Students will demonstrate their ability to work cohesively by creating and performing a Children’s Theatre piece.
CURRICULUM PLACEMENT:
The Children’s Theatre Unit is to be used with intermediate theatre students who have gone through a beginning theatre class.
PRIOR STUDENT EXPERIENCE:
Students should have prior knowledge of movement, voice and ensemble work.
UNIT REQUIREMENTS:
Students will create a 20-30 minute performance consisting of theme-based children’s stories and/or poems using no props or costumes. This performance will be traveled to close-by elementary schools and performed for student audiences designated by individual elementary administration (1-3 grades, 4-6 grades, 1-6 grades) The performance should be a length that would allow the class to travel to the school, perform and return to home school within a 90-minute class period. See the Scheduling Performances Advice handout to get performances scheduled in advance of the unit.
NATIONAL STANDARDS:
Accomplished TH:Cr2.1.HSII
Cooperate as a creative team to make interpretive choices for a drama/theatre work.
Accomplished TH:Cr3.1.HSII
Use the rehearsal process to analyze the dramatic concept and technical design elements of a devised or scripted drama/theatre work. b. Use research and script analysis to revise physical, vocal, and physiological choices impacting the believability and relevance of a drama/ theatre work. Accomplished TH:Pr4.1.HSII
Discover how unique choices shape believable and sustainable drama/ theatre work. Accomplished TH:Pr6.1.HSII
Present a drama/theatre work using creative processes that shape the production for a specific audience.
Accomplished TH:Re9.1.HSII
Verify how a drama/theatre work communicates for a specific purpose and audience.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to work together and decide upon a general CT topic by developing a theme and title for their own CT performance.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the developed theme by bringing several children’s stories to the table to be considered for the performance and choosing as a class one of the stories to be the subject of a Process Drama experience.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to learn through a Process Drama experience by using the previously chosen book as the basis of a Process Drama.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their focus on the CT project by directing their own story and acting in other classmate’s stories during this critical rehearsal time.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their understanding of “the big picture” by working under the teacher/director to put the individual stories into one performance. (This could include cutting whole stories, reworking transitional moments, adding other background actors into stories, etc.)
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate their ability to perform and direct by presenting their own Children’s Theatre performance to actual children in close-by elementary schools. (Teacher’s will need to set up performances – see “Scheduling Performances” handout for teachers only; A parent performance can be set up before or after the show travels.)
