In-Class | sms-theatre

Theatre Arts Curriculum

Students attending Simmons Middle School may participate in drama class during the day in the following ways:

6th Grade: via the exploratory track in a 9 week rotation
- Emphasizes movement, vocalization, and creating a character
- General theater appreciation
7th Grade: via the exploratory track in a 9 week rotation with an option of an additional 9 weeks with teacher approval
- Beginning stage craft
- Emphasizes basic stage blocking
- Expounds upon knowledge from 6th grade
- Culminates in small play
8th Grade: via the exploratory track in a semester long class with an option of an additional semester with teacher approval
- Stage Craft and Design
- Utilizes projects and teamwork
- Expounds on previous knowledge from earlier grades
- Culiminated in a final design project and a performance piece for the student body
- Option to attend and compete in the State Thespian Festival

Students will:

Identify the basic elements of theatrical training, including vocalization, kinesthetic, and emotional and intellectual processing.

Demonstrate ways an actor controls voice through pitch, rate, volume, pronunciation
Develop characters through various postures, gestures, and facial expressions
Identify basic stage directions
Use high, medium, and low spatial levels to enhance the effectiveness of a scene
Demonstrating a variety of actor positions or profiles
Demonstrate rehearsal techniques: pacing, polishing, and vocal/physical encoding
Use appropriate vocabulary: blocking, character, scene, empathy, aesthetics, and enunciation
Describe theatrical experiences using vocabulary: genre, style, acting values, themes, designs.
Explain legal and ethical ramifications of using another's work in a production
Critique theatre productions to determine the effectiveness of verbal and nonverbal interpretation, director's intent, audience response, and technical elements.

Students will:

Develop a director's notebook
Plan a rehearsal schedule
Create a scene matrix
Design a microphone and lighting plot
Identify ways that a play can represent the time periods in which they are set (ex. Costuming)
Identify basic components of staging a production, including set design, blocking, costumes, lighting, and sound.
Select/design/create sets, props, costumes, lighting, and sounds to support the school play
Analyzing the technical parts of our theatre facility and its functions: flats, platforms, backdrops, cyclorama, and drapery, to determine their roles in effectively staging a production
Determine the functions of technical theatre roles that scenery, props, lighting, sound, costumes, and makeup play in creating the environment for a play
Identify and take part in the roles of different members of the production staff

Students will:

Describe the acting process, including memorizing, determining, and enacting character objectives and motives; listening; and maintaining concentration.
- perform a monologue or dialogue
- Use improvisation to discover character and motivation
- Demonstrate understanding of text, subtext, and context through improvisation
- Identify the structural elements of plot in a script or production

Explain emotional responses to the whole as well as to the parts of a dramatic performance.
Demonstrate use of the body and voice as creative instruments.

Demonstrating spontaneity through improvisation exercises
Demonstrating how improvised dialog and scenes can be used to tell stories and develop characters based on a variety of sources
Performing pantomimes or improvisations using voice, blocking, and gesturing to depict characters and tell a story

Analyze scripts, including dialogue, action, and expository information, to explain and justify character motivation.
- Interpreting metaphors, themes, and moods in scripts
- Adapting student-written scenes for dramatic media
Create characters, situations, and events based on personal experience, literature, historic events, or research to introduce tension and suspense in a theatrical production.
Demonstrate an understanding of characterization and scene work through a group performance.
Analyzing a scene from a play read in class to adequately portray a character or action
Demonstrating understanding of subtext and emotion through vocal and physical work
Demonstrating a relationship to other characters in a scene through interaction with and reaction to other characters in the scene
Memorizing a scene
Performing a scene accurately, including actions designed during the rehearsal process

Students will:

Develop a director's notebook
Plan a rehearsal schedule
Create a scene matrix
Design a microphone and lighting plot
Identify ways a play can represent the time periods in which they are set (ex. Costuming)
Identify basic components of staging a production, including set design, blocking, costumes, lighting, and sound.
Select/design/create sets, props, costumes, lighting, and sounds to support the school play
Analyzing the technical parts of our theatre facility and its functions: flats, platforms, backdrops, cyclorama, and drapery, to determine roles in effectively staging a production
Determine the functions of technical theatre roles that scenery, props, lighting, sound, costumes, and makeup play in creating the environment for a play
Identify and take part in the roles of different members of the production staff