Discuss the lives of artists in the Lyme Art Colony in the 1900s with this resource. Young historians write and perform a short scene depicting individuals who lived in the Griswold boardinghouse, used by the colony artists. They use the...

After reading Acts III and IV of Othello, give your class a fun, interactive, music-related activity. Begin by asking students about songs they have heard in movies or plays. Let them look up the lyrics online and ruminate about the...

What are some of the pros and cons of staying young forever? With the Peter Pan resource, learners discover the magical world of Neverland. Scholars create advertisements that promote eternal youth, and then write persuasive pitches for...

Viewers of a short video learn about the development of the Broadway Book Musical in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Scholars explore the Golden Age of Broadway, which produced classics like Annie Get Your Gun and...

What does it take to build a stage production from the ground up? Scholars read a weekly blog detailing the behind-the-scenes action of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. They also listen to interviews with the cast, meet the...

Who was Harper Lee, and what led her to write one of the most celebrated novels of all time? Scholars learn about the author of To Kill a Mockingbird and read a summary of a dramatic production of the novel. They also discover the...

Why do characters do what they do? Scholars use the resource to explore character motivation in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. Additionally, they discover pictures, interviews, and videos from the Deutsche Bank production of the play. 

Do most people resemble Titania, the fairy queen; Puck, the mischief-maker; or someone else? Pupils take a fun quiz to find out which character they are most like from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. They also explore a weekly...

Emilia mocks Bianca, who is in a relationship with Cassio, who attacks Montano. Using the resource, learners explore profiles of the characters from Shakespeare's Othello. They also read a scene-by-scene synopsis and follow a weekly blog...

Love, deception, witty bante—that's much ado about a lot!  As learners navigate the resource, they view an interactive character map and read character biographies from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Pupils also listen to...

Introduce the origins of theater and dramatic roles with this highly entertaining, animated video. It illustrates the evolution of the stage from the shrinking of the chorus in dramas during the fifth century BCE in Ancient Greece, as...

Introduce young actors to the key elements of performance with this handout that defines key staging terms and activities.

Plays are meant to be seen and so are these 12 elements that give plays the dramatic effect. Introduce young actors to these key terms and their explanations

The world may indeed be a stage, and players certainly need to know drama vocabulary. This list of 16 terms (and their definitions) often found in scripts will prompt actors to perform their role.

Here's a 15-page packet packed with ideas for warm-up activities that can be used for drama classes or in content courses. Each activity is coded to indicate materials needed, space requirements and appropriate audience. A great addition...

Review the main events in the play Richard III using this resource. Learners created a video newscast in which they describe the plot. It is a creative and motivating way to discuss this material.

Blossoming playwrights create multiple scripts about connecting with nature. The first collaborative script prompts learners to choose characters and a first line. They then choose a second line of dialogue and pass their notebooks...

And...action! Turn your middle schoolers into filmmakers with this writing and visual arts lesson. After reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers, they create a viewfinder using an empty toilet paper roll to make a storyboard for their...

If you are teaching Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, you can't afford to miss this source. An extensive list of ideas outlines numerous discussion topics, writing prompts, comprehension questions, oral presentations, and projects. Have class...

Thorough and all-encompassing, this study guide summarizes an entire semester, or possibly a year, of language arts vocabulary words. Vocabulary from The Diary of Anne Frank, Night, Romeo and Juliet, and various short stories is listed...

Introduce your young thespians to the elements of drama! Key vocabulary helps them through their first week of class. The presentation outlines parts of a script, stage direction, and strategies for reading a script. Tip: The strategies...

Explore script writing based on prose in a cross-curricular literacy lesson. After listening to the folktale The Drum, middle schoolers identify and describe specific story elements such as characters and events. They work in groups to...

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...

Encourage your class to make Romeo and Juliet their own. Groups of three to four people choose an alternative setting and create a soundtrack and costumes before acting out one scene. Not many directions or explanations are given, but...