For the last 16 blogs I have shared exercises and assignments I did in my drama classroom. These were developed over my 37 years of teaching.  Hopefully you have found some of them helpful in your classroom. So how did I arrive at this coursework? I would like to share some of my curriculum writing with you. 

When I retired, my beginning students were in a class called Drama 1, which ran for one semester. The advanced students were in Drama 2, a year long play production class, performing two full-length plays for the public. Additionally, they put together an evening called “Bits and Pieces” (I will cover that in a later blog) and a children’s show, both of which were written by the students. However, it started out quite differently.

When I began teaching, way back in ’63, there was one, one-semester drama class for juniors and seniors for the entire high school of 1,800 students with no curriculum guide or text. Two years later we became two high schools and in 1968 a decision was made to change the sophomore English curriculum. The sophomore class was divided into sixteen sections with one quarter of drama, one quarter of speech and a semester of English/literature, which meant that I would teach every student.  What a super opportunity to build my program! I taught four classes each quarter and then switched with the speech teacher. At the semester we switched with English/lit.

As the students were given English credit for my drama section, I designed the course based on a literary approach. We spent most of the time reading and discussing two classic plays, Antigone and Julius Caesar with little attention paid to performance.  Let me tell you, teaching those plays SIXTEEN times in one year was more than I could stand!  I needed some performance-based activities, and so did the students.  Drama is a “doing” course — it is not static. The students needed to be active. I also had to give them enough “English,” so the following year I added a different Shakespeare play each quarter, teaching the same play four times a year, which I could handle easier than sixteen. I also used Charles Aidman’s adaptation of Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology for an acting segment. The English staff was very pleased.    

This curriculum changed again in 1981 when a third high school was added.  My program was thriving; however, the program at the other high school was not.  The individual who was teaching drama did not have a theatre background so he had his students doing socio-dramas that parents and administrators couldn’t wait to eliminate.

I was presented with the opportunity to create a one semester Drama 1 class and a year-long Drama 2 play production class.  Our district’s budget did not have money for a major theatre text so I prepared everything from scratch — remember, there were no computers or Internet to scour for ideas when I was developing these classes (of course I availed myself of both in the 90s).

As my classes were still given English credit, care had to be given to include some basic literature and writing. By studying a play and its author, producing two full-length productions each year, using poems for my Interpretation unit, writing three critiques (not unlike the five paragraph theme), as well as in class presentations, the requirements were met. 

In the mid 90s another decision was made to have drama under the auspices of Fine Arts, rather than English. The students would no longer get English credit but could use Drama 1 and/or 2 as their one credit of fine arts and/or some of their seven elective credits. This allowed for much more freedom, but interestingly, the curriculum really didn’t change. 

After working with two published monologues, it is now time to have your students create and write a monologue based on the answers given in the Building Your Own Character Analysis.  This was one of the most fun activities I did with my basic drama class.

Day One: Begin by asking the students to take out a clean sheet of paper and be ready to write down some answers as you say something similar to this:

“Have you ever wanted to be someone else?  Maybe a math wiz, a super hero, the center on the basketball team, President of the United States or even a nerd? Well, now is your chance. Anyone is possible, even someone from outer space or someone who lived hundreds of years ago.  I’ll give you five minutes to write down at least five characters you might like to be.  There are three things you must consider:

- Your parents need to approve of this character.

- The character must be appropriate for a school setting.

- The person must be fictitious — no living person can be used”

After the five minutes, have them share, in groups of three, their ideas, getting feed back.  Then pass out the analysis and let them have the rest of the class time to fill out the form. There will not be enough time to finish so they are to take it home and bring it back the next day completed.

Day Two: Everyone has brought back their analysis so they take out another sheet of clean paper and based on their analysis sheet, they are to write a one page monologue that is about two minutes long.  Obviously they cannot include everything on the analysis so they have to choose what they think would be the most interesting thing to tell. They might want to think of it as a small autobiography.  Remind them that they are to write in first person. Give them twenty minutes to work.

Have the class spread out in various areas of the room and speak their piece out loud so you can time them.You might want to do this several times, prompting them that, as they read, they need to think of how their characters stand and what kind of voice their characters use.  Remind them that they are their characters, not themselves.

Most will have written enough to cover a minute.  Let them work individually for the rest of the hour.  Just before they are to leave, have them put the name of their character on the top of the paper and scratch out their name if they have put it anywhere on the monologue. Collect ALL papers, including the analysis, even if the students haven’t completed their assignment.   

Day Three: Pass back the monologues and give the students class time to review and/or finish their writing.  Next they need to re-write their piece on a clean sheet of paper, double-spaced, with the name of their character on top. Stress that their real name is not to be anywhere on the paper.  At the end of the period collect all the papers.  Explain that tomorrow they are going to become their characters for the entire hour.  You will give them five minutes to change clothes at the beginning of class and time at the end to change back.  Remind them that even if their character is older they are still attending your drama class.  The important thing is that they remain in character for the entire class period — no giggling or breaking character.  

Day Four: After giving them time to change, have them go outside your door, as if they were just coming to class. Say “ring” to signify the bell and then have them enter.  I always considered it much like the first day of class so as they entered I told them to take a seat. 

After everyone is seated, welcome them to class and say that they need to get to know their fellow classmates so you will call on them, using the monologues they had written.  Before class I had mixed up the order of the papers.  Select the first monologue and call out the name at the top. That character then comes up to the front of the room, reads his/her piece, and then ask if there were any questions.  The students, as their characters, ask the presenter any questions that were not covered in the monologue.  Allow this for a minute or two, then call up the next character, and so forth. I always notified the principal of this assignment because on several occasions my students decided to be “tough customers” and had to be sent to the principal’s office. Make sure that there is enough time at the end for the students to change back so say, “ring” again and they “leave” class.

Grading: The analysis is one grade, and the day they presented was another grade.  Everyone generally got the same grade on the presentation day, if they remained in character for the entire hour.  I did not grade the actual monologue but you certainly could.

The day after the presentation we always spent at least ten minutes debriefing.  

ANALYSIS FOR BUILDING YOUR OWN CHARACTER

The following items are clues into any character.  As you build your character you will want to know as much about him/her as possible.  Use these questions as a springboard for your imagination.  The more fully developed (detailed) your answers, the more interesting your character.  Remember, IMAGINATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWLEDGE!

1. Name of Character.

2. What is your character's job?

3.  Where does he/she live?

4. What kind of clothes does your character wear?

5. What are your parents like?  Do you get along with them?

6. Are you married or single? Why?

7. What are your character’s best qualities? Why?

8. What are your character’s worst qualities? Why?

9. What is your character’s favorite food? Why?

10. What is your character’s favorite sport? Why?

11. What is your character’s dream vacation?

12. Does your character have children?  Does he/she ever want children?

13.  Has your character ever been in prison? Why?

14. What kind of an education does your character have?

15. If given 10 dollars, what would your character do?

16. Is your character a morning person? A night owl? Why?

17. Is your character lazy or energetic? Perhaps lazy about only certain things?

18.  How would your character respond to an annoying sales person?

19. What kind of music does your character listen to?

20. What kind of television show does your character watch?

21. “I want _______________________________ out of life?”