AE17.TH.6.9

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 6 - Theatre

EU: Theatre artists make strong choices to effectively convey meaning.
EQ: Why are strong choices essential to interpreting a drama or theatre piece?

Personal Processes and Interpreting a Piece

Given a prompt, a small group of students improvise a scene to be staged within a designated time period. After the improvisation, students discuss ways to better communicate the group's interpretation.
Students then transform the improvisation into a written script that includes stage movements, sound and visual effects, and other details.
Students select a director, actors, and technicians; rehearse; and present the scene. After viewing a recording of their scene, students re-evaluate their effectiveness in achieving their intent, make revisions, and present their scene before the class, which then participates in the evaluative response.
This activity allows students to explore all aspects of the performance and has them evaluate themselves on camera to make changes and artistic choices.

Resources for Age Appropriate Plays for Improv Starters

Reflections and Shared Experiences

By utilizing multiple groups, students will be allowed to be both performer and audience member. The students should keep an Actor's Notebook and have several prompts from the teacher being critical of the interactions between an audience and performer.

Resources for Journaling and Self Reflection

Vocal
Movement
Characterization
Directing
Design
Theatrical production

Skills Assessed

The student improvises, writes, and rewrites monologues, scenes, and vignettes to convey predetermined intent and meaning. Student directors are accountable for small group presentations of a scene or vignette. The director is responsible for incorporating all aspects of a production into a unified whole.
This explores the concepts of production and design by taking the basics and forming a full production.

Anchor Standard 4: Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.