Teaching Theatre Online:
A Shift in Pedagogy Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak
Originally created by Dr. Daphnie Sicre (Daphnie.Sicre@lmu.edu)
Loyola Marymount University
(If you have any ideas, resources, assignments you would like to add-
email me or any of the current editors)
With the coronavirus spreading across the globe, many universities across the world have moved their courses online. While this may seem to be easier for business, math or science majors, we are all on the same boat. This rush to move online has left us scrambling for ideas, especially for performance courses. Going online can seem difficult and challenging for theatre or/and dance practitioners but it can be done.
In a rush to help, I have created this google doc with references, resources, ideas and more. But before you start, you need to think about diversity, equity and inclusion, in order to do this, it is crucial to include your students into the conversation and talk about accessibility.
In the past week, I have had wonderful and insightful conversations with my students. Before starting my online classes, I sent a survey to my students to learn about their accessibility and concerns. They raised some great questions that I was able to respond quickly. I then scheduled two check-ins with them, to see how they were, learn Zoom, and gather ideas from them about the course. I learned about their learning environments, met their pets, and even some of their parents. Not everyone was able to join, and that was ok. I learned from the survey that I will need to make certain accommodations and changes for them. Some don’t have access, others had to return to their native countries and time differences will make it hard for them to “come to class” but regardless, I will work with each and all of them to make it work. We have too. I ask that as you move forward, work with your students.
Also, please be kind and compassionate with yourself. You are doing an amazing job! This isn’t easy and I hope this document helps with the transition.
In order to navigate the document, I have added a table of contents. You can click on the links, and it will directly take you to the page. This document has grown tremendously and will keep growing, but only with your help. I have had various colleagues and friends contribute pieces, ideas, resources. If you have any ideas, please feel free to send them to me and I will add them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STANDARDS & SLO’s aka OBJECTIVES
Synchronously VRS Asynchronous Online Teaching
RESOURCES ABOUT TEACHING ONLINE
THINGS TO THINK OF AS YOU TRANSITION TO ONLINE THEATRE TEACHING
What are ONLINE ACTING CLASSES?
ONLINE THEATRE TEACHING ARTICLES & RESOURCES
THEATRE POST COVID19-SOCIAL DISTANCING
WHAT WILL THEATRE LOOK LIKE?
VIDEOS, STREAMING & ONLINE VIEWING OF PLAYS/MUSICALS
FACEGROUP PAGES FOR TEACHING THEATRE ONLINE
THEATRE POST COVID19-SOCIAL DISTANCING
WHAT WILL THEATRE LOOK LIKE?
TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS AND IDEAS
GENERAL DISCUSSION IDEAS & PROMPTS
ACTING TECHNIQUE CLASSES & PERFORMANCE COURSE
RESOURCES FOR TEACHING PRODUCTION COURSES ONLINE IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
Assignments Ideas for Dance or Movement
Assignments Ideas for Online Vocal Pedagogy
Assignments for Musical Theatre
Assignments for Puppetry
STAGE COMBAT
Assignments for Intro to Theatre
Assignments for Theatre History
Assignments for World Drama
Assignments for Diversity & Drama
Submit Plays to Online Festivals
Assignments for Script Analysis
Assignments for Dramaturgy
EDUCATIONAL THEATRE/DRAMA IN EDUCATION/PERFORMANCE PEDAGOGY
Assignments for Ed Theatre
DRAMATIC ACTIVITIES IN SCHOOLS
Assignments for Dramatic Activities
Assignments for TYA
THEATRE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE/THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
Assignments for Theatre for Social CHange & TO
Assignments for Hip Hop Theatre
Assignments for Applied Theatre
General Resources & Activities for Design Courses
Assignments for Costumes & Make Up Design
Assignments for Lighting Design
Assignments for The Business of Theatre
Here are some suggestions on how to do this:
Create a google form where you can ask your students about their tech status and needs.
It is imperative that you do not assume all students have computers and access to wifi. If students are sent home, some might not have the access we are requesting of them. Also, do not assume that if students have phones, they are able to conduct all the work on their phone alone. Some students have phones, but they may not have unlimited data access.
Ask:
Do you have a computer/or a tablet at home?
Do you have access to wifi? Smart phone?
Do you have a quiet room where you can work?
(For theatre- you might want to ask, do you have a room where you can move around?)
Do their electronics support the programs we are asking them to use?
My colleague Professor Rebecca Avalos created the following survey for her students:
Digital Access Equity Survey
1. Do you have digital access for everyday use?
2. What platforms do you use to access our Brightspace page?
4. Is Wifi everyday accessibility realistic for you?
5. Do you have daily access to a webcam or microphone?
6. Are you familiar with group chat/lecture services like Zoom or Echo?
7. Do you prefer individual questionnaires or collective online discussions, or both?
8. Do you prefer weekly or bi-weekly Professor-Student check-ins?
9. Do you prefer collective check-ins or individual/private check-ins with your professor?
10. Is there any course-related matter you would like to discuss?
THINKING OF ACCESSIBILITY
Accessible Teaching in the Time of COVID-19 — Mapping Access
“As universities declare class cancelations and mandate a shift to online teaching, instructors have the opportunity to design online course materials to be as accessible as possible from the beginning. This will also ensure that your course materials are accessible moving forward.
All of the below suggestions come from disability culture and community. Disabled people have been using online spaces to teach, organize, and disseminate knowledge since the internet was invented. Disabled people are leading survival praxis in apocalyptic times. Please recognize that the very types of remote access that universities now mandate for classrooms and conferences have been denied to disabled people. Please also recognize that disabled people have long engaged in refining methods for remote access to protests, classrooms, doctor’s offices, public meetings, and other events. Mention this in your classes so that students know they are benefitting from crip technology and praxis. Commit to accessible teaching because it is crip technoscience and disabled ingenuity that has made remote participation possible.
Equity Matters- Digital & Online Learning for Students with Disabilities
5 Ways to Help Teens Manage Anxiety About the Coronavirus Teens & Managing Anxiety
A Drama Therapist’s Perspective on Teaching Theatre in Times of Crisis
Creating Transformative Online Space
How Teachers Are Coping With Coronavirus School Closures
VARIOUS TEACHING PEDAGOGIES
Cultural Responsive Pedagogy
Online Teaching Can Be Culturally Responsive
DEcolonizing the Syllabus
Embracing Radical Inclusivity
Radical Empathy
Radical Empathy is the Theatre Artist’s New Job
Trauma Informed Critical Pedagogy
What is Trauma-Informed Critical Pedagogy? — Cities of Peace
A Drama Therapist’s Perspective on Teaching Theatre in Times of Crisis
STANDARDS & SLO’s aka OBJECTIVES
As you get started with all this, also relook at your standards, and SLO’s. Each Department might have different standards or learning objects. Relook at them and see how can you re-adapt your lessons to fulfill your objectives.
TECH/PLATFORMS
You also need to ask your students about the platforms you will be using and what platforms are accessible to them.
Most colleges use the following 4 platforms:
Blackboard
BrightSpace
Course Site
Ask the students if they are familiar with each of these programs and how much they use them. Especially, if you have not used these programs before.
Move everything to these programs ASAP. Spend some time exploring them. They are pretty easy to learn, and maily you need to play with them. Everything from grades, to chats, to reviewing documents is available. Ask your IT specialist to help you. Best option is to call them, they are probably at school even if you are not.
They are also probably swamped, but they are there to help you. My university has a specialist for each of our colleges. You can also contact your library, as most librarians are trained in these programs.
Take a look at this resource that was created for online business courses, on how to teach remotely. It looks at online teaching across various universities. Each link shows you what each university is offering. A lot of the links are being updated daily, given the urgency.
As mentioned, most of these online platforms have group chats and group options. Universities have paid $$$ to support this platforms and they have the top tier membership. You should not have to pay anything to utilize them.
Here are some very useful group chats that everyone is talking about:
10 Tech Tips in a Minute: Zoom
I have personally used Zoom, and it is wonderful. It can host over 100 people, and you have the authority to mute various users. You can also create chats, groups and more. It can be used on the phone or on a computer or tablet. Record everything you do and transfer it to video.
Echo360 - The Smarter Video Platform for Higher Ed and Continuing Ed
GoogleHangouts
https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9760270?hl=en
For your own protection, make sure you are using programs that are being supported by the university. You want to make sure you keep a record of everything, because teaching online is not the same as in person, and people can not read tone or might derive meaning from certain facial expressions.
Other technical tools that are very useful:
- Youtube (Videos that can go live; and have interaction with its followers; You can make them private for classes. You can also create a Youtube for your class to access and use)
- FlipGrid (Interactive Discussion Boards with Short Videos) (A decent “how to” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJOoloQ7k5Q)
- VoiceThread (Video interactivity for Discussion Boards, etc.)
- Hypothes.is (Annotate the web, Hold Live Discussions, Read Socially)
- Panopto (Lecture recording, Livestreaming Software, Quizzing Software)
__________________________________________________________________________ Synchronously VRS Asynchronous Online Teaching
Talking about accessibility- in creating this document, I have come across various educators & artists who are blind. They shared with me that any images on a google doc need to be described or transcribed, otherwise their software can not read it. All it says is image. Thus below each image I will be describing what it says.
Please keep this in mind if you are creating any documents.
This is a chart that describes the difference between Synchronous and Asynchronous Online teaching. One side of the chart describes Synchronous Face to Face meetings that meet once a week or twice for a whole lesson. Best Platforms are Zoom, Google Hangouts/Meet, Skype and Microsoft Teams. This type of teaching creates/fosters connection; it is easy to use to introduce & explain tasks, promote social integration and connection with everyone or small groups. You can also use it to help clarifying, by answering direct questions, misconceptions and lastly, provide immediate emotional support. The other side of the chart provides Asynchronous online collaboration. You can also use this once or twice a week, they can comment on things, and choose peers to work together. This is great for collaboration, projects that can last 2-3 weeks and peer/groups feedback. Best Platforms are Moodle,, Google Classroom or Docs, Voicethred, and Bloggins platforms like wix, wordpress, etc. It can also work for Critical Thinking, where you post a prompt, and remotely people can reply, and others can reply but it is not done in real time. It can create visual thinking routines, guiding and inquiry questions.
This chart is a list of Core Teaching apps available on most smartphones. It is a great start to discover what our students have available to them on their phones. Listed are search engines, classroom management apps, storage engines, digital scrapbook, communication apps, and multimodal literacy apps; with subcategories in video, multimedia, images & image/text manipulation.
_____________________________________________________________________
CURRENT RESOURCES ABOUT TEACHING ONLINE
Listen to Students about Teaching Remotely
Fostering a Strong Community in a Virtual Classroom
Turns Out You Can Build Community in a Zoom Classroom
Simulations of college classrooms in the fall don't bode well
Great article from The Chronicle about Going online in a Hurry
Coronavirus Resources: Teaching, Learning and Thinking Critically
Thanks for Not Doing A Bad Job of Putting Your Course Online
Seven Things to Consider Before Developing Your Online Course
Blended Learning Course Design Mistakes to Avoid
Peer advice for instructors teaching online for first time
Please do a Bad Job of Putting your Courses Online
Absolutely a terrible title and misleading, the blog/opinion piece by Rebecca Barret-Fox focuses on realistic expectations, reminders to check in on ourselves, our students & those around us.
Practical advice for instructors faced with an abrupt move to online teaching (opinion)
Teaching Effectively During Times of Disruption
Jenae Cohn, Academic Technology Specialist for PWR, jdcohn@stanford.edu
Beth Seltzer, Academic Technology Specialist for Introductory Studies, bethseltzer@stanford.edu Find this again at bit.ly/stanfordteachingdisruption
Humanizing Online Teaching By Mary Raygoza, Raina León, and Aaminah Norris
10 Tips for First-Time Online Faculty | by Andrew Vanden Heuvel
Working during COVID-19: How to be good at video meetings
Great Resource to Send to Students Who have never used these platforms.
WELCOME TO YOUR HASTILY PREPARED ONLINE COLLEGE COURSE (Comedic)
A Letter to Teachers During COVID-19
Reminder that You are doing ENOUGH
______________________________________________________
THINGS TO THINK OF AS YOU TRANSITION TO ONLINE THEATRE TEACHING
It is important to note that in order to take these courses students need internet skills.
This means our students will need training as well. Which is why asking them what they know, what access do they have, before you start will be key.
There is a learning curve to all these courses, but hopefully you can jump in and learn with the students.
I suggest your first online lesson be an intro to the software, programs and everything you will be using.
I also suggest you send students tutorials, and maybe together you figure things out in your first session.
If you don’t like teaching online, there is a high probability, you students will not like it either. Remember we are all in it together.
Acting is kinesthetically taught by doing and teaching it online might seem like it might not work, but we have to find alternatives to make it work.
Also, not all students will have access to wifi, these platforms or apps. Some students might not have the bandwidth to sustain Zoom, while others might not be able to find a quiet space in their homes. Please be aware of this, and find alternatives to the projects/assignments you are providing.
If you can record your lecture for students who might not be able to join you synchronously. Please come up with asynchronous options or even in person/paper options.
Lastly, students are just as upset. Talk to them about all the options.
____________________________________________________________________________
What are ONLINE ACTING CLASSES?
Online Acting classes have been happening for years. Many charge a lot of money for them. If professionals have been doing this for years, we can also jump in and probably do it even better.
It is very important not to be afraid and to be willing to rethink how to teach your courses. Unfortunately, we do not have the freedom to say, I can not teach this course anymore….We have to, and we have to find ways to make it happen as our salaries depend on it.
https://actinginlondon.co.uk/online-acting-classes/
Online acting classes offered in a video form are the diffuse, ambiguous equivalent to “normal” acting classes, but you get to observe the teacher online. These classes can be free (which is rare, unless you find something on YouTube), but usually come at a single-payment price...There are only a handful of truly good quality online acting lessons that are worth looking into. Most will not provide you with any certification or degrees. (BUT WE ARE)
Here are the most popular ones if you want to see what they are doing: Udemy courses. There’s more than one acting related class on Udemy. If you search, you’ll find them. Unfortunately, all of that is basically theory from unknown people. Not only are they not acting coaches or experienced names, I have doubts they even have any credits. I would discount this one right away. iActing Studios. Now this is a step in the right direction. I haven’t taken their paid classes, but I’ve had access to some free stuff to look around. Jason Alexander is their flagship acting coach, and his class, as well as a few others I was able to access on the site, are worth taking a look at. You can also get a 2-hour trial on the site. MasterClass. These guys are at the forefront of online teaching at the moment. They were able to bring the biggest names from many different parts of the industry – anything from dancing and singing to filmmaking, acting and writing. I’ve tried several courses on MasterClass myself, and was quite impressed with the quality of teaching. Preply Online Acting Courses Stage Milk Online Acting Lessons
________________________________________
ONLINE THEATRE TEACHING ARTICLES & RESOURCES
Forum: After Covid-19, What? (TDR)
TEACHING ONLINE RESOURCES
HowlRound Resources for Teaching Online
Distance-Learning Tips for Gallatin Arts Workshops: Getting Started (NYU) “For many of us, teaching practice-based courses remotely is far from ideal if not incredibly problematic. For others, distance technology serves as the basis for collaboration and art-making. Below are a few ideas for moving forward with adjusting course content and structuring class sessions. The suggestions are intended as offers rather than directives or prescriptions. There is much expertise among us and now is a great time for us to collaborate and learn from one another.” https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sCy0T8-0_B8vPvQoh8jjGtyyOGys40_HwiNUfcOM_s4/mobilebasic
Virtual Theatre Education Resources: The EPIC Crowdsourced List
ATHE- Resources for Teaching Online
Finding Our Way
From the UK- Teachers share their experiences teaching drama on line and in the mist of the Coronavirus.
Teaching Drama Online / Remotely
A Growing List of FREE Tools & Resources for Distance Learning
Michael Rohd’s Advice for Online Teaching Strategies In this 22-minute video lecture, Rohd offers advice, inspirations, and insights on teaching theatre online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9NmBEFUYJA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR05XNMbBA_ip4Ga1n02s_sAhxSssskQnd5c1NCKw6qXkNSovcYD4Et6-c8
10 Things Student Actors Can Do During COVID-19 School Closures https://www.actoraesthetic.com/blog/covid19-college
Some of these resources are from Elementary, Middle and High School teachers, but they are very easily adaptable to College courses.
Emergency Lessons (4 Weeks) Created by Shayann Mace for a Middle School. The slides contain 20 warm ups that can be done online as well as other assignments https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CjDpyYVYS1JC-NNlLZE8fxRkbqEep8iIuZz7xLyoDbo/mobilepresent?slide=id.p
ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association) Files compile by Keriann O’Rourke https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gx3qc7afOLbZJyJSuyXCm3B_If7EiM0V
CTC Online Learning & Teaching: A Guide Fantastic Online learnign guide for teachers created by www.ConvergencesCollective.org https://docs.google.com/document/d/1--qq2jOyFmFtkRystdvtgSF3RWyEguV1DYSIvbe0tUc/edit?usp=sharing
Education Companies Offering Free Subscriptions due to School Closings https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NUKLZN7hGSu1Hzm70kfzBKs-lsSELaEMggS60Bi2O2I/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true
Drama Resources to help with Online School - From Black Box Education https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jnDsvkKgLBAYSLJO7KrioOKpZj34JesJqneFrypGKo0/mobilebasic
Incredible Online Assignments from Mr. Jason LeClair
Theatre Educator/Director, Beacon Charter High School for the Arts
Scroll down for lessons/assignments
https://www.arts-core.com/high-school-theatre-arts.html
COVID-19 & Freelance Artists https://covid19freelanceartistresource.wordpress.com/ Incredible resource for Freelance Artists-This list is specifically designed to serve freelance artists, and those interested in supporting the independent artist community. This includes, but is not limited to, actors, designers, producers, technicians, stage managers, musicians, composers, choreographers, visual artists, filmmakers, craft artists, teaching artists, dancers, writers & playwrights, photographers, etc. Original resources and inspiration provided by Nicole Brewer, Ann Marie Lonsdale, Quanice Floyd, Tiffany Wilhelm, Brian Herrera, Hannah Fenlon, & Clementine Bordeaux.
ZOOM THEATRE
Zoom is Changing Theatre and Tiring You Out, Here's Why
Does Interactive Theater Work on Zoom? Two Theaters Switch on the Video.
Shows May Be Canceled, but LA Theater Community Is Keeping Dialogue Going
Create Zoom Captions for Accessibility | by Jenny Beck | Voices Through Silence
How to Use Zoom Like a Theater or Film Professional
Examples of Plays
IN-ZOOM A world-premiere 10-minute play Created by Bill Irwin
Beyond Zoom plays: The future of theater in the age of coronavirus
HELP WITH ZOOM
file:///Users/classroom/Downloads/ZOOM%20HelpfulGuide.pdf
Zoom: Share Device Sound During Screen Share
THEATRE POST COVID19-SOCIAL DISTANCING
WHAT WILL THEATRE LOOK LIKE?
In a Pandemic First, 3 American Theaters Will Do Indoor Shows
Actors’ Equity Announces 4 Guiding Principles for Reopening Theatres
ATHE COVID-19 RECOMMENDATION TASK FORCE POSITION STATEMENT
Some Theatres Are Reopening Early—to Protesters
A Tale of Two Reopenings, With and Without the Union Label
Examples
Blog 3 — Innovations In Socially Distant Performance
Theatre for One Announces New Program of BIPOC Micro-Plays
ONLINE READINGS & PRODUCTIONS
LIVE STREAM
This Is Theater in 2020. Will It Last? Should It?
Coronavirus sent theater online, but the move could backfire
The Pandemic Will Be Livestreamed
When a Show Gets Cancelled, Make Art Anyway
AMERICAN THEATRE | The Show Goes On Video Theatres across the country are turning to video-capture as a way to share canceled shows.
Ways of Gathering in the Age of COVID-19- -A Guide to Livestreaming on HowlRound TV
The Shows Must Go Online: 12 Ways to Stream the Stage
The Impact of Coronavirus on Theater Education — OnStage Blog
VIDEOS, STREAMING & ONLINE VIEWING OF PLAYS/MUSICALS
Profe Herrera's List of Upcoming Opportunities for Remote Theatre Going
Online Theatre Listings (American Theatre Magazine Weekly Updates)
Theater to Stream: A World of Fringe and More Apples
24 Resources that now offer FREE streaming of musicals and plays during the COVID-19 shutdown
Latino Theater Company Announces Virtual Fall Season
National Theatre
National Theatre Live: updated YouTube streaming schedule for free plays every Thursday
American Theatre Wing Association
Support the American Theatre Wing
HowlRound Theatre Commons (Free/Open Platform for Theatremakers)
Welcome to HowlRound | HowlRound Theatre Commons
Broadway HD
This streaming service has the best options. You can do a 7 day free trial or subscribe for $8.99 a month. You can cancel at any time. It has everything!!!
PBS Great Performances
https://www.pbs.org/search/?q=Great+Performances For a small donation, you become a PBS Passport member and gain access to full versions of Kinky Boots, The King and I, 42nd Street, Red, and Much Ado About Nothing
American Masters in Theatre Series-
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/video/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiX-EJA8n4w MTV filmed the Broadway production of Legally Blonde:The Musical. It has some commercial breaks but it is free! Legally Blonde: The Musical tells the story of Delta Nu Sorority Sister Elle Woods, and her amazing trip in pursuit of sexy man Warner Huntington III. Along the way she meets friends Emmett, Paulette, and all her Delta Nus see her through.
Netflix: American Son: This was a play on Broadway starring Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan and was directed by Kenny Leon. In a Florida police station, an estranged interacial couple awaits news of their missing son. According to sources who worked on the play, it is very close to the original B’way production.
Amazon Prime: Pass Over: Written by former BMCC Professor Antoinette Nwanda, this play was done at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Spike Lee filmed this powerful production and it incorporates the effect on the audience. Moses and Kitch stand around on the corner—talking shit, passing the time and hoping that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space with his own agenda and derails their plans. Emotional and lyrical, Pass Over crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, exposing the unquestionable human spirit of young men stuck in a cycle just looking for a way out.
Kanopy, which all students have access to with their library card, has a lot of Shakespeare. https://www.kanopy.com/
Digital Theatre+ is an amazing resource but it is not free. Some Universities have access to it. THey have lifted the fee for the next month though, so anyone should be able to access it for a month. But if you are at a university, now is the time to ask for it. https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/education
Streaming Contemporary Latinx Drama
Compiled by Brian Herrera, Princeton
A Night at the Met
OPERA; Every night a different opera
Streaming Shakespeare
https://londonist.com/london/theatre-and-arts/globe-theatre-streaming-plays-online
PRODUCTIONS ONLINE-
Free Musicals & Plays to Stream
Provided by Professor Jonathan Jones
The Colored Museum - PBS broadcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra09yV_VaTk and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pTWa38B53M
Marisol - CUNY/BMCC 2019 Production - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c03kpUo7ugI
Fires In the Mirror -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnkrUJny0CE
In SPANISH- OVER 1500 Plays to watch online
PERFORMANCE FESTIVALS ONLINE
BLACK LIVES, BLACK WORDS International Project
The Social Distancing Festival
Is an online artist’s community made to celebrate and showcase the work of the many artists around the world who have been affected by the need for social distancing that has come about due to the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Ghost Light Initiative, a collaborative project whose motto is to “leave a light on”. The mission of the initiative is to help art persevere through these trying times. Students and artists can submit their work to the Initiative’s web page as a replacement for live performance or presentation. The students who lost opportunities due to the crisis would now have an outlet to channel their creative energies to something new and powerful. Patrons of the art would have a safe space to experience art without risking their health and safety. And most importantly, art can keep shining its light and continue providing hope in these troubling times. Like a Ghost Light, we aim to metaphorically keep the stage lit while the theatre is dark and empty.
CultureHub
Presented their annual festival Re-Fest live streamed on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 12 March to Saturday 14 March 2020. CultureHub's annual festival goes fully online in NYC. Watch live as performances, discussions, exhibition tours, and artist interviews engage the theme Re-Generation.
https://howlround.com/happenings/re-fest-nyc
FACEGROUP PAGES FOR TEACHING THEATRE ONLINE
Theatre Education Distance Learning (Resource Sharing and Support Network) https://www.facebook.com/groups/246808986478421/about/
Teaching Theatre Online:COVID-19
https://www.facebook.com/groups/653505682144866/about/
Online Acting Teaching Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/527481948142080/about/
Teaching Theatre thru Remote Learning
https://www.facebook.com/groups/235387254170914/about/
Stage Combat/Movement Educators Remote Instruction Resources
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1313176845549677/?ref=share
Amazing Educational Resources
https://www.facebook.com/groups/445786889466638/
WEBINARS
Webinar: Artists In a Time of Global Pandemic
For US-Based Freelance Artists and Cultural Workers in all Disciplines
Artists In a Time of Global Pandemic (ASL & Captioned)
TYA Virtual Community Meeting: COVID-19 and the TYA Sector
Convergences Theatre Collective
How to Teach Online for teachers of ALL disciplines
How to Teach Online - Performing Arts
WEBINAR: Coronavirus Preparedness for Theatres
RESOURCES FROM TEACHERS WHO TEACH ONLINE ALREADY from Theatre Communications Group on Vimeo.
Transitioning Acting Curriculum Online & Live-Stream Eric Edison’s dissertation is on Transitioning Acting Curriculum Online & Live-Stream. He has Tips, Scenes and suggestions on how to live stream theatre. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mdF4Y3c6zS-yZnhniogIRYQZxvJ1dVg-
THEATRE IDEAS AND RESOURCES
RESOURCES
HowlRound Broadcasting
Tons of videos, live broadcasting, interviews, seminars, discussions and more
PBS: Theatre Close Up- Media thirteen
Digital Theatre Plus
Usually subscription based and only free through universities but this month they are offering one month for free. If you do not have access, ask your library for it. Most librarians are well acquainted with it. https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/education
Drama Online (Usually offered through your library)
https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/
Drama Resource
https://dramaresource.com/drama-teaching-tips/
Drama Teacher Academy
https://www.theatrefolk.com/drama_teacher_academy
TDF Theatre Dictionary
ArtsPop- Process Drama Videos
BYU Theatre Education
http://tedb.byu.edu/?page_id=22
Drama for Schools
https://theatredance.utexas.edu/beyond-stage/drama-schools
UTexas- Drama Based Instruction
https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/
https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/videos
Blogs from Students at UTexas
https://blog.theatredance.utexas.edu/
BROADWAY ACTING GROUP
https://www.broadwayteachinggroup.com/lesson-plans
Not Entirely Theatre but great Online Instructional Activities Index by University of Illinois Springfield
Drama Notebook
Not Free but Great Resource
https://www.dramanotebook.com/teach-drama-online/
TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS AND IDEAS
GENERAL DISCUSSION IDEAS & PROMPTS
Ideas by Professor Jonathan Jones
Using Discussion Board, Forum, or other function (platform specific), create unique threads for each class session or class reading and present prompts that you might otherwise have given for in-class discussion. Here, have each student respond to the prompt - and then follow up by asking each student to respond to at least one other student.
Example: I often ask students to think about general prompts for all class readings as we go through the semester in preparation for in-class discussion. For our online classes, their assignment is to post two short responses to the week’s readings (100-250 words) on the class discussion board. The first response will be an initial post responding directly to the prompts and the second will be a response to someone else’s post.
Prompts:
1. What new idea did you discover as you read the chapter?
2. How did this information sit with your prior understanding of drama education?
3. What questions do you have as a result of reading the chapter?
181 Prompts to Inspire Writing and Discussion https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/learning/181-prompts-to-inspire-writing-and-discussion.html
550 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/learning/550-prompts-for-narrative-and-personal-writing.html
Prompt Ideas from the New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/learning/over-1000-writing-prompts-for-students.html
40 Reflective Questions by Edutopia.Org
INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE
Posted by Eunice S. Ferreira, Skidmore College
* One of my guiding principles is to limit required exercises and provide them with optional exercises since their circumstances widely vary. I am adding this optional exercise to the list.
As I was falling down the rabbit hole of social media, I came across this museum challenge that can be easily adapted for a fun assignment for Directing, Theater History, Dramaturgy and all areas of design. Students recreate/reimagine a famous piece of art and tag it with #tussenkunstenquarantaine. The subject can also be adapted to only draw from theater material such as a painting of commedia dell’arte players or terracotta statuette of an actor.
https://www.instagram.com/museumsnews/
https://www.facebook.com/MuseumsNews
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ACTING TECHNIQUE CLASSES & PERFORMANCE COURSE
RESOURCES FOR TEACHING PRODUCTION COURSES ONLINE IN CASE OF EMERGENCY: MOVING PRODUCTION COURSES ONLINE
DANCE & MOVEMENT
Considerations on Moving University Dance Course Online
MiRi Park & Heather Castillo @CSUCI
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RjinJswbxdzVMVZGa55d9dGb7623pZ000RNgdySYzFg/edit
Resources for moving dance-based pedagogy online
PBS Dance Documentaries-
https://www.pbs.org/search/?q=dance
American Masters in Dance Series-
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/video/
Exquisite Corps (42 choreographers, 1 dance)
My favorite and most inspiring as it can be recreated with your students.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3pFxsYPLgU&feature=youtu.be
And So Say All of Us (52 choreographers, 1 dance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLZuRCtNBxg&feature=youtu.be
Assignments Ideas for Dance or Movement:
-WARM UP/ Follow the Leader
Have students create a warm up. With Zoom everyone can physically see each other and follow the leader. You can also create a Youtube channel where each student creates a video of a warm up or a sequence of warm ups.
-IMITATION
On Zoom, you can literally pass an exercise and each student can mimic it. It will feel funny at first but everyone can jump in on it. You might want to create an order first, maybe alphabetically, and send it to the students, so they know.
-MOVEMENT PIECE
Ask students to either perform a piece via Zoom or create a youtube video where they post it and you can add feedback via the comments.
-TIKTOK
Students are LOVing this app. You can brainstorm physical movements with it and they can create videos at home to imitate the movements videos you pick.
-MOVEMENT PROMPTS
Provide students with a prompt, in return, have the students upload a video to whichever platform they best prefer, an embodied response to that prompt. For example, you can start by sending them a prompt for- How do you feel about student cancellations, and have them create a 30 second to 1 min movement video about that. It can actually be a lot of fun, and a great way to start these online classes.
Movement Media from Jenny Gram
I've curated video content for dance educators to create lesson plans around. I'll continue to update categories, completely open to suggestions. Just trying to help our field during this difficult time! https://www.movenetmedia.com/
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ONLINE VOCAL PEDAGOGY
Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory
https://peabody.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Vocal-Pedagogy-Resources-Online.pdf
Online Theatre Voice Pedagogy: A Literature Review
Assignments Ideas for Online Vocal Pedagogy:
Similar to movement activities; vocal activities can also be done online. Actually students can all speak at once, especially if you use google hangouts or zoom
-WARM UP/ Follow the Leader
Have students create a vocal warm up. With Zoom everyone can physically see each other and hear one another. THey can easily follow the leader and as the professor, you can hear each one. You can also ask them to stop and ask each students to go one by one.
-TIKTOK
Students are LOVing this app. You can brainstory some vocal as well as some physical movements with it.
-ACAPELLA APP or PicPlay Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeBVpkdWf6M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX3imwWmgmc&list=RDWX3imwWmgmc&start_radio=1&t=12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_STHaA2iHfg
-IMITATION
Again, on Zoom, you can literally pass a vocal exercise and each student can mic it. It will feel funny at first but everyone can jump in on it. You might want to create an order first, maybe alphabetically, and send it to the students, so they know.
- CREATING VOCAL Exercises
Students can record themselves doing exercises and post them online. They can be posted on various platforms, and made private. Each student can record themselves and then have the other comment.
-Creating a PODCAST
For the end of the semester project, students can create their own podcasts. It can be very fun and empowering. Actually, Prof. Brian Herrara has suggested he will be activating his podcast STINKYLULU SAYS for his lectures. Podcasts create easy accessible ways for students to hear the work.
ACTING
While everyone keeps suggesting Self Tapes, there are multiple assignments that could work very well for online courses. Here is an article about what students can do.
10 Things Student Actors Can Do During COVID-19 School Closures https://www.actoraesthetic.com/blog/covid19-college
HOW TO LOOK YOUR BEST IN A VIDEO AUDITION, OR ZOOM CALL
Assignments for Acting Classes:
-Role Play
-Hot Seating
https://dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/content/hotseating
-Cold reading
With apps and platforms like Zoom; you can actually conduct various lessons around cold readings. Whichever platform you use, you can start by hearing your students read line out loud to a scene. Each student can take turns, at reading a new script/scene/monologue. Everyone can hear them. You can also make one-on-one apt and hear each student do their own 1st reading. By using Zoom, you can place the students in groups, and have other students correct each other, or give cue lines and go back over any weak areas. These partners could be the other scene partner or they can be a guide, depending if it is a scene or monologue. You can schedule the following session to see how they have practice or not. You can assign different monologues or scenes, but it would be great as a first cold reading.
-Memorization
There are several apps which can help with learning lines. This is a perfect time to explore them with our students. ]
With Line Learner you record all the lines including those of other characters and then listen to them leaving silent pauses to speak your own lines.
With Rehearsal Pro you can upload a script and watch it scrolling by as you record your lines to listen to. Even if they don’t use an app they can make a recording of the scene/monologue with a tape-recorder or smartphone. Listen to it at any time.
Remind the students to leave gaps in the recording to speak your own lines, move around while they are saying their lines.
Then ask students to learn the cue lines that lead in to each of their lines.
You can have a student on Zoom/group chat to quiz the student with other lines.
Being prompt with your lines will give you and your fellow actors more confidence.
lastly, you can make students create a recording of the script/scene/monologue as a final performance.
-Self Tapes
Use this As A Time To Hone Self-Tape Skills
Developed by Professor Kaja Dunn
While the primary focus of many acting classes is on theatre and scene work, this presents an optimal time to work on self-tape skills for both Theatre and Film auditions. Help students master things like, lighting, sound, what needs to be adjusted when filming a monologue rather than performing one onstage? Here are a few articles:
https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/self-tape-rules-from-casting-director-65931/
https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/self-tape-mistakes-sabotage-chances-5980/
https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/tips-and-advice/how-to-self-tape/
-One Person Show skills
Developed by Professor Kaja Dunn
In addition working on multi-character one person show scripts (No Child, Freak) and letting classmates provide feedback is another way to teach performance in the event of needing to go online.
Look at creating clean shifts in characters, switching between characters and how you make big choices without falling into stereotypes.
-Character Work
Create handout for students on to-do’s for characters and have discussions on:
What Does Your Character Want to DO?
What STOPS Your Character?
What are their emotional, psychological factors?
You can poll the class live asking these questions and using https://www.polleverywhere.com/
-Famous Scenes -Sent via Joel King Have the professor read a line from a famous scene. Then have the students record themselves responding to the line. THey might know the next line or not, but it is partially an improv exercise as well as an actor’s response.
THis is great activity to do with VoiceThread, where you can upload slides with the line, have them record responses and then go to the next slide that tells them the play or movie is from. It can be a lot of fun.
-Table Work- Developed by Professor Chris Berry This is a great time to have students focus on detailed text analysis and vocal work at the same time. Here is a process that I will be using to implement detailed text work before we go to working on camera audition work. The goal is to stress process over product in this method.
7-Step Table working process
- Reading the Play/Scene/Monologue for pleasure
- Stress that the students can read the play for enjoyment, not thinking about their specific role, but reading it to enjoy the story and begin to create an understanding of what will be performed. When they decide to read the monologue or scene to you digitally, please stress that performance is not the goal at this moment. This is the time to hear the Monologue in a clear voice, not too layered with opinion.
- Reading the Play/Scene/Monologue for Meaning
- During this step the instructor and student can begin to discuss themes and meaning of the play. Naturally the discussion will potentially travel to the monologue or scene the students are working on. This is a great point to begin to address given circumstances, social situations and how the text is informing what is going on in the specific moment.
- Reading for Changes in Thoughts/Ideas/Moments/Beats
- Take the time to break down where the student can begin to carve out where they believe that new thoughts and ideas begin and end. This is a moment where they are stressed to take ownership based upon their analysis of the text.
- When the students are carving out thoughts and ideas this is a moment to stress the use of operative words.
- Using 2 words that frame what they want from each thought can aid in using language to achieve their goals.
- It is useful to stress to the students to punch the thoughts and not words.
- Punching words is a natural step because students will want to show you that they can stress the words. I recommend that it is reminded that the role that they are creating is theirs and punching words for the instructor is not the focus, their ownership of the language is the goal.
- This process can take a while and encouraging multiple perspectives and attempts is recommended. Along with this, stressing that the students justify their choices based upon textual examples, not feelings.
- Attacking the Text
- In this stage, encourage the students to make large vocal choices using their full voices to explore how moments can be as full as possible. This process helps students avoid underacting a role for the sake of being natural.
- Be sure to encourage students to stay as full and powerful as possible, using healthy vocal techniques. There will be obvious moments that clearly do not require this size, please recommend that the students still engage through the end of the scene/monologue.
- Finessing the text
- This reading of the text will be finding the softer moments to counter the moments that were discovered while attacking the text. This is a moment to work and practice dynamics in the scene. Many times in this step of the process the natural transitions and energetic shifts in the scene are discovered
- Removing the Air
- In this step of the process, much of the analytical and performance work has been investigated. This is a moment to push past the natural inclination to add pauses and moments that may not be written in the language. This helps the students to continue to act on the line and not create moments that may not be necessary.
- In this step of the process, please stress that tempo is not the goal, the removal of the unnecessary air between the lines is. This is hard for many actors because the faster they pick up their cues, the faster they begin to speak.
- The Radio Play
- This is the final step of the process and the scene/monologue/play can be heard with the majority of the textual and vocal choices being solidified. This step should sound like the play, just without movement.
Upon completing the table working process, the students should have a clear understanding of the world that they have created. I hope this has been useful in helping the students own their work and choices.
Online Videos/Classes for Acting
Michael Chekhov Association has a series of 12 classes for actors that can be streamed-
https://www.michaelchekhov.org/resources?fbclid=IwAR2kUgkx7Mc5cOUPpa-_1MH-HBKhr4aJ2ND8zvAITlKv27BQ8xkUkWLXE68
SCENE WORK
-Check above under Acting
Resource- Breaking Character
Assignments for Scene Work:
Based on Lessons by Anna Porter
-Show & Tell
Part 1-Before students work on their scenes, you can create a handout that makes them find and fill the gaps of the story; where they can add additional scenarios about these characters & backgrounds. Part 2- Find a photograph of the scenes they are exploring, and have the students fill in the gaps. Where in the scene is that photograph from? What clues and context can be used? How could they add to this image, based on the scene they know.
-Interview/How Seat
Have the students pick a character from their scene, and have the rest of the class interview that character on Zoom
-Staging/Story Board Have the students create their own images of how they want to stage their performance and why?Use the idea of story board to have them physically draw what they plan on doing for their staging. -Thou Shalt of Staging and Performance Student engage in a conversation about staging dos and don’t. You can have them draw diagrams or even use https://floorplanner.com/ to create how the set will be staged. They can also discuss and explore the rules of staging and performance and why they are important. Finally, they write/create maybe even record a Bad Idea/Good Idea skit for the class, to demonstrate their understanding of the concept. Scene Tactic Exploration Students can develop exercises to explore how conflict affects their active tactics. Students apply conflict to a scene for performance. -Pair Up Online Using Zoom, you can pair up students and have them review what they have studied in their unit as well as how to give and use constructive feedback. Then, they can pair up with another group, and discuss another scene and their plans/actions/tactics with each other. You can create a worksheet to guide them and their discussion.This handout can have be a template to track a duo scene, including play details, character details, objectives, obstacles, tactics, and more.
-Dialogue Prompts Using Zoom, have students create prompt dialogues for a chat, that includes characters, locations, wants and a first line for each prompt. Then have students randomly pick the prompts and start the conversations online.
IMPROV Wonderful ideas on how to teach Improv using FACETIME FaceTimeiMprov
Improv Documentary “It was Necessary to Listen to other Voices” - subtitles in English, Spanish and Portuguese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EviKrWSU2cY
“Improv mindset,” virtual performing can strengthen young actors
Assignments for Improv
-Have students create their own Improv Encyclopedias exercises on social media and have them tag you.
WORLD OF COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE
The National Theatre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_0TAXWt8hY&feature=youtu.be
Comedia Dell’Arte Characters Shapes and Status - https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=72&v=JJEwuurzDe4&feature=emb_logo
Commedia Lesson Plan
https://www.theatrefolk.com/dta_lesson_plan_categories/commedia
Assignments for Commedia courses:
-Compare and Contrast
Students watch the Comedia video respond to a Commedia Dell’Arte Handout. They will then reflect on what it would be like to have been a Commedia actor, the similarities and differences between Commedia and modern acting, and which type of acting they would prefer. -Lazzi Students learn about different commedia lazzi and create their own. -Stock Character Walks Part 1-Students explore Commedia stock characters: the masters, the servants and the lovers and write analysis on each character. They can also look at video of these characters and learn the multiple walks and critique them. Part 2-Students can then record character walks and post them on their respective platforms. They can be critiqued, and commented on. They can also do these walks live on Zoom and everyone can talk about them. Part 3- Students can then create a Commedia mask to go with their favorite character and present it online plus a paper attached with research about it. Part 4- Students could create a Tik/Tok faceoff with Commedia characters.
MUSIC & MUSICAL THEATRE
When Will It Be Safe to Sing Together Again?
The Best Services and Settings for Remote Music Lessons (with step-by-step instructions
Musical Theatre Educators Resources
Musical Theatre Education in COVID Times
(YouTube- MTEA - Musical Theatre Educators' Alliance) Resources and ways to make it happen.
Christopher Bill Guide to Remote Music Education
Here’s a quick go-to list of software/apps you can use to stay connected with your students remotely and encourage progress without the luxury of in-person teaching.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SoERjaLMA1Tro1FTf5i8iLckaL03bL8Xuugr7el77Iw/mobilebasic
Music resources compiled by Erica Giglio-Pac
1) Metropolitan Opera, After Shutting Its Doors, Will Offer Free Streams From Live in HD Catalog-https://www.playbill.com/article/metropolitan-opera-after-shutting-its-doors-will-offer-free-streams-from-live-in-hd-catalog?fbclid=IwAR2QW0kNzQne2PI_hPri8QRjnIBMobGWAzTpIsqUVAdSvJK53H9FA-EO2Jw
2) MusicFirst Classroom and the full suite of integrated software for free to any school during a closure-https://www.musicfirst.com/
3) SmartMusic-Free Service Through June 30th-
https://www.smartmusic.com/
4) Free Plan with Solfeg.i-
https://help.solfeg.io/hc/en-us/articles/360006637818-How-to-teach-your-music-class-online-
5) American Masters in Music Series-https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/miles-davis-birth-of-the-cool-rfotn2/13497/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=pdsocial&utm_term=INT&utm_campaign=americanmastersmilesdavisstreaming&fbclid=IwAR31KeaVHIHCRXd5T7WcWba41d-q_v3Vg4ASR0fNyFq5FhA5yb40NNg-Pbw
Assignments for Musical Theatre
Laura Benanti Asks High School Followers To Send Her Videos Of Them Singing-
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Laura-Benanti-Asks-High-School-Followers-To-Send-Her-Videos-Of-Them-Singing-20200313?fbclid=IwAR0t-nQGAVRXeG2oWvi5kDhh9Q44yPUKUFHNu1WepnwsBQzgp3EYqyQpzAY
STORYTELLING
Digital Storytelling
What is it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5usc00wa40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKZiXR5qUlQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVKeO5IIR_A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIix-yVzheM
Ted Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA2cTZK9hzw
SHAKESPEARE
Dismantling Anti-Black Linguistic Racism in Shakespeare
American Shakespeare Center TEACHING SHAKESPEARE WITH PLAY FROM FAR AWAY https://americanshakespearecenter.com/2020/03/teaching-shakespeare-with-play-from-far-away/
Shakespeare Punctuation Walks
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vh4onLtH3XHutclN4M912uUKxNqLgc44x9oZL6wEr2k/mobilebasic
Streaming Shakespeare
https://londonist.com/london/theatre-and-arts/globe-theatre-streaming-plays-online
https://secretldn.com/globe-player-shakespeare-plays/
Modern English Shakespeare Translations
Assignments for Shakespeare
DIRECTING
Advice for Directing on ZOOM
Directing on Zoom- Digital Staging Strategies
Directing on Zoom - Best Practices
For directing, there are multiple classes that can focus on various things. You can have Zoom conversations that focus on staging and rules. They can create floor plans for them. They can also help further develop understanding of stage areas, directions on stage and notations on labeling a stage map as well as basic script notation. They can also create effective stage pictures, by developing distinct pictures for the beginning, middle, and end of their scenes via storyboards.
https://www.storyboardthat.com/
https://www.canva.com/create/storyboards/
There can also be a series of lessons that revolve around background work. Students can create character backgrounds and relationships/given circumstances as well. You can create handouts for this or have discussions on Zoom. You can even assign student to create a social media presence for the characters they are portraying/directing. THey can create FB/IG, etc.
They can also create body & voice objectives for their characters. This can be handouts created with google forms or other platforms. Then they can create multiple videos for each character. Think- A Gentleman’s Guide to Murder & Love
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChT0CMl1MAYG82O1Yiw5qwA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgGmd7nLtk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oByncbHn4cM
Lessons can also focus around Tactics & Objectives. You can use Hypothes.is Read Socially) to hold an Annotate Live Discussions as they take notes & mark up their scripts online live. It can be done together as a class, and then individually. It can be very useful to teach objectives and tactics. can help
For Blocking
https://roll20.net/
This site is intended to be a site for table top role-playing games, as it allows you to use pictures as interactive maps (you can use a picture of your stage with set piece pics), place icons (pics of students with names)
If all students have an account, they can control icons in real time while running lines.
At minimum, you can chart out movements, screenshot, and add to a slideshow as a spatial guide for blocking that translates well to the space you use.
Assignments for Directing: -5 Truths Have students watch all 5 Truths videos. Then have them pick your favorite one/favorite perspective. Have them discuss on Zoom why. Which director's style do you relate most too?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5DE67813461897E6
-A Day in the Life Given that students are not at school, a day in the life is a great assignment to have them do. They can start by photographing their day. You can ask for 1o photos that describe their day. Then you can ask them to
-Spatial Observation Sometime during the next week, find 10-20 minutes to sit and observe people in their natural environment. Select a place where people tend to stay for a period of time: the park, a coffee shop, etc. Take notes on how people exist in the space. How do they enter it? How do they claim it? How do they settle in it? What is their body language like in relation to each other? How does that language shift? What can you tell about these people by the way they are interacting, not what they’re saying? In fact, if you can’t hear them; all the better. (12pt font/Double Space; Page number up to you....)
-TDF Theatre Dictionary/Definitions (developed by Liane Tomasetti Bryne)
Have students create videos of Theatre Definitions, similar to the ones provided by TDF Example-http://dictionary.tdf.org/blocking/?fbclid=IwAR2OaOnkm10RsA38FBNTTlE2cLjEax-tORjqWMk83CFYolWNKKTRT8tUHI8
Entire Site
-Director’s Notebook
Student can create a director’s notebook online of all their research for the play and scene.
Directing Proposal/Concept (Part 1)
Image
One sentence metaphor
250-word limit Point of View; Include genre/underpinning ides of the text
Concept collage of visual information
Theme
Through line
Universal truths
Intention and Action
Five Action Verbs
Three sentences of action
What do I want? /How do I get it?
Prior Given Circumstances
Dramatic Action
The Dramatic Action can be organized by Cause-to-effect, Character, and Idea
Dramatic Action of the Play; Description of the purpose of the play.
What response should it arouse from its audience?
How will it engage and maintain interest
Will it arouse concern?
What will the aural/visual devices be?
Questions
What questions are you asking as you read the text?
Gather the questions you have, want to discover, what others to answer
Annotated list of facts and questions from initial director read with the following areas of annotation:
Facts and questions about what exists before the action of the play.
Facts and questions that have to do with time and/or space.
Facts and questions about character
Director’s Breakdown/Spine (Part 2)
Text
Language/ Intention
Essence/Truth
Contradiction
Behavior/Dialect
Story
List of named events in chronological order
Beginning/Introduction
Middle/Complication
End/Resolution
Change/Beat
Characters
All Character Biographies:
All director-written character biographies should be text based.
Inside out and Outside In
Psychological Journey
Presence; Map them though the play physical existence
Movement
Body Language
Gesture
Abstraction
Vision for Design/Conceptual Concept you wish to see
Costumes
Set
Props
Lights
Director's Tool Kit (Part #3) Assignment: RESEARCH (Part 3)
Answer questions from your lists(Part 1) that require research outside of the play or about the play
What is the intended time period, and genre. When do you want place the time-period, and genre?
Author- Who are they? Mini Bio
Plays they have written, awards earned and nominations earned
Contributions & Importance as writers
Style as writers
What is being said about the playwright
Play- What does the playwright say about the play?
What has been written about the play by others?
What are reviewers saying about the play?
What is its timeline? Where has it been produced? By who?
Why is this play popular? Or not?
Physicality (Part 4)
Space
Location/Time:
Ground Plan: Drawn maps of space that show the world of the play.
Describe the Atmosphere, Environment, Architecture
Type of Stage
Set List
Prop List
Blocking
Submit a ground plan with everything that will be used
Rehearsal Plan & Notes (Part 5)
Create a daily rehearsal plan/outline
Rehearsal Reports (Dates/Time- What you worked on)
Although they won’t be rehearsing with others)
Keep track of what happens each rehearsal
MORE DIRECTING IDEAS/Assignments- From David Ian Lee
This shift may necessitate a change in your syllabus and calendar. Meaning: presentation of your students' directing scenes -- as originally conceived -- might have to be rescheduled. I agree with Daphnie that invested work in students' directors' books is a great course of action -- continued analysis, research, preparatory work, etc. Other options:
- Have your students reimagine how to stage their work for new media. Pipeline is discussing how we can stage "Zoom Plays" in the next few weeks: not a film, not a staged reading, but a presentation of a text where the characters communicate via Zoom. It's an interesting challenge, and it forces directors to become very specific about language, intention, and structure.
- Have your students study existing scenes on video (from filmed plays or from tv/film) and break them apart for beats, intentions, subtext, etc. Get specific and diverse with the language, because the more you can mine the more you can later utilize in your own work.
- Similarly, have students study photography, paintings, or sculpture to examine how body position, non-verbal cues, line, structure of the space, etc. communicate meaning and narrative.
- This is also a great time to write or revisit personal mission statements -- and to confirm that even what we do during this strange period of time is in service of the mission. To that end, I always show Simon Sinek's TedTalk about "the golden circles" and ask students to consider their "why" -- both for themselves, and for the piece of work they are creating. This I stole in part from the brilliant Brian Foley, but he owns that he stole it first from Sinek, so I have no qualms.
INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE
Posted by Eunice S. Ferreira, Skidmore College
* One of my guiding principles is to limit required exercises and provide them with optional exercises since their circumstances widely vary. I am adding this optional exercise to the list.
As I was falling down the rabbit hole of social media, I came across this museum challenge that can be easily adapted for a fun assignment for Directing, Theater History, Dramaturgy and all areas of design. Students recreate/reimagine a famous piece of art and tag it with #tussenkunstenquarantaine. Directing student could select works of art or other images that relate to their directing projects.
https://www.instagram.com/museumsnews/
https://www.facebook.com/MuseumsNews
GIVING THEM OPTIONS
Posted by Eunice S. Ferreira, Skidmore College
I have posted a list of optional exercises for my directing students. The course is required in the major. I have mostly actors, a couple of aspiring directors and a stage manager. Here are a few of the optional exercises that can be recorded or presented live on Zoom.
Perform a one minute-one person moment from your scene (actors will love this one!)
- Select a character from the scene.
- The moment may be literal (something that happens or could happen in that scene) or metaphorical (a poetic representation) of the character.
- You may incorporate vocalizations (laugh/cry/gasp/sigh/hum) but do not use text (so as to avoid performing a monologue).
- You may incorporate other sounds (external sounds of the play’s physical or metaphorical world, sounds that are real or imagined by the character, sounds that reflect inner life of the character)
- You may incorporate music but avoid making a music video.
- Perform this for your own exploration and/or record it to share with the class on Zoom or as an uploaded recording to Blackboard.
Create a conceptual sound design
- What kinds of music and/or sounds might inhabit the world of the play?
- What kinds of music and/or sounds express the world of the play?
- What kinds of music and/or sounds express the inner life of a character?
- What kinds of music and/or sounds express the dramatic action of the play – where it begins to where it ends.
Create a playlist
- Choose at least 2 characters from the play and create a playlist for them.
- Save the playlist on Spotify so that your peers and I can check them out.
- Don’t worry if the time setting of your play does not align with the music unless the music of the play’s setting is essential to your conceptualization of the play.
- Consider how character playlists could be incorporated into your rehearsal process or as an exercise you might suggest to the actors.
Metaphors and Composition
“Through metaphor we see the truth about our condition” Anne Bogart, A Director Prepares
'I don't want realism, I want magic.' (Blanche, scene nine, A Streetcar Named Desire)
- Identify a moment of literal action in your scene. Create a tableau to represent that moment. You may imagine that tableau in your mind, sketch it, find an image to represent it or stage the tableau (with volunteer family members).
- Identify a metaphor that represents your scene. You may choose a metaphor to represent a specific moment or one that represents the heart of the scene or play. Represent the metaphor in any way you choose - a tableau, an image, a movement phrase, sound or anything else.
- As you imagine metaphors, consider the spine of the play and your directorial point of view.
DEVISED THEATRE
From Professor Coya Paz
This is the easy one? In ensemble/devising process, we already practice designing/adapting our processes to meet people where they are. I think the key to devising together online is to ask what you want students to learn (this is probably a good idea for all of our teaching) and adapt your usual exercises to fit these goals. In our book, Chloe Johnston and I observe that many ensemble-pracitioners use exercises that fit into three main categories: Check-Ins, Ensemble Building, and Make Small Things. These are separate than the work of putting together a show, of course, but helpful in the introductory process.
Check-Ins: if you are doing an asynchronous class, your check-ins may be less about convening the group than keeping up with how everyone is feeling. Or they may become very quick ways of gathering bits of information, questions, ideas. I suggest keeping one document with check-in answers, or one discussion thread, so that you are encouraging them to respond to each other.
Ensemble-Building: Activities that are about building a sense of community can still happen online - think about how close many of us feel to people we’ve never met IRL but *know* from the socials. Some ideas (please add your own):
-Written story circles
-Designing an online game or role play together
-Small group discussions and interviews with a goal of bringing back some piece of information
Make Small Things/(aka Go Away and Make Something): In general, we spend a lot of time in devsing/co-created processes making a lot of material we may never use, and why should online be any different. Students can still:
-Conduct interviews and write performance pieces/generate monologues
-Create variations on each others’ work. Have students make one-minute videos, then have them each pick 3-4 to build upon or recreate.
-Create 2-3 person pieces via Zoom/Hang/etc
-Self-record movement pieces/spoken pieces/etc
Video on Devised Work from the National Theatre
https://americantheatrewing.org/working-in-the-theatre/working-in-the-theatre-devised-theatre/
PUPPETRY
Puppet Making made to Music
STAGE COMBAT
Join the Stage Combat Group on FB
INTRO TO THEATRE
Get to know a theatre space online (by Jeffrey Ott)
https://thevirtualtheatre.com/?fbclid=IwAR2kAiTYigYyxRoB4VOIS4YeIJ8UbcDi4ZZqdxS6sSLSbNLEPh2xhHLENwQ
Crash Course in Intro to Theatre
LEcture on Stage Design for Students from Mrs. Hancock
Example of Asynchronous Teaching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ACMYWRMdIc&feature=youtu.be
Assignments for Intro to Theatre
THEATRE HISTORY & WORLD DRAMA
Theatre History
Assignments
-Photography Props
“Who were they?" Invite students to write what they can infer about a character and the time/place they inhabit based on a photograph or painting. (G. Beller - freelancer)
INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE
Posted by Eunice S. Ferreira, Skidmore College
* One of my guiding principles is to limit required exercises and provide them with optional exercises since their circumstances widely vary. I am adding this optional exercise to the list.
As I was falling down the rabbit hole of social media, I came across this museum challenge that can be easily adapted for a fun assignment for Directing, Theater History, Dramaturgy and all areas of design. Students recreate/reimagine a famous piece of art and tag it with #tussenkunstenquarantaine. For Theater History, students could recreate/reimagine a primary source related to theater history such as a Grecian urn, portrait of a famous theater artist or a production photograph.
https://www.instagram.com/museumsnews/
https://www.facebook.com/MuseumsNews
WORLD DRAMA
Roots in the Sand: A Timeline of Egyptian Theatre
From religious rituals to drama, Ancient Egyptians pioneered theater
From Ritual Drama to Ancient Theater – Egypt – Semiramis-Speaks.com
DIVERSITY & DRAMA
Teaching about Blackface
https://www.joyjackson.org/timeline
The SwapList- What to teach instead off.
Streaming Contemporary Latinx Drama
Compiled by Brian Herrera, Princeton
Diversity & Inclusion Resource Hub
from American Theatre Critics Association
BLACK WMN OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE: IN COMMUNION W/ NICOLE BREWER.
https://www.jhbdirectedit.com/post/black-wmn-of-the-american-theatre-in-communion-w--nicole-brewer
https://www.americantheatre.org/2018/01/04/training-with-a-difference/
https://www.americantheatre.org/2019/09/16/why-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-is-obsolete/
https://howlround.com/playwrights-color-white-directors-and-exposing-racist-policy
Black Acting Methods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOW60Sf6srQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WZvrHODanQ
PLAYWRITING
Giving Colleges free Education Subscription until the institution reopens.
Contact us here: https://newplayexchange.org/contact
for details
Assignments for Playwriting
SCRIPT ANALYSIS
Assignments for Playwriting
DRAMATURGY
Assignments for Dramaturgy
EDUCATIONAL THEATRE/DRAMA IN EDUCATION/PERFORMANCE PEDAGOGY
Drama in Education videos compiled by David Montgomery
Here’s a 13 minute video about Cecily O’Neill’s work in process drama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD_3zlYUL7w
Another video about process drama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWFUE8UcxEA
Outlaws and Justice merges history and process drama and theatre-making in the work they do, and the following page has a few short videos promoting but also documenting their work:
https://outlawsandjustice.org/author/lisa-citron/
The following website on Mantle of the Expert (MoE) contains information about Heathcote and includes the full Documentary about her work called “Three Looms Waiting:
https://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/what-is-moe/dorothy-heathcote/
Another page from this website includes Dorothy Heathcote discussing the use of Role:
https://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/video/dorothy-heathcote-on-the-use-of-full-role/
Yet another page from this website has a number of videos on Drama Education practice. Though they are presented on a website focused on MoE, many of them, including the two above, are wider in scope and extend beyond MoE:
https://www.mantleoftheexpert.com/resources/videos/
The following page has a series of shorter videos on Dorothy Heathcote’s work at NYU, called Becoming a Teacher: Making Matters Matter:
https://vimeo.com/channels/1288772/2082346
The following documentary, was a project to help children in New York City public schools most affected by the events of 9/11 feel a greater sense of well-being by exposure to an experience in the arts.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-HAsTr2LO4
Connected to Standing Tall is a study guide with helpful questions to ask following the watching of the video:http://www.fanlight.com/downloads/stand_tall.pdf
Perhaps this isn’t the best place to include the following video in this document, but in considering pioneering folks like Dorothy Heathcote and Cecily O’Neill, the following interview with Augusto Boal is also helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgv91qQyJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQ6SsfhiCw
Assignments for Drama In Education
-TIKTOK TED Talks From Professor Sara Simons Have university students watch TED Talks pertaining to education and then create TikTok videos synthesizing the cont
DRAMATIC ACTIVITIES IN SCHOOLS
From Professor Sara Simons:
Since much fieldwork will be canceled and many districts are closed for prolonged periods of time, have your educational theatre students create parent resource guides for creative drama with their children. Provide story drama lessons and descriptions of activities that parents can use to keep children creatively engaged.
Leverage popular social media platforms and create interactive instructional videos on creative play that can be used by teachers or parents.
Have students create TikTok or other “viral” videos with messaging about handwashing, etc.
Use Ed Tech platforms like Flip Grid for assignments as a way to get students comfortable with lots of different platforms of educational technology that they can then use as teachers. Give an assignment via the platforms and then ask the preservice teachers to create their own assignments that they could use with students.
Record or livestream drama classes in action.
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
THEATRE AND SOCIAL CHANGE / THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN A TIME OF SOCIAL DISTANCING Excellent Prompts for Social Justice Theatre courses
Invitation to a Party Interrupted
26 Ways to Be in the Struggle Beyond the Streets
Can Socially Distanced Theatre Still Teach Social Skills?
Teaching Ideas and Resources to Help Students Make Sense of the George Floyd Protests
Art Is Activism (And We Need It)
How to make Anti-racist Theatre
How to Develop Culturally Responsive Teaching for Distance Learning
Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources
In Spanish-Recursos sobre el racismo Latinoamericano en español
Relevant Articles
Meet the Collective of Theatremakers Working to Undo Racism in the American Theatre
Videos (Examples)
Beyond the Brokenness: An R-MC Theatre Production
Assignments for Theatre and Social Change/Theatre of the Oppressed
Quarantined Italians record messages to "themselves from 10 days ago" during Coronavirus pandemic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_cImRzKXOs&feature=youtu.be
Have students create their own version of this video. It is very powerful, and it is a great way of self reflection as well as spreading consciousness.
Professor Laurel Butler adapted the song My Sharona into My Corona. Students could do similar videos and songs.
HIP HOP THEATRE
Remixing the Acting Classroom through Hip-Hop Theater http://www.theplayersjournal.org/articles/hip-hop-in-classroom.html
Act Like You Know
Videos and Promos of Lehigh’s Hip Hop Theatre course
http://www.kashijohnson.com/new-page
SoundCloud on Hip Hop Culture, Theatre and beyond.
Prof. Kashi Johnson & Prof. Monica Miller, discuss Hip Hop and the 10th anniversary of Johnson's Act Like You Know Hip Hop theatre class performance.
https://soundcloud.com/user-617742255/act-like-you-know
APPLIED THEATRE
Verbatim Theatre
https://wp.nyu.edu/verbatimperformancelab/
Assignments for Applied Theatre
DESIGN TECHNIQUE CLASSES
General Resources & Activities for Design Courses
USITT Teaching Archive (Lots of Online Lessons)
Online Teaching Resources for Theatre Design & Technology – Matt Kizer: Scenic & Lighting Design
INSTAGRAM CHALLENGE from Eunice S. Ferreira, Skidmore College
As I was falling down the rabbit hole of social media, I came across this museum challenge that can be easily adapted for a fun assignment for Directing and all areas of design. Students recreate/reimagine a famous piece of art and tag it with #tussenkunstenquarantaine
https://www.instagram.com/museumsnews/
https://www.facebook.com/MuseumsNews
Watching TV (or Film) from Lily Bartenstein
Learning Objectives: Identify and Articulate Design Ideas
Activity: Students choose an episode of TV or Film & take screenshots illustrating the areas of design, which are then compiled into a google doc or slides presentation.
Overall Design Assignment/Project from Professor Lily Bartenstein
Design Documentation Scavenger Hunt
I use this strategy with F2F stagecraft and drafting courses, but it translates well online.
Light Plot Scavenger Hunt:
Provide 3-4 light plots by different designers.
Challenge students to find information by reading the plot - e.g. What color is instrument 7 on the first electric? Which fixtures (identified by position and unit number) have purpose assigned as area 1? Which fixtures (identified by position and unit number) have drop in iris units? etc.
Scenic Design Scavenger Hunt:
Provide 1-2 complete scenic drafting packages.
Challenge students to find information in the plates - e.g. According to the groundplan, on which plate can you find elevations for Wall A? How tall are the stairs leading up to the main platform? etc. In computer drafting classes I also ask them to locate information like which layer or class a certain scenic element might be found on.
Props Sourcing Assignment
Give students specifications for a prop needed for a show - e.g. the designer is looking for a wooden table approximately 2' x 5' that can be used as a desk in one scene and a dining table in the next
Have students source 4 options for the show using Craigslist, FB marketplace, Amazon, in-person thrift stores, etc.
Each student then compiles an email to the instructor with the following details for each option:
Option #, source, price
START HERE: Instructional Resources for Designers provided by Lian Rothschild
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FabpfoSYj6_hnFO76vdgNZoQsgKIuSLOvYCwoAkor0o/htmlview
Online Training Opportunities During the COVID-19 Shutdown UPDATED March 27, 2020
BEHIND THE EMERALD CURTAIN- Wicked
Example- Directing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIS4w4up4Sw
Technical Theatre resources compiled by Erica Giglio-Pac
1) Virtual Theatre Demos-Use promo code "online teaching"
https://thevirtualtheatre.com/?fbclid=IwAR2nliJgo9nEKMzw8XtM9fV1zPbbDsZ1jWv1VfWHY8AIpRAsSpLa6rFXuVQ
2) 4) Virtual Tours of Theatres Around the World-
https://artsandculture.google.com/theme/11-dramatic-virtual-tours-of-stages-around-the-world/1gJiszMqltReJA?hl=en&fbclid=IwAR1ZdK8gaZePCDLHe8EYG8vaYtNunIdHENd4CsviRdizWZu9BhfPzmO3SpE
3) Scenic & Lighting:
http://scenicandlighting.com/article/online-teaching-resources-for-theatre-design-technology/?fbclid=IwAR1nk7Nggk-cEJKRaLTThT4Kr2WPaagKypIfzoj1xhijxw0IcUHFNBSOCjI
4) Royal Opera House Behind the Scenes:
https://www.roh.org.uk/interactives/opera-machine?fbclid=IwAR12AUBYFapixwqcbNYQabgadB442v7RxmILcUkHtDjiTjTL23fdYyv_5h0
5) The Guild of Scenic Artists:
https://www.scenicguild.org/2018/05/rockin-rollers-part-1/?fbclid=IwAR0SYPTX-tbO2AKKTPk23JQo785yqSQMzV4DYIb9_diWa674ahbfbVOOZ9Q
6) AV Training:
https://reconstructingtherose.tome.press
COSTUME & MAKE UP DESIGN
Blog 3 — Innovations In Socially Distant Performance (Across the Catwalk)
Great Costume vidoes
Designing Broadway
Sets & Costumes for An American In Paris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yvmo0vTfmo
How William Ivey Long Created the ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Tootsie’ Costumes
https://youtu.be/FZ9gdh0dwaU
Wicked-Costumes: Design/Build
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIpRPv0Cfkw
For Costume Design provided by Lian Rothschild
Choose 3 characters & take 3-5 screenshots of each over the course of the episode/film.
What do the clothes the character wears show us about them?
What does how the character wears their clothing tell us about them?
Make Up Design
Make Up Tutorials
Assignments for Make Up Design
-MAKE UP TUTORIALS
A lot of students LOVE makeup videos. You can actually hold a class via zoom where they do make up in their bathrooms or make up spaces. They can also do powerpoints with step by step photographs of their makeup designs. They can place these on voicethread and they can talk over the images. Another great idea would be to have them create a youtube channel. It can be private. You can also create a channel for them, and they can all access it. They can also post videos on thier college platforms (blackboard, canvas, brightspace) if they do not feel comfortable going on youtube. But most of those platforms are not very good for posting videos. But offering both options is important.
SET DESIGN
Time Travel Research Assignment
Have students travel to various museums online, and pick on room or one era. Have them create a research paper based on that time period & what they saw discovered at the museum.
https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours
For Scenic Design provided by Lian Rothschild
Compile 3 screenshots that illustrate the following:
The color palette of the show as a whole
How the production design (scenic design or location) show the the time and place the the scene is set.
A personal space belonging to a character - maybe it's their bedroom, office, kitchen etc. What do the objects in the space tell us about that character?
Create your own theatre design online (by Jeffrey Ott)
https://thevirtualtheatre.com/?fbclid=IwAR2kAiTYigYyxRoB4VOIS4YeIJ8UbcDi4ZZqdxS6sSLSbNLEPh2xhHLENwQ
Join the Technical Theatre Educators FB
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1535722116469045/
Assignments for Set Design:
-Cost & Labor developed by G. Beller (Freelancer)
Have students create a cost and labor estimate for a production. Put together a bid package.
-Outfit The Show developed by G. Beller (Freelancer)
Students can also create lists and a ground plan of what is needed to outfit a shop (lights, sets, costume, sound) given a specific budget and floorplan.
STAGE CRAFT
LIGHTING DESIGN
Matt Kizer: Scenic & Lighting Design
List of resources, and articles for Scenic & Lighting Design
The resources below are all previously published individually. Collectively, they are good material that can be applied in online learning. This list includes 42 articles and 5 different activities.
http://scenicandlighting.com/article/online-teaching-resources-for-theatre-design-technology/
Incredible website that simulates light design on stage. Great for online classes especially as an assignment.
http://scenicandlighting.com/academic/light-labs-and-more/
Behind the Curtain- Wicked “Lighting”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUKDU3r6MYY
Assignments for Lighting Design
For Lighting Design provided by Lian Rothschild
Choose a scene with a clear lighting idea, and answer the following questions:
What happens in the scene?
What is the mood of the scene?
What is the color of the light? Describe the quality of the light - soft? hard-edged? bright? dim? high contrast? low contrast?
How do the qualities of the light relate to the mood? What does it tell you about when (time of day) or where (inside, outside, weather) the scene takes place? How does the lighting help tell the story?
*In class I pull one image from each student's project and throw it up on the projector and ask the class to guess what the time/place/mood of the scene is before having the student tell us what was really going on.
SOUND DESIGN
WICKED: Sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmeamvOj91M
List or resources compiled by Professor & Designer Beth Lake
As a freelance Sound Designer, I am one of many people scrambling to figure out how to teach without access to many of the tools we use. However, there are growing lists of such resources available. Here are just a few to start with:
Here is a list of folk who are available to teach online classes for various aspects of Sound Design (small, but growing)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S5kd3kKyl7C8RfSo1644SgMOgrkxuyqFeTyb56oQgG8/edit#gid=0
The TSDCA (Theatrical Sound Design and Composers Association):
USITT Sound commission:
http://teachingarchive.usitt.org/sound/2020/03/15/online-teaching-resources-in-sound/
A/V training (much, much less design focused)
Assignments for Sound Design
BUSINESS OF THEATRE
Behind the Curtain- Stage Management
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dU3RlYQIVM
TEACHER RESOURCE PAGE: CAREER CONTENT from Center Theatre Group
Worksheets
VIdeos
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RELEVANT NEWS ARTICLES
These articles can be great prompts for discussions, just apply the article to the topic you are teaching.
Theatres Stay Open but Make Backup Plans Amid COVID-19 Concerns
The Show Goes On Video
Theatres across the country are turning to video-capture as a way to share canceled shows. https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/03/13/the-show-goes-online/
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PODCASTS
For all courses!!!!
5 Podcasts to Bring Theater Into Your Home
6 Podcasts for the Theater Buff
New Manifest Theatre podcast dedicated to reflecting our collective human experiences through inclusive storytelling in contemporary theatre.
Teaching Artistry blends creative and educational practice in service of community building, social justice, and inspiring joy. Courtney J. Boddie, Host and Creator, chats with teaching artists and arts educators who are driving professional teaching artistry forward.https://www.teachingartistry.org/?fbclid=IwAR1qFSVd9VKwIYv-iPB9EwZA2qkI65lnHUcMPL49qbUgOssM4H5tFpNyATA
OFF-BOOK- The Black Theatre Podcast
Go into the world of black theatre artists on this weekly podcast with a theatre journalist, an actress, & a playwright. Drew Shade, Amber Iman, & Donja Love are your hosts and they will certainly be Off-Book
The Parsnip Ship
The Parsnip Ship, hosted by Iyvon Edebiri, is an intimate series of plays performed before live audiences and made accessible as a monthly podcast. The series fosters community by exploring diverse perspectives and bringing awareness to inspiring voices.
Up Close and Cultural
This program was founded and is hosted and produced by arts consultant and social justice activist, Rachel DeGuzman. Guests will explore challenging issues as well as exciting opportunities for the arts and cultural sector to help address the civic agenda and, in collaboration with other sectors, build a more vibrant and inclusive community.
The Wind Podcast
Where the everyday people are the celebrities.On this podcast I hear the stories of hope, challenges, insecurities and courage from people who I met and came across in my life.
THED Talks
A podcast for theatre teachers and theatre education students. Dr. Jimmy Chrismon, Theatre Education professor at Illinois State University, brings you stories and interviews from experienced K-12 theatre teachers, current theatre education majors, and professors of theatre education.
https://thedtalks.com/podcast/
Inside Acting
Inside Acting is a community committed to empowering actors in creating powerful, bold, self-sustaining careers. Basically, it boils down to this:
In the Envelope: An Awards Podcast
In the Envelope, Backstage’s podcast, features interviews with award-winning actors and other creatives. Join host Jack Smart for a front row seat to the industry’s biggest awards races.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-envelope-an-awards-podcast/id1234645617
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ONLINE PEER REVIEW JOURNALS
p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e
http://www.p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e.org/
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ADVICE TO REMEMBER
Excellent Advice from Daniel Ayres:
Are you transitioning from traditional learning to online learning?
Here’s a few tips I came up with, primarily aimed at higher education.
For those of you who don’t know me, I have a MS. Occupational Safety Management. BS Tech Theater, and am 3 courses away from an MA in Theater.
—-
Converting an in-person course to an online course is pretty easy to do. It takes some time to do it right, but it’s not complicated. There are a couple of critical areas of engagement you’ll need to create since you won't have the in-class opportunities. Keeping your LMS organized from the get-go is also crucial, here are a few tips I’ve picked up which work well for college level. For this article, I’m going to assume that you’re organization already has an LMS, and you’ve only minimally used it for your in-person courses. Still, you do not need to establish credentials, etc.
If your organization doesn’t already have a web conference platform, Zoom is probably the best for you to try. Other popular platforms include Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, Citrix GoToMeeting, and there are others. They all work slightly differently, but they all allow you to have a presenter who can host content, and they allow users to present a presentation, see webcam video, and listen to the audio. Most services charge a per-minute fee for phone calls, advise your students to either use computer audio, or use the “Call my phone” feature to minimize costs for your organization. Avoid services that limit your video from students or are more for socializing rather than distance learning, an example being Facebook messenger.
Every student and instructor needs to have a webcam. For students, a built-in camera is probably acceptable. As an instructor, you should have a camera positioned at the top, center, of your primary monitor. The Logitech c525 is the one I use. It’s $30, effective and not very fancy but the quality is good over a web conference.
Logitech HD Webcam C525, Portable HD 720p Video Calling with Autofocus https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WO8HQ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_p7zAEbPW8RDWF
A lamp positioned behind your monitor works well to light your face. A ring light is a good investment for you as an instructor but not necessary for students. Advise your students of good lighting practices.
I also recommend a headset with a headphone and microphone. I like wireless Bluetooth and use a Plantronics Voyager, but the wired ones are just fine and much less expensive. If you want to record any lectures, any high-quality microphone for podcasting works. Google “Podcasting microphones,” and you’ll get many viable recommendations.
When you first announce that everyone must be on video, You’ll get objections; Nobody likes to be on camera at first. Explain it’s a requirement to try and capture the collaboration you’re not getting anymore.
For the class itself, try to be visible as much as you can but share your presentation when you need to. Most services will allow your students to identify whether they want to emphasize the instructor's camera or the instructor's presentation, but the student should see both. When your student asks a question, they should be on video. Encourage them to have a headset as well, but they need to see and be seen so push for a webcam.
That covers web calls; for your standard lectures without interactive, it’s ok to record them in advance. If you do that, use Camtasia to do some light editing. This is great for cutting to your slides, cutting back, and light annotations. Use a service such as Otter.ai or SermonScribe to provide a transcript if you present this way as the visual will give an additional type of engagement for some learners.
Student engagement is essential. In addition to any lectures and Q&A, you’ll want to create opportunities for students to collaborate. One way is through a discussion board in your LMS. You’ll need to focus on how you set it up to be effective, though. I’ve found setting a parent tab for each week to be the best. A week is one semester week. It starts at 12:01 AM Friday, contains two weekends, and ends at 11:59 PM on Monday. This provides a slight overlap. Any items due in a given week are due at 11:59 Monday.
Set up a weekly parent tab for each of the remaining weeks. Create a child tab each week for each: Discussion, Learning Materials, Activities, and Assessments. Delete any which aren’t used.
The discussion Tab
Post a topic in your discussion forum. This is typically 2-3 questions of approximately 1-2 sentences each. Ask that each student contributes to the discussion by answering the questions, each with a one-paragraph response. Each response should be around 250 words, which makes it easy to grade as you assign your points as a percentage of 250 words. Ask the students to provide 2-4 sentences of comments to the responses of at least two other students.
The Learning Materials Tab
Share pertinent content. Try to share 2-4 recent journal articles and YouTube videos each week as well. If you recorded any lectures, post them here. This is also where you can post the Link/meeting code for your web conference. I also encourage sharing any materials from the publisher here, including PowerPoint presentations.
Activities Tab
Post any assignments here, which the student will start and compete during the week. This should include the submission portal.
Note: Create a parent tab for any semester projects and projects which span more than one week.
Assessment Tab. Post a weekly quiz here. The Quiz should be approximately 20 questions. Using any publisher question banks is fine.
Note: For semester exams, give them a parent tab or put them here. Either works well. Exams.
Exams are tricky. Your textbook publisher will give you a database of questions, those are fine for about 80% of the questions but I would encourage 3-hour open-book exams. Allow students to work with friends but require them to submit exams individually. Don’t share the answers or completed exams until after they have all been collected.
That should get you up and running; I’m guessing I probably created a few questions along the way. Just ask I’m happy to answer.
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Sharing from Prof. Devon G. Peñas FB
Pedagogy in the time of an epidemic: This is from Amy Young @ Pacific Lutheran
1. Be kind to yourself and your students. Everyone is stressed, even if they’re playing cool. That includes faculty. And that’s OK.
2. Let’s acknowledge that the quality of education will not be as good in alternative formats as it is in the pedagogical model we’ve actually planned for. That’s OK as well—we’re just trying to survive.
3. Do not read on best practices for distance learning. That’s not the situation we’re in. We’re in triage. Distance learning, when planned, can be really excellent. That’s not what this is. Do what you absolutely have to and ditch what you can. Thinking you can manage best practices in a day or a week will lead to feeling like you’ve failed.
4. You will not recreate your classroom, and you cannot hold yourself to that standard. Moving a class to a distance learning model in a day’s time excludes the possibility of excellence. Give yourself a break.
5. Prioritize: what do students really need to know for the next few weeks? This is really difficult, and, once again, it means that the quality of teaching and learning will suffer. But these are not normal circumstances.
6. Stay in contact with students, and stay transparent. Talk to them about why you’re prioritizing certain things or asking them to read or do certain things. Most of us do that in our face-to-face teaching anyway, and it improves student buy-in because they know content and delivery are purposeful.
7. Many universities have a considerable number of pedagogical experts on academic technology that we have only been dimly aware of until yesterday. Be kind to these colleagues. They are suddenly very slammed.
8. If you’re making videos, student viewership drops off precipitously at five minutes. Make them capsule videos if you make them. And consider uploading to to Youtube because it transcribes for you. Do not assume your audio is good enough or that students can understand without transcription. This is like using a microphone at meetings—it doesn’t matter if you don’t need it; someone else does and they don’t want to ask. At the same time, of course, think about intellectual property and what you’re willing to release to a wide audience.
9. Make assignments lower or no stakes if you’re using a new platform. Get students used to just using the platform. Then you can do something higher stakes. Do not ask students to do a high stakes exam or assignment on a new platform.
10. Be particularly kind to your graduating seniors. They're already panicking, and this isn't going to help. If you teach a class where they need to have completed something for certification, to apply to grad school, or whatever, figure out plan B. But talk to them. Radio silence, even if you're working, is not okay.