Musical Scene Mash-Ups
Mary Beth Bosen
Students will demonstrate acting fundamentals (character development, objectives, tactics, motivation, blocking) by creating, rehearsing, and performing a musical theatre mash up scene.
Intermediate-ish. This was designed for a high school Intro to Musical Theatre class. Most students in this class have taken drama classes before and hope to audition for the musical and/or the Advanced Musical Theatre class. There are a few exceptions to this, but generally most students are passionate about and enjoy performing. Some of the main goals for this course are to help students amp up their acting abilities, improve their stage presence, and sharpen their ability to sing in styles needed for musical theatre.
Prior to this unit, students have done musical theatre duets and a group ensemble number. Students are familiar with and have worked in this class to apply basics of acting, blocking, characterization, but need further opportunities for practice and application.
TH:Pr5.1.I
TH:Re9.1.II
TH:Pr4.1.I
TH:Pr4.1.II.
Scenes are most interesting when an actor’s physical and vocal choices are tied to their character’s objective.
Lesson Objective: Students will create a new musical theatre scene by researching and selecting a Broadway song to embed in an assigned contemporary scene.
Lesson Objective: Students will create a new musical theatre scene by cutting/adapting their scene and selected song to fit together and beginning memorization.
Day 3, Taking on Character Traits
Lesson Objective: Students will delve into their characters by answering character questions and interviewing their partners in character.
Lesson Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of objectives in acting by identifying their character’s objective, plotting out tactics they use, and performing a short moment for another group.
Day 5, Movement (Generating Character Driven Blocking & Business)
Lesson Objective: Students will discover character driven movement for their scenes by choosing one prop they will implement into their scenes, creating a basic floor plan of their scene’s set, and writing out blocking for the scene.
Lesson Objective: Students will prepare for previews by doing a memorization check and small group scene work.
Lesson Objective: Students will demonstrate their progress by performing their scene in a preview.
go over rubric, spend 10-15 mins rehearsing scene. OR do mini preview—choose a chunk to perform for us that you want notes on. OR split class into 2-3 groups put them in different rooms/areas of the auditorium if available—will need multiple sound systems or speakers if doing this.
Day 8, Scene Brush-up/Transitioning into song
Lesson Objective: Students will sharpen their scenes by setting rehearsal goals and focusing their rehearsal on the areas they received notes on during previews.
Supplemental Lesson/Rehearsal Ideas
NOTE: Depending on the level of students in the class, more guided rehearsal days may be necessary or desired. Feel free to add those in as you see fit! The Supplemental Lesson/Rehearsal Idea page has a list of activities and exercises that could be used to help guide students in their rehearsal.
Day 9, Final Performances Day 1
Lesson Objective: Students will demonstrate acting fundamentals (character development, objectives, tactics, motivation, blocking) by performing a musical theatre mash up scene and writing a critique of the work of their peers.
Day 10, Final Performances Day 2
Lesson Objective: Students will demonstrate acting fundamentals (character development, objectives, tactics, motivation, blocking) by performing a musical theatre mash up scene, writing a critique on the work of their peers, and doing a self-reflection.