Introduce young actors to the key elements of performance with this handout that defines key staging terms and activities.

Your intermediate or advanced thespians choose dramatic scenes to perform in duos, small groups, or solo to demonstrate vocal and physical characterization. Use class time to prepare and rehearse. Detailed rubrics work for peer assessment.

A lesson turns young historians into playwrights to understand and speak out against social injustice. Pupils work individually or in groups to write and perform monologues that deliver personal messages on social justice. Writers then...

Reading is reading, whether it's for drama or English class. Boost reading fluency, accuracy, intonation, and comprehension while fostering creative acting skills. Kids read the provided tale of "The Lion and the Mouse" several times in...

Circle games, energetic games, calming games, exit games. Whether used as ice breakers, warm ups, or exit strategies, or used in drama classes or content areas, the 28 games detailed in this packet deserve a spot in your curriculum...

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.

Reader's Theater is a great way to build fluency, intonation, and dramatic flare. The class reads the theater piece, "The New Friends" paying attention to how they express emotion and feeling as they read. They discuss the use of plot,...

Kids get up and act! To promote inventiveness, timing, and clowning, they pair up and act as though they are looking in a mirror. Child A does a move while child B attempts to mimic it as closely as possible. This is a fun activity that...

Class members take center stage as groups perform scenes from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Actors are encouraged to add stage directions to the script, as well as create costumes and props to...

Even an outline can give you enough information to execute an awsome project. The tasks for each of the seven weeks of this project are defined, as well as the objective and specific content facilitated through the project. Learners will...

Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons,...

Here's an eight-page packet that describes 70 different improv activities to use as warm ups for drama classes. 

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...

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...

Emilia mocks Bianca, who is in a relationship with Cassio, who attacks Montano. Using the resource, learners explore profiles of the characters from Shakespeare's Othello. They also read a scene-by-scene synopsis and follow a weekly blog...

Learners of any age can learn to communicate using gestures and their bodies. They create a pantomime of a specific activity without using any words. This resource includes a link to an Off-Broadway Workshop for kids.

Why do characters do what they do? Scholars use the resource to explore character motivation in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. Additionally, they discover pictures, interviews, and videos from the Deutsche Bank production of the play. 

Love, deception, witty bante—that's much ado about a lot!  As learners navigate the resource, they view an interactive character map and read character biographies from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Pupils also...

Third graders act out a play called Jane and the Dragon. Students develop vocabulary through dialogue. They delve into the feelings of others through learning about the characters. They also identify the characteristics of various types...

Young scholars discover film making by participating in a music performance.  In this performance arts lesson plan, students perform music and physical acting to convey an already written script for their peers.  Young scholars...

Students investigate world news and create a performance from their research.  In this current events lesson, students identify major political or news stories in the media and create a performance based on a character they will...

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.

Students engage in a lesson that is concerned with the concept of reading a story and then they reenact it while performing a pantomime. They answer questions related to the reading and then children move throughout the class imitating...

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...