Students will explore the different aspects of what goes on behind the stage in the world of theater. Students will actively work on the different departments by participating in a full-length theater production during the trimester that culminates in a performance for a live paying audience.
What makes a great show?
How do I know I have communicated well?
What do I need to know about myself to participate well in a performance?
How do these skills help me through-out life?
Why do humans still use drama as a form of expression?
Essential Questions:
What do I need to know about myself to participate well in a performance?
How do these skills help me throughout life?
Major Concepts:
Acting is learning about yourself, what you are comfortable with, how you react in certain situations, remembering the experiences and the memories you have.
We observe human nature/the world around us as a source of material for our art/acting.
Major Content:
Playing fun and silly games to get students used to each other and to create a non-threatening atmosphere for creativity and for students to evaluate how they are coping with performance anxiety.
We observe body language multiple times in the world around us and use it and imitate it.
Unit Assessments:
Assessment for the "silly games body language" unit is based on participation or honesty about why someone isn’t participating.
How a student is working as a community member is important.
Major Texts: the chosen script for the play.
Essential Questions:
What makes a great show?
How do I know I have communicated well?
What do I need to know about myself to participate well in a performance?
How do these skills help me throughout life?
Why do humans still use drama as a form of expression?
What do I need to know about myself to participate well in a performance?
Major Concepts:
Research character, time, place and situation for the play.
What is the message?
How do we all work together as a team?
Major Content:
Content changes with each play but students need to learn who, what, where, how, and why as it pertains to their character.
Students also explore the character's wants and how they go about getting what they want.
Students perform games, fill out worksheets about their character's background and do improvisations that help to fill in background information about the character. This will help students performances to be more realistic when portraying that character on stage.
Unit Assessments:
Character profile, rehearsal feedback
Essential Questions:
What makes a great show?
How do I know I have communicated well?
What do I need to know about myself to participate well in a performance?
How do these skills help me throughout life?
Why do humans still use drama as a form of expression?
Major Concepts:
Everyone is important to the process of creating a performance and your work is necessary for the show to be a success.
Memorizing takes work and knowing your part as a team member is important.
We don’t wait until the performance to start acting. We practice many times so that when we are finally in front of an audience we can rely on what we practiced.
Major Content:
Learning blocking, cues, and lines. Getting the material memorized and known.
Unit Assessments:
Assessment is given by the director/teacher giving direct feedback to the actor during the rehearsal and during notes afterwards.
Recording of performance can happen as a self-assessment.
Essential Questions:
What makes a great show?
How do I know I have communicated well?
What do I need to know about myself to participate well in a performance?
How do these skills help me through-out life?
Why do humans still use drama as a form of expression?
Major Concepts:
Theater is a performing art and therefore your work must be performed to be appreciated.
Performing in front of others has its own qualities to add to the mix. The more you perform the better you get at it. Focus is a big element.
Major Content:
We warm up before our performance getting our voices and body ready to perform.
We do exercises together to get us thinking as a team.
We are quiet before we go out to perform so that we are focused and mentally ready to put on the best performance we can.
During the performance we are mentally focused and aware so that careless mistakes don’t happen and when mistakes do happen we are able to think clearly about how to solve them.
Unit Assessments:
Direct audience feedback is given when students stand in a receiving line after each show. The interaction between the actor and the audience is also important feedback. Students then do a written reflection on something they learned through the class either about themselves, the world around them or the theater world. They also need to explain how they will carry what they learned into the future, the "so what"! If students are taking the class for a performing arts credit they will need to write a reflection.