Theater Genres Teacher Resources

“All the world’s a stage,” exclaims Jaques in As You Like It, but it is the structure of the Globe stage and how that structure influenced Shakespeare’s plays that is the focus of an on-line research project. Class members visit a series...

Introduce theatre arts students to the principles of musical theatre with a short information sheet that identifies and explains the importance of eight performance principles. 

A reading comprehension worksheet traces the history of musical theatre. It starts with ancient Greece choruses and continues through the ballad and comic operas of the Renaissance, the operettas of Britain, France, and Germany, the...

How did people in the nineteenth century encourage better decision making? Using playwrights to discuss morality, of course! A video on British theater in the 1800s describes sentimental comedy and the common characteristics found within...

Welcome to the Renaissance, known as one of the most vibrant periods in the world of theater. An informational video provides a thorough overview of the period, noting key changes that took place on the stage. After a lengthy discussion...

Teaching about fiction genres can  be challenging. The lesson here, designed for library media specialists, offers a fun way to do it. In the lesson, learners visit the library and learn about the different types of fiction through book...

How do novels differ from plays? Explore with your class the text features of fiction and drama by reading The Hidden One: Native American Legend and then performing a reader’s theater script based on the story. Class members create a...

As a writer, Shakespeare took the genre of comedy to a new level. An informational video outlines the characteristics of Shakespeare's comedies and romances and explains how the plays differed from others during the period. Additionally,...

Ten drama lessons are the perfect addition to your language arts or theater class. With a focus on script elements, plot development, and parts of a dramatic story, the lessons guide young playwrights through the steps of telling a story...

Accompany a viewing of Disney's live-action feature film, The Jungle Book, with a packet equipped with several activities focused on story elements. Scholars discuss and complete diagrams and charts about the movie's characters, setting,...

Considering a unit study of American Musical Theatre? What better way to start than at the very beginning. Eight pairs of cards provide class members with background information about the genre from 1893 through 2004. The cards are...

Students participate in a reader's theater, adapting scenes from The Great Gatsby.  In this reading comprehension activity, students interpret a given scene from The Great Gatsby in a readers' theater.  Students analyze the scene for...

Students investigate genre of folklore, specifically African and Chinese folktales, and script and perform folktales with examples from The Magic Brocade and Fire on the Mountain. Seven lessons on one page.

Students gain insight into Greek tragedy and such concepts such as fate, hubris, and (dramatic) irony. They recognize the Greeks concern with fate, self-determination and the role of gods and oracles in everyday life and compare and...

Students explore characteristics of the myth genre.  For this myth lesson, students become familiar with various myths and the cultures they were derived from. Students compare in a graphic organizer. Students write original myths and...

Students read and discuss the literary elements of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. They explore the elements of dramatic performance and create a TV news program based on life in Narnia. They videotape their...

Teach your class about foreign language through transcribing lyrics. They will transcribe the lyrics of a song in a foreign language and use the lyrics to create a cloze activity as they listen and speak the language with their...

Students discover a connection between the genres of popular music and musical theater. They find and discuss musicals written in many different musical styles.

Upper graders can read all about the origins of modern drama. Each slide provides a paragraph of information related to key players, art movements, and time periods that shaped modern drama. It relates well to many aspects of literature...

The danger of mob mentality is on display in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Get your class thinking with some challenging quickwrite questions, then assign characters from the play to be read aloud altogether. Links to worksheets for...

Need a musical lesson for your drama or performing arts class? VH1 has put together a really neat lesson, in which learners use biographical information about Alicia Keys to write and perform a one-act musical related to her life. This...

Upper graders explore musical film and the Bohemian lifestyle common in Europe during the turn of the century through the musical Moulin Rouge. After listening to (or viewing) songs from the movie, they discuss the Bohemian era and how...

Students study the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein in an historical context of the development of American musical theatre as an art form. Students explore "roots" of the genre as it evolves in last half of the 19th and first two decades...