Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook: 16 Ready-to-Go Lesson Plans to Build a Better Actor - Paperback

by Denver Casado (Author)

Are you a new drama teacher looking for help planning your first year? Or an experienced teacher in need of refreshing new ideas for your drama classes? Teaching Drama: The Essential Handbook is a new resource with 16 ready-to-go lesson plans that will provide you with the tools you need to build your kids into incredible actors.

• A semester's worth of cumulative lessons that will turn your kids into real-deal actors
• Notes on how to introduce basic acting concepts in a way kids will instantly understand
• Suggested activities for both "younger" and "older" kids
• How to transition between activities and from lesson to lesson
• Contemporary new games like a "Facebook Character Profile"
• Reflection and journaling exercises after every lesson.

• What is Theatre? Students explore how theatre is the art of telling stories through live acting.
• Creating an Ensemble. Students learn to work together, build trust, and involve every member in a performance.
• Movement & Space. Students explore how pantomime and behavior can help tell a story.
• Character Development. Students explore what makes characters unique and how to create compelling characters onstage.
• Objective & Tactics. Students will think about the "why" behind every action.
• Using Your Voice: Students will understand the importance of articulation, projection and voice variation.
• Listening/Reacting. Students will understand how listening and reacting are an important part of being an actor.
• Stage Directions and Blocking. Students will understand the "principles of blocking" and how to stage a scene without instruction.
• And much more...

Author Biography

For nearly a decade DENVER CASADO has worked as an arts educator with New York City's leading theatre organizations including Disney Theatricals, New York City Center and Young Audiences New York. Denver's innovative approach to exploring theatre with kids has earned him invitations to speak at the national conferences of the American Association of Community Theatre and the American Alliance for Theatre Education. In 2011 he was honored with the All Stars Projects' Phyllis Hyman award, in recognition of his important contribution to the creative growth and development of over 20,000 young people in the NYC public school system. Denver's a graduate of New York University's Steinhardt School of Education.