notation work.
Week 4: Students must create and present, interview style, their concepts for their show. Students must show concept art, vision boards, or any other form of concept work that fits the rubric to be able to continue their project forward.
Week 5-8: Before beginning acting rehearsals, students must fully create and finish their Production work and present it, individually, before acting can begin. Directing: Notes and Blocking notation must be fully completed and turned in to overview before continuing. Costuming: Character charts, measurements, and all final clothing must be turned in to overview before continuing. Lighting/Sound: all show plots, visual cues, and cue boards must be turned in for overview before continuing. Advertisements: All Posters, programs, headshots must be turned in for overview before continuing. Choreography: All dance, acrobatic, movement notations must be performed for approval before continuing.
Week 9-11: During this time, students will follow directional lead, guided by the teacher, to complete the chosen work. All direction/choreography must be taught and memorized by this time; off-book is optional during this timeframe.
Week 12: Students will perform their first round of production with the class, giving/receiving techniques, and discussing with their group how to evolve their production.
Week 13-16: Students are given to option to add more scene/s to their production or receive an added element to their show that must be implemented throughout that will change their entire production (ex: time period, characteristic, world element, etc), students must then adapt their production to said need and prepare for final presentation before an audience.
Week 17: Students must present their performance in front of an audience and give a talk-back at the end to their classmates and other audience members. Final performance is open to other classes to come watch and for family members to come observe. At the end all finished Advertising, blocking/dance notation, concept art, costuming boards must be turned in before the group can perform.