Open Forum

What is the scope and sequence for your theatre classes? Which year do you study Shakespeare, the Greeks, when do you start movement work, playwrighting, directing, etc.?

I want to put together a definite course of study for each year of theatre but right now it changes from year to year due to putting my Theatre Arts 3 classes with my TA 4 classes.

How do you do it?

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John Perry
Drama Instructor
Atherton High School
Louisville KY
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I've found that I have to be flexible and adjust the material from year to year.  I do cover Shakespeare and the Greeks in Drama I.  However due to the Lexile Scores (reading ability) of the class, I may adjust how those units are delivered (reading an entire play or perhaps just covering certain scenes from a mix of plays).

Drama II is where I get into more advanced Scene Study and discuss various theatre philosophies (Stanislavsky, Meisner, etc.). This is also where students get into the "nitty-gritty" of tech production where I let them start running lights and sound and do light construction on our sets.

Drama III and IV are the performance and production classes where students produce scenes and plays for public performance. These classes share much, but I focus more on Arts and Entertainment Careers in Drama IV.  We cover unions, college auditions, and other aspects of working in the profession.

I'm always looking for ways to improve these classes, so I'm glad you posted your question. I'm hoping to learn from the responses as well.
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Josh Ruben
Fine Arts Head, Northwest Whitfield
Chattanooga TN
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I've unleveled all my classes, so everyone is mixed together.  Kids take Acting, Directing, or Stagecraft.  Directing is actually embedded in Acting, so the directors get to direct actors and the actors get to work with multiple student directors in their scenes.  Stagecraft is it's own animal and is the class in which we do all the technical production work.

I unleveled for a couple of reasons.  The first was scheduling.  Having a singleton class made it really hard for kids to get into the class they needed.  Doing it this way helps my numbers a lot.  The second is because I watched how divided my department was.  My seniors rarely got to work with my freshmen and there was a bit of an us vs them thing going on.  This year, I've seen my freshmen become integrated into the program faster and improve more quickly than I did the year before.

So that we don't do the same thing all the time, I have developed a 4 year rotating curriculum.  We're always going to do scenes and monologues and work on acting technique, but the vehicles for that are different.  Every year we study a modern play.  This year it was Clybourne Park.  I haven't chosen for next year yet, though I'm currently reading All The Way and Tribes as options.  This year we also did Shakespearean comedies and Commedia dell'Arte.  Next year we will study the Greeks and Tennessee Williams.

So far it's working well.  The kids are being exposed to various genres of theatre, they're doing a lot of script analysis (which gets me points with admin and core teachers), and they're doing a lot of performing.
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Laura Steenson
Theatre Director
Reynolds High School
Troutdale OR
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We offer four courses:  Drama I, Advanced Drama, Technical Theatre, Advanced Technical Theatre.

Drama I is a one year class that introduces kids to all aspects of theatre, with an emphasis on acting.

Advanced Drama is a one year class that focuses on improv and scripted work, bouncing back between quarters.  Students may take this course three times.  THe improv work doesn't change, but the scripted work changes.  I don't teach this class, but to the best of my knowledge, it's all modern plays. 

I teach the Technical Theatre and Advanced Technical Theatre classes.  Technical Theatre is a one year course that introduces kids to all aspects of technical theatre.  The second semester focuses on design in each area.  The advanced class isn't very popular but is more of an independent study course in design.  When I have students in it, they design for shows and earn credit for it.  I have also had students prepare pieces for NIES in this course.

I am interested to hear how people fashion the technical courses, as this is what I teach.  My focus in on college and career readiness.  So any advice on this would be great!

Thanks for starting this thread!

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Raymond Palasz
Schererville IN
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I want to get into this discussion and hear from those who teach all levels of drama in the same class like I do. I currently have Drama 1, 2, and 3 all in the same class with very few Drama 2 or 3 students. It is very frustrating but that is the way the numbers fall right now; I rotate some of the units I do each year to keep the interest of the Drama 2-3 students. I have no separate stage craft or tech theater class. Those jobs are introduced in the drama class and they have built simple sets and become the crews for the plays that I do outside of class. I am wanting to get some curriculum ideas.  My first question: has anyone set up an area of focus for Drama 3 or 4 students within a lower level class, sort of like an internship where they have a separate curriculum that they fulfill in the mixed drama class? Also any ideas for units in a situation like mine?  I hope I am not the only one. 

Amy Sando
Minden NV
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Hey John! Go on line to "Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills - Texas Education agency.

TX has a comprehensive K-12 curriculum, including Fine Atswhich includes Theatre. (I know, it's an unusually extraordinary circumstance that has a really great story involving Ross Perot and a TX Gov. Named Mark White. 
Good luck .
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Anita Grant
Sweeny TX
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I'm just finishing up my 2nd year so I'm still developing the classes based upon what my district has given me. I have Acting 1,2,3, Technical Theatre, and Musical Theatre Workshop classes. Acting 1 is about the basics - monologues, movement, pantomime, scenes. Acting 2 is genre theatre where the students learn about and perform from different genres of theatre, specifically historical theatre. I change up the time periods each year but this year we did the Greeks, Commedia, Shakespeare, British Farce and American Melodrama. Acting 3 is about writing and directing. There is almost a rep theatre feel to it.  I also do a combined unit with the filmmaking class so we work on acting for film. In Musical Theatre Workshop, students focus on performance through song and dance. 

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Andy Ballnik
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Thanks for starting the discussion, John! Some great ideas already.

Whoever mentioned 'All the Way': great choice! Some excellent scenes in there. Going to include that somehow myself.

Our school offers Theatre I-IV, all mixed in together. We also have a one semester Intro to Drama class, which for all intents and purposes, works out like a 'We don't have anywhere else to put you, so...' and could be thought of as Theatre 0. We also have Technical Theatre Design and Production, and in 2016/2017 are hoping to add Musical Theatre.

I'm trying to assemble a repeating curriculum, as the exams are fairly static, so we have to cover the Greeks every year as they dump about a dozen questions out of 40 on the exam, from what I'm told from above. We're working on an ambitious plan to perform all 37 of Shakespeare's plays through the classes, so this year we started with Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'll be choosing the Shakespeare based on who I get in my classes, I'm thinking of Othello for next year as I may have a certain kid in my class that would be great for it.

For the Theatre I-IV, we do performance (acting/improve/script analysis/various acting methodologies). We work with different scripts and do our best not to repeat, but there are some monologues or duo scenes that are worth repeating, and those that have seen them performed before often comment on how interesting it is to see different performers treat the same material (who'd have thought??). We cover Shakespeare, the Greeks, and a little bit of musicals. A lot of class time goes toward productions, as we use the class time to rehearse one or two scripts, giving my higher level students directing roles or other stage business roles. Trying diligently to try to tie all this to the new Core Arts standards, as touted on the EdTA site.

Tech Theatre are responsible for creating/designing and constructing the various technical elements. Next year we will be making use of a set curriculum that is modular in form, and may well do the 'flipped' model of class where the students rotate round through the different design disciplines. Still trying to work that out. Also trying to tie this into standards, and planning how to be a more effective teacher in this subject area, this year being my first teaching Tech Theatre.

Intro to Drama just do a shortened version of the Theatre I-IV, with the higher level stuff pared down or excised, depending on the students.

It doesn't hurt to re-do the same material, often I do not because I can get bored, but as stated it can be good for students to see how other performers handle the same material. Theatre is truly a recursive kind of class, you're always returning to the same basic components in order to improve knowledge and skill, so you can use the same lessons, but change up the material, as others have stated.

Please keep responses coming, this is going to be a very useful and productive thread, I can tell!

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Phillip Goodchild
Theatre Arts Instructor/Assistant Department Head of English
Hillsborough County Schools
Ruskin FL
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We are a small independent school and have an Intro to Theater class and then a combined class that is listed on transcripts as Theater 2, 3, or 4.  I adjust the content of that class depending on the students enrolled and have included theater history, acting, mime, scenic & costume design, make-up, puppetry, directing, and devised theater in various years.   We also have a Theater Dance class (taught by our choreographer) and a Tech Theater and Stagecraft class taught by our tech director.  This year, to create connections to other areas of the school's curriculum, I am looking to develop some semester-long classes and place them in both the performing arts department and the school's "Advanced Seminar" series.  Not strictly "theater" classes, but a way to infuse the arts into other areas of our school.  (Would love feedback or suggestions on these if anyone cares to weigh in...)

• AMERICAN CULTURE IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION - This course will look at the movies, art, theater and music of the period and explore how historical events and the economic challenges of the decade influenced artistic expression.

• PERFORMING THE CLASSICS ON STAGE - This course explores the challenge of performing a classic piece of literature for an audience.  In consultation with the instructor, students choose their own artistic pursuit ranging from classic drama, literature or music, and work to prepare it for performance. 

• FILM AND THE HOLOCAUST - An introductory examination of the cinematic representations of the Holocaust and how media has formed a collective memory of the events surrounding it. 

• AMERICAN LENS - An exploration of how American cultural and social conflicts are portrayed and worked out in popular movies. 

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Susan Speidel
Chairman of the Performing Arts Department
Morristown-Beard School
Springfield NJ
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