LESSON PLANS: MIDDLE SCHOOL

This is a copy of the handout given at John Tartaglia's Puppet class at the 2011 Broadway Teachers Workshop

These are notes from Jennie Marino's prop design class at the 2011 Broadway Teachers Workshop.

These are the notes my daughter, Amy, and I took at the workshop.  Feel free to use/peruse/copy them or correct any errors.

This UbD constructed activity was designed while earning my MA in Theatre Education from the university of Northern Colorado.  It is designed to help students treat the performance of a song...

Students adapt a children's story into a script and perform with minimal costumes and sets to emphasize the words used in the piece.

Small groups of students use persuasive writing to create original commercial advertisements for products or services related to a shared story or stories.  Student groups perform commercials...

This lesson is based on an episode of the TV show Project Runway.  In this lesson, the students are randomly assigned a film genre, and they will then create the idea for a film in that genre...

Students design costumes based on a general idea, concept or theme of your choice.

A character building/acting excersize using etudes from Great Scenes for Young Actors - Volume II.

Teachers introduce open scenes to students. Helpful actor coaching exercise. Focuses actor in importance of working with partner. Boosts imagination and variety of approaching scenework.

Using a varied soundtrack, students improvise on a given start topic and adjust as the soundtrack changes

Students learn the script structure for Greek Tragedy and then take a familiar fairy tale and create their own Tragedy.

This exercise helps students learn to hear harmony and learn to listen to other parts while singing their own notes independently.

Students will use their personal resources to transport themselves to a shipwrecked island as characters in "The Tempest".   Essential Question:  How did the shipwrecked crew and...

Students select a 15-minute scene from a film or tv show and stage it for a live performance

Using at least an 8.5” x 11” piece of poster board, please design a “Show...

Useful lessons to correspond with the ensemble members for the King & I.  The Royal Wives and children get to create characters through the choice and use of real names from Siam. ...

Vocal Improvisation in ostinato choral parts

Students will gain part-holding independence via a vocal warm-up

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.

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...

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.

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...

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...