Bundle: Actor's Challenge: 13 No-Prep-Required Drama Lessons!

Our "Actor's Challenge" series is a collection of zero-prep-required drama lessons for theater teachers, each one highlighting a different dramatic device for actors to add to their toolkit. All you need to do is print them out, and play!

This bundle includes 12 diverse lessons!

Commedia Dell'Arte

Want to challenge your actors with physical comedy, hilarious characters, & timeless humor? Our commedia dell'arte lesson is a high-energy introduction to classic comic routines, lazzi, & timeless plots of romance, mischief, & misadventure.

Lesson Includes:

• A suggested lesson structure for the teacher
• A rundown of the 10 most popular stock characters
• A summary of 20 classic Italian comedy bits 
• A worksheet for creating an original commedia dell'arte performance
• A grading rubric to assess and measure progress

Movement

Do your performers struggle with their bodies when they are acting? Ours did too, before we developed these theater activities to show them the power of physicality in performance. This drama lesson shows high school actors how to create physical characters through body language and movement over engaging 3 lessons.

Our "Actor's Challenge" series is a collection of zero-prep-required drama lessons for theater teachers, each one highlighting a different dramatic device for actors to add to their toolkit. All you need to do is print them out, and play!

Includes:

• 3 Warm up-drills
• Challenge #1 - Walking with leads - Conveying character through body language
• Challenge #2 - Walking through space - Using environment to create physicality
• Challenge #3 - Creating a character based on a visual prompt
• Assessment rubric for group scene

Leader, Follower, Fool

Status Scenes - Want a challenge for your intermediate & advanced drama students? Introduce your performers to status-based scene work! This lesson provides fun performance activities & prompts to practice this significant theater concept that a serious actor must master!

Includes:

• Detailed lesson instructions for the teacher
• A variety of 3 performance drills to incorporate status into performance
• Handouts and worksheets explaining key terms.
• 27 prompts providing characters and situations to base scenes on.
• An assessment rubric

Create a Character

This is an all-time favorite project that our students talk about for years! In this 10-hour character development unit, students will create an original human character based on an animal through research, movement drills, devising, and improvisation!

Includes:

• Project outline with examples of student work
• TASK #1 - Building Your Character’s Foundation Handout
• TASK #2 - "A Day in the Life" guided imagery and movement drill
• TASK #3 - "The Concrete Jungle" Animals in a human setting comedic scene drill
• TASK #4 – "Transformation" physical transition from animal-to-human exercise
• TASK #5 - "King of the Jungle" devised/improvised scene with 2 actors
• TASK #6 - "Human with Animal Characteristics Biography" creative project.
• TASK #7 - "The Final Interview" Questions to run an interview with the new character
• An assessment rubric to measure student learning.

Stage Pictures

How do directors and actors create powerful dramatic stage pictures? "Actor's Challenge: Stage Pictures" is a stand-alone drama lesson that shows students how to create exceptional tableaus and blocking, and makes them the directors!

Includes:

• Detailed lesson instructions for the teacher.
• A guide with visual aids on how to create compelling stage pictures.
• 25 stage picture prompts, with characters and staging hints.
• A student worksheet to plan tableaus.
• A rubric to assess student growth.

Subtext Scenes

Are your students struggling to master subtext, the meaning beneath a character's lines? Not for long! This lesson provides 20 mini-scenes that are written to be performed 3 times with 3 different assigned subtexts! A delightful tool for young actors!

Includes:

• Detailed lesson instructions for the teacher
• A variety of 3 performance drills to incorporate status into performance
• Handouts and worksheets explaining key terms.
• 27 prompts providing characters, and situations to base scenes on.
• An assessment rubric

Emotional Boundaries

Want a laugh-out-loud improvisation game that drama students beg to play? In this game, actors perform prompted scenes, but must change their character's emotions each time they move to a new part of the stage, no matter how wild the result!

Includes:

• Detailed lesson instructions for the teacher
• The unique game is described in simple steps with tips for student actors
• 20 unique prompts providing settings, characters, and emotions
• 120 emotion cards

Half-a-logue

How do you introduce students to the building blocks of performing a monologue? Use this exhilarating activity, where actors must improvise one side of a phone conversation, conveying relationships, objectives, & tactics to achieve their goal!

Includes:

• Detailed lesson instructions for the teacher
• 30 prompts providing characters, situations, and objectives
• Questions for group reflections
• An assessment rubric

The Actor's Nightmare

Every actor’s worst nightmare: What if everyone onstage knew their lines, except for you? This is a wonderful and hilarious improvisation game for drama students of any age or level. Our theater students often say this is their favorite improv activity!

• Detailed lesson instructions for the teacher
• 26 ready-to-use scripts
• Explanation of the classic and beloved source material

Character Voices

Are you amazed by actors who can transform into different characters only by changing their voices? Teach your high school drama students to unlock their potential as vocal performers by creating distinct characters that are funny, imaginative scary, even powerful!

Includes:

• Warm-up drills, and an explanation of your vocal tract.
• A guide to vocal resonators, and how they create different unique voices.
• Challenge #1 - Sound Story - Can you tell a story with sound, but no words?
• Challenge #2 - Create a character - Develop a character voice based on a picture.
• Challenge #3 - Radio play scripts - Portray larger than life characters life from old-fashioned radio drama
• Performance checklists to measure student learning.

Status Drills

Want to challenge your intermediate & advanced drama students? Introduce your actors to status-based scene work! This drama lesson provides fun performance activities & prompts for actors to practice and master the impact of character status.

Our "Actor's Challenge" series is a collection of zero-prep-required lessons for theater teachers, each one highlighting a different dramatic device for actors to add to their toolkit. All you need to do is print them out, and play!

Includes:

• Detailed lesson instructions for the teacher.
• A variety of 3 performance drills to incorporate status into a performance.
• Handouts and worksheets explaining key terms.
• 27 prompts providing characters and situations to base scenes on.
• An assessment rubric

Raise The Stakes

Your drama class has learned the foundations of theater, so now what? Now it is time for your acting students to "raise the stakes"! Use these fun activities to teach your actors, directors, playwrights, & theater artists to bring stakes and tension into any scenes or performance!

Includes:

• 4 performance-based challenges to explore stakes as an actor, including an improv game, scene prompts, and scripted scenes
• 15 tools to raise the stakes in any scene as an actor, playwright, or director
• Examples from Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet"
• Performance checklists and assessment rubrics

Recycled Costumes

In our "Recycled Costumes" challenge, students make theatrical costumes using only common household materials like construction paper, tissues, tape, and even toilet paper rolls! Finish the lesson with a fashion show of their creations. This activity works for stagecraft as well as a traditional drama lesson!

This lesson plan lists required materials and guides your class through every step of the process. Fun for Earth day, or any offbeat lesson, students always get a big laugh out of this theater design lesson.

Includes:

• Outline of a fun group project including step-by-step instructions
• 3 roles focused on different student strengths
• List of characters to choose from
• Questions for group reflections
• An assessment rubric

Want more improvisation and drama games? Check out other lessons developed by "Scholars On Stage"!

Bundle: Scene Study For Actors

Bundle: Play & Musical Production

Bundle: 55 Drama & Improv Games

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