Open Forum

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

My most successful lessons with make up more than once in my beginning, theater classes, where we used brews wheels, and they learned to create fake bruises. It went so well that I added a lesson on how to use scar wax to create wounds.  If time was available for a third day, we would make several variations of edible blood.  These became the most popular lessons in beginning theatre. 

In advanced theatre, we learned basic stage makeup, aging makeup (this they loved), and character makeup (they usually chose an animal).  They actually really enjoyed this, but missed creating bruises and scars so I began using silicon with advanced since beginning students used scar wax  

I did start including a tech unit for my third year where they did costume design, makeup design, set design, scene writing, and choreography.  They chose three. They had a choice of three scripts: one was a musical, one a period piece, and one that allowed crazy concepts.  We've used Wicked, Hairspray, several Shakespeare and Neal Simon titles, Seussical, and Alice in Wonderland. Whichever script they chose, they used for all three.   The rubric was the same as competition and they would present as if they were at competition.  

Hope this helps!

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

Dear Josh, 

I hope you'll seriously consider adding stage management to your curriculum as well as the technical areas. It's vitally important for young theatre students to understand the whole process of theatre as well as the myriad opportunities beyond acting to may lead to a fulfilling career in theatre.  

I taught stage management at the college level for many years; it was required for all drama majors.  I deeply appreciated the number of acting students who told me it totally changed their perspective on how all the pieces of a production fit together. 

Cheers, Linda

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

Full disclosure here - I stopped using stage managers years ago. I was way too Type-A to delegate anything, so they ended up just sitting there and saying "Sh" during notes until tech week when they ran lights and sound.

That said, maybe including something about stage management would create an opening for someone to want to take it on and do it with integrity and completeness. That would be great, and free some headspace for this overworked director-designer-builder-painter-stage manager-etc.

I would just need to re-learn it myself first - after over 10 years, I've forgotten where the director is supposed to stop and the stage manager to start!

Dear Josh, 

I hope you'll seriously consider adding stage management to your curriculum as well as the technical areas. It's vitally important for young theatre students to understand the whole process of theatre as well as the myriad opportunities beyond acting to may lead to a fulfilling career in theatre.  

I taught stage management at the college level for many years; it was required for all drama majors.  I deeply appreciated the number of acting students who told me it totally changed their perspective on how all the pieces of a production fit together. 

Cheers, Linda

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

Full disclosure here - I stopped using stage managers years ago. I was way too Type-A to delegate anything, so they ended up just sitting there and saying "Sh" during notes until tech week when they ran lights and sound.

That said, maybe including something about stage management would create an opening for someone to want to take it on and do it with integrity and completeness. That would be great, and free some headspace for this overworked director-designer-builder-painter-stage manager-etc.

I would just need to re-learn it myself first - after over 10 years, I've forgotten where the director is supposed to stop and the stage manager to start!

Dear Josh, 

I hope you'll seriously consider adding stage management to your curriculum as well as the technical areas. It's vitally important for young theatre students to understand the whole process of theatre as well as the myriad opportunities beyond acting to may lead to a fulfilling career in theatre.  

I taught stage management at the college level for many years; it was required for all drama majors.  I deeply appreciated the number of acting students who told me it totally changed their perspective on how all the pieces of a production fit together. 

Cheers, Linda

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.

There are plenty of tech lesson plans and background information in Teaching Tech You Never Learned. It's available at teachtech.educationalstages.com.

As to Stage Management (and other tasks), my philosophy is to have students do EVERYTHING except those things which require your input (legal stuff, dangerous stuff, political stuff, etc.). This both empowers them, and frees you up to breathe a bit more. 

They will rise to the challenge. The value of things taking longer, being perhaps more expensive, and looking not quite as if you had done it yourself results in a strong, capable, responsible cadre of students to keep raising the bar just to please you, and to train their own "apprentices" for the future.  So worth it!

I've never really taught the technical aspects of theater, and I've had the best of intentions to incorporate tech into the class but year after year it just hasn't happened. I'm committed to making it happen this year, and I'm asking for some advice.

My class is mostly interested in acting, so I'm seeking to find simple but effective lessons and/or assignments that will get them engaged in tech basics:

• Scenic
• Makeup
• Costume
• Props?
• Music/Sound

I'm leaving lighting out on purpose because I just can't see any of my students perceiving value for themselves in learning it.

I know I am coming across a bit jaded, but if there are lessons or resources out there that have been effective for you, or activities you have designed yourself that you look forward to doing each year, I'd love some inspiration.