Curated OER
Character Attributes in Writing
Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances. In this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...
Beat by Beat Press
Teaching Musical Theatre
The 16 lessons in Teaching Musical Theatre: The Essential Handbook are designed to help actors enrolled in a theatre arts class develop the skills they need to be successful in musical theatre. Check out this sample lesson to see if you...
Activated Story Theatre
Orpheus- A Greek Myth: Reader's Theatre Script
Is this any way to treat a Greek Myth? By all means, turn the tale of Orpheus into a reader's theatre exercise.
Curated OER
Theatre: Exploratory Techniques
Using various exploratory techniques, young actors work as an ensemble company to devise, perform and evaluate a piece of theatre for assessment. This outline provides an objective and a list of games and activities that stimulate skills...
Shakespeare Globe Trust
Fact Sheet: Indoor Theatres
Pull up a cushion, grab an apple or some nuts, light a candle, and get ready to explore indoor theatres from Elizabethan England. Readers use a handout to distinguish between indoor and outdoor theatres and the types of actors who...
Curated OER
Animal Tales Theatre
Young scholars participate in a theatre production involving how to protect animals. Students create their own puppets which will be used in the production. Young scholars read information provided to them and highlight the important...
Connecticut Gilbert & Sullivan Society
Jobs in the Musical Theater
Much like an iceberg, the actors you see on stage are only a fraction of the number of people involved in a theatrical production. Introduce theatre arts students to the roles played by the behind-the-scenes- personnel with an worksheet...
Candace Fleming
A Reader's Theater Script for Clever Jack Takes the Cake
Breathe life into a reading of the children's story Clever Jack Takes the Cake with this Reader's Theater script. Offering speaking roles for nine students plus a sound effects chorus, this is a great activity that engages the whole...
Denver Art Museum
Lesson: Act 1: Purple Bathrobes Attend and Opera
I really like this idea. Upper graders discover the connection between art and theatre by first analyzing the artists' choices and motivation in creating the installation piece, Four Purple Velvet Bathrobes. In groups, they write...
John F. Kennedy Center
Folktale Theatre
Introduce your middle schoolers to a performance and movement activity that uses their favorite stories from fairytales and folklore. They practice basic acting skills, create dialogues with a partner, and then as guided practice,...
Curated OER
When Shall We Three Meet Again?
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Macbeth’s witches provide young actors an opportunity to try their hand at small ensemble acting. Using Act I, scene I of Shakespeare’s play, groups of three take...
Curated OER
Modern American Theatre: Intro to Drama
Set this slideshow up at as an independent work station, or to provide your theater arts class with a look at the many manifestations of modern literary drama. Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and Arthur Miller are the focus of the...
Curated OER
Precise Vocabulary
Young scholars complete acting exercises as a part of a precise language activity to help them build vocabulary and improve their descriptive writing skills. In this theatre and writing lesson, students create and act out a sentence with...
Curated OER
Theatre Lesson Plan - Pantomime
Second graders study heroes, inventors, and explorers and role-play as one of the people. In this theatre and history lesson, 2nd graders review the people and their accomplishments using a Promethean flipchart. Students then act out one...
Curated OER
Readers Theatre: The Three Snow Bears
Students dramatize the story, Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett. For this readers theatre lesson, students read the story and then dramatize the events during readers theatre. There is an included script.
Honors College at Scholar Commons
From Start to Strike: A Lesson Plan for the Whole Theatre Experience
Introduce young thespians to all aspects of the theater. A syllabus for a one-semester drama course provides lessons that take learners from the history of drama to the many facets of play production.
Curated OER
Theatre: Persuasive Explorers
Students act like a famous explorer. In this explorer lesson, students research an explorer and act out persuasive arguments in which that explorer might be involved.
Curated OER
Teaching Acting Technique and Building a Character Through Cinema
Students review the style techniques related to the American Method Acting and practice using them in groups. Using various scenes from films, they try to recreate the scene using props. In groups, they discover the proper way to get...
John F. Kennedy Center
Acting Up, A Melodrama: Performing Like Jo March and Her Sisters in Little Women
Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples...
Curated OER
Tug of War Exercise
Learners hone their acting and imagination by playing tug-o-war with an imaginary rope. Each group works together and pretends to pull the other group over the imaginary line with an imaginary rope. This could be a good improve warm up...
Shakespeare Globe Trust
Fact Sheet: Costumes and Cosmetics
Theatre producers in Shakespeare's time didn't have the special effects that are common today, so they had to get creative. Using the handout, pupils explore the topic of costume design. Additionally, readers learn about the stage makeup...
Brigham Young University
The Presentation
As their final act in a 10-lesson theater arts unit, set designers present their models to the class and explain how their choices of line, color, and texture support the theme they wish to convey.
Curated OER
Dancing with Dionysus
Sixth graders research Ancient Greek culture by acting in a play for the festival of Dionysus. In this Greek culture lesson, 6th graders study an ancient Greek map and the Sarcophagus Dionysus from the Walters Art Museum website....
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Theatre Arts
Students create and perform based on cuttings from various plays and literature to demonstrate the learning of the process of improvisation. Students connect improvisation with theatre and real life. Students participate in a class...