Educator Resources

Lesson 1: Perform a Shakespearean Monologue
Students will demonstrate an understanding of analyzing and speaking Shakespeare’s text by selecting a monologue and performing it.
Click here for lesson plan.

Lesson 3: Learn the Pavane Dance
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the Pavane by performing the dance to music.
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Lesson 2: Stained Glass Art Activity
Students will demonstrate an understanding of collage artwork by creating a unique “stained glass” birthday gift for Shakespeare.
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Lesson 4: Bake the Bard a Birthday Cake
Students will exhibit an understanding of basic culinary art techniques from Shakespeare’s day by baking Elizabethan-style cakes.
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EXPLORING HAMLET: FOR ENGLISH AND PERFORMANCE STUDY

Lesson 1: Who is Hamlet?
Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze the character of Hamlet by exploring how he behaves and acts in his relationships.

Lesson 2: Conflict and Circumstances in Hamlet
Students will demonstrate their analysis ability by examining and debating how Hamlet’s circumstances drive his actions and reactions.

Lesson 3: Relationships and Honesty in Hamlet
Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze subtext and relationship in Hamlet by using textual clues and imagination to explore a relationship outside the scope of action.

Lesson 4: A Rogue and Peasant Slave
Students will analyze character motivation in Hamlet and use textual clues to determine Hamlet’s state of mind.

Lesson 5: The Rest is Silence
Students will explore the idea of tragedy in the context of the end of Hamlet

SHAKESPEARE PERFORMANCE: THE PLAY’S THE THING

Exploration of Shakespeare text through Gibberish and Gesture
Students will utilize gibberish and physical gesture to explore vocal and physical choices for performance of a Shakespeare scene.

Figurative Language Performance Pieces
Students will identify figurative language, create group movement performance pieces from Shakespeare’s text, and create their own figurative language performance pieces.

Utilizing Punctuation as a Shakespeare Performance Tool
Students will identify and utilize punctuation to frame and amplify phrasing in a Shakespeare text.

Shakespeare Power Hour — Macbeth
Students will read, interpret, make choices, block and perform a scene from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Students will observe their scenes connection in context to other scenes from Macbeth.

Raise the Stakes: Identifying and performing high stakes tactics within a Shakespeare scene
Students will identify specific stake-raising language and utilize it to inform performance choices in scenes from Shakespeare.

Air Broadswords: Staging Combat
Students will choreograph and perform a stage combat movement-based piece while demonstrating safe practice of partnered movement. Students will explore physical movement combined with performative text.

Clowning Adventure
Students will discover their authentic playful self (the clown) and their unique relationship to the comic world. Through physical exercises, students will investigate their personal generator of fun and creativity culminating in a clown performance of an improvised 60-second song.

Guidelines for Theatre Safety
The students will learn and apply practices to working safely and avoiding hazards in the theatre by following classroom and emergency procedures, practicing safety in the workplace, identifying potential causes for accidents in the workplace, and properly replacing, repairing, or securing potential cause for an accident.

Parts of a Proscenium Stage and the Stage Areas
Students will be able to diagram and identify the parts of a proscenium stage and the areas of a stage.

Theatre Stage Performance Spaces
Students will survey and identify the six performance theatre spaces: Proscenium Stage, Thrust Stage, Arena Stage, Created or Found Space, All purpose or “Black Box,” and Traverse.

Exploring Technical Design
Students will explore and identify technical designers’ roles and the design elements they use to create theatre.

Scenic Painting
Students will be introduced to the concepts of color and recognize the basics of scenic painting, including: what is color, what is paint, the tools of the trade, and how to paint.

Scenic Design - Lesson 1
Students will learn about concepts for a stage production and research a time period and location to create a concept for a production of Romeo and Juliet.

Scenic Design - Lesson 2
Students will learn about thumbnails and scenic renderings. They will create their own set designs inspired by the concepts they have chosen in lesson one.

Scenic Design - Lesson 3
Students will learn how scenic models are used to display their ideas for their theatre set. They will also learn to identify various aspects of a theatre space.

Scenic Design - Lesson 4
Students will learn about stage flats and get a chance to build one for themselves.

Texture - Beginning
Students will understand the use of texture for the stage and be able to apply the concept in creating their own examples.

Texture - Intermediate
Students will create props or scenic decoration using patterns, decorations, and textures according to their artistic ability and vision.

Texture - Advanced
Students will demonstrate the ability to use highlight and shadow to bring depth, interest, and realism to faux texture items.

Sound: Foley and Audacity Editing
Students will create Foley sounds to match a film clip. Students will then create a 30-second sound storm utilizing household objects, sound files and record a track on audacity. Students will identify and utilize sound FX websites, audio editing software, live playback software and other sound resources.

Stage Management - Lesson 1
Students will gain an understanding of the responsibilities of a Stage Manager by learning some of their duties and creating a rehearsal report.

Stage Management - Lesson 2
Students will learn what a prompt book and calling script are and how the Stage Manager uses them to run a performance.

Scale Model Pallets Projects
Technical Theatre students will learn to construct, produce, and solve construction skills while building a scale pallet.

Greek Mask Project
Students will be able to design, construct, and plan, a Greek Mask based on research.

Making a Hand Puppet from Stuff you have at Home
Students will be able to design, construct, and plan, a Hand Puppet based on research.

WORKSHOPS

• All Videos

• How to Teach a Workshop

• Finding Shakespeare’s Ideas

• The First Moment

• Rehearsing Outside of Rehearsal

• Stage Combat

• Shakespeare Punctuation

• Shakespeare Scene Work

• Viewpoints

• Clowning Adventure

TECHNICAL THEATRE

• All videos

• Stage Management

• Calling a Show

• Beginning Texture

• Intermediate Texture

• Advanced Texture

• Thermoplastics in Costuming

• Anatomy of the Stage: Randall L. Jones Theatre

• Anatomy of the Stage: Eileen and Allen Anes Studio Theatre

• Anatomy of the Stage: Englestad Theatre

• Creating a Prop List

• Using Reaper

• Using QLab

THEATRE GAMES

• All Videos

• What’s in the Box

• Schwing Bong Poop

• Purse

• Murder Weapon 

• Late for Work

• Kitty Wants a Corner

• Shakespeare Insults to Injury

• Go Circle

• Do You Love Your Neighbor

• Disco King Queen

• Categories

• Captains Coming

• Bunny Bunny

• Bippidi Bop

ROMEO AND JULIET

• Touring Production (2020)

• Talkback

JULIUS CAESAR

• Touring Production (2021)

• Monologues

• Duos/Trios

• Ensembles

• Competition Pieces