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  • 1.  Advanced Drama Class Lesson Suggestions

    Posted 09-04-2016 09:57

    Hi Everyone!

    I am having trouble trying to come up with challenging lessons for my Advanced Drama kiddos. A lot of the ideas I had for them apparently they already did in Drama class. Right now, they are about to start and Improv Lesson and then proceed to hopefully a  stage makeup lesson.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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    Lydia-Rae Wehmeyer
    HS Drama and Speech Teacher
    Sullivan School District
    Florissant MO
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  • 2.  RE: Advanced Drama Class Lesson Suggestions

    Posted 09-05-2016 11:10

    Hi there!

    Glad to see you are doing improv first, and at the beginning of the year. Thank you for that!  This is a wise move. Believe it or not, from what happens during that time could lead the way for the next units.

    For example, an advanced step is doing some "Story Theatre".  Paul Sills and his mother, Viola Spolin, are the first steps in understanding how to better engage with this art form.  So advanced improv would downright HAVE to be your first step.

    Also, have you considered genres?  Again, another skill enhanced best through improv.  

    Yes, you can teach Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare, Musicals, etc., but why work so hard to explain nuances, when your students have already created within them.  By covering Shakespearian devices and archetypes, for example, then having students improvise within those forms, handing them a script is nothing.  The improv troupe I coach can do Westerns, Noir, Farce, even Scooby-Doo, at any qiven moment, because we took a fine tooth comb to these parameters, and how to apply them.  The payoff?  Auditions and cold reads!  They land parts here in town all the time because directors are surprised by "how well they have a handle on the material".  

    Hope this helps spark some innovative and helpful lesson plans.  If you want to discuss any of this further, am always up for a Skype chat.  :)

    Will you be joining us in Vegas?  If so, I'm teaching the improv PDI on Thursday, and there's still room.  Maybe it will help in your journey, as well.

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    Missy Whitis
    "Working hard for the funny."
    missy@housethatjackbuilt.org
    FB = @themiddlechildimprov

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  • 3.  RE: Advanced Drama Class Lesson Suggestions

    Posted 09-05-2016 22:36

    I've had success with this: Post a list of all the theatre traditions, styles and theorists you can come up with. Give kids a day or two to research then select one, and a couple of weeks to prepare a class lesson, hopefully with an interactive component and visuals. Our classes were 90 minutes so we did two a day, and it pretty much filled the entire grading quarter. The kids -- and the teacher -- were exposed to all sorts of new things from Kabuki to Boal to corporeal mime And much much more. 

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    Douglas Rome
    Director of Theatre Arts
    Fairfax County Public Schools
    Burke VA

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  • 4.  RE: Advanced Drama Class Lesson Suggestions

    Posted 09-05-2016 15:06
    I attended a monologue writing workshop with Lindsay Price and it was fantastic. Maybe she can send you some materials. After leading students through Lindsay's process, I collect them (record them in my grade book), then distribute them to the class (the writer never receives the monologue s/he wrote). Now the students prepare and perform the monologues written by their peers. Some students remain anonymous and some claim their writing during the critique process. It's a great way for students to actually hear their work performed. Some have gone a step further and done re-writes after hearing them aloud.
    -Rob



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