Theater Showcase (1 of 5): Intro To Theater Performance

• Students will explore the drama techniques of freeze frame, tableaux, and using narration
• Students will explore improvisation through improvisational drama games and activities teaching accepting, blocking, and endowing
• Students will use a variety of techniques to depict stories
• Students will demonstrate literacy in drama vocabulary

This lesson will introduce students to and explore basic drama techniques through games, exercises, and simple scenes.

1. Review Class Objectives
2. Drama Name Game
   1. Name
   2. Gesture
   3. Replication
3. Tableaux
   1. Wedding
   2. Funeral
   3. Bar Fight
   4. An Arrest
   5. Bank Robbery
4. Individual Freeze
   1. You just stepped in dog poo
   2. You just missed your bus/train
   3. You just won the lottery
   4. You lost something
   5. You feel sick all of a sudden
5. Narrate a Routine
   1. In the Morning
   2. In the Afternoon
   3. In the Evening
   4. At Night
6. Improvisation
   1. Presents
   2. Props
   3. Yes, Let's!
      1. Drive a Car
      2. Ride a Horse
      3. SKIP!
      4. Brush/Comb our hair
      5. Catch a butterfly
   4. What are you doing?
7. Accepting, Blocking, and Endowing
   1. Endowing Scenes
   2. The Alphabet Scene
8. Debrief

Discussion/Vocabulary

• Tableaux or Freeze Frame -
  • Make sure freezes work well with group picture
  • Clear and able to be maintained
  • Levels, Expressions, and Gestures
  • Capture a mood and create an appropriate atmosphere
• Narrator
  • Tells the story from outside
  • Aside from their point of view
• Improvisation
  • Create a scene spontaneously or without any preparation
• Drama Games
  • Non-threatening environment
  • Inspire ideas
  • Quick and simple
• Offering
  • Give another actor something to do
• Accepting
  • Saying YES and rolling with it
• Blocking
  • Saying NO (bad for improv)
• Endowing
  • Giving characteristics
    • personality
    • attitude
    • mood
    • physical
    • scenario
• Scene
  • Beginning, Middle, and End
  • Tell the story
  • Clear Characters
  • Not necessarily the most obvious story

Improv Video - https://youtu.be/zc8gGoG81Os
Zip Zap Boing - https://youtu.be/b8QMuKPGjHk