PROFILE: 2009BROADWAY TEACHERS WORKSHOP

Four Stage Managing Handouts were distributed during the Session C Broadway Teachers Workshop. They are entitled "Scenic Elements", "Stage Managers Calling Script", "Actors Script", and "Stage...

This activity occurs after a thorough explanation and discussion of what subtext is.

This is good for during rehearsal of class work scenes
or after viewing aplay/movie or scene from one as a class.

Get inspired by the emotions of the scene to create one

of...

Give students tools and opportunity to approach unknown verse text with confidence

Enhanced physicality, reaction, expression and connection between characters

A great way to help students memorize monologues or scenes without getting into a set rhythm and delivery is to have them say the lines as a wide range of characters. This not only helps in the...

Throughout the entire run of the show, I am always giving the students things to read and to think about how it relates to the show and how it relates to life.  I have found that it makes a...

Adapt scripts from stories in the news!

Global awareness of our ecological footprint is a responsibility of our global community.  Global action to prevent the destruction of our planet is a human necessity.  International...

A soundscape is comprised of characteristic types of sound commonly heard in a given period or location.

Use when studying how the music moves the plot or sets the tone of a show.

Students will gain an understanding of the importance of costumes in determining a character's age, gender, and personality. Each student working in a small group will be given a chance to design...

Three easy steps
1.    I begin the class by having one student perform Emily’s monologue or by showing the video clip. 
2.    I then pass out this...

Each selects a classmate’s name out of a hat, and I keep track on my own list of who has whom. I suggest they keep it a secret, but you know how that can go!  They have several days to write...

1) To remove much of the fear of performing from timid students. 

2) To  emphasize how the entire body is needed to promote a character.

3) To provide a group project where...

Student introduced to the concept of pretending/role playing and how each actor brings his/her own experiences to a performance.

To familiarize students with essential performance principles that are directly related to the musical theatre genre.  These principles have some application in solely dramatic presentations...

Aim: How can we use various levels to present a clear and specific “tableau vivant”?

“You can do anything for 15 minutes.”
        -FlyLady.net

In the theatre, we have so many areas to keep track of that we sometimes feel like maintenance...

Students will understand the structure, strategies and performance style ofproducing a show for children, but performed by adults.

This is an excellent exercise to begin working with the members of a new company/production. I’ve had success with players from ages 8 through adults with both performers and technicians. All...

Students create costumes made out of garbage bags.

- Students will learn to pick up on visual clues to create characters.
- Students will understand the importance of character back-story, motivation, goals, problems and conflicts.
-...

The students will be able to demonstrate understanding of team work and the role of cooperation in achieving life goals and how musical theater can communicate that message.

Teach your drama students the art of storytelling, using activities from the book The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling, by Rives...

Students learn difference between Award Shows such as:

 - Academy Awards- also known as the Oscars- for Motion Pictures
 - Antoinette Perry Award- also known as Tony’s- for...

To teach students how to express emotions onstage by identifying and practicing these emotions, investigating examples of melodramam and eventually writing and rehearsing an act in a melodramatic...

Students will learn to understand cue-to-cue language and actions used for stage signals, the role of a stage manager/prompter and how to run the technical equipment used in the theater during a...

A step-by-step way to teach students an effective way to understand the full process of developing and writing a musical.

Quickly familiarizes actors with the plot/story arc of a new play or musical and initiates the actor's process of looking at the arc of the story as a means to investigate changes that characters...

Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of team work and the role cooperation in achieving life goals and how musical theater can communicate that message.

A list of thought provoking questions to get an actor thinking about his or her craft and the nature of acting.

To memorize a song in order to clarify the meaning of its text, to practice diction, to place emphasis on being present and preparing a set up, and to develop coordination of rhyhm of text.

To create a new product and then write a commercial to sell it.

Discuss the use of tactics: How do we get what we want?

Allow students to share information with each other and see if they can identify wants and goals in the story.

To better understand a myth as a story or legend - sometimes invented, sometimes based loosely on fact  that is handed down from generation to generation.

An informal investigation into the world we ask actors to immerse themselves in throughout the rehearsal and performance process.

Students improvise using the alphabet to forward a story. They will learn to understand sequence in script writing, develop characters, portray two characters in dialogue and memorize lines.

Exercise as an on-going rehearsal tool to sharpen a student's grasp of his/her objective and the various tactics he/she can employ to reach it.

A few ideas for anyone interested in producing or directing Little Women.

Actors need to know where and how to move on stage in order to reveal more information about a character and to be aware of ones setting/surroundings. Can be used as a warm up activity or until...

Effective ways to keep a journal in order to understand yourself entirely through character/body/acting development.

Useful in helping young actors work on character development and to understand the difference between acting and "indicating" - reacting in character rather than trying to figure out how a...