new teacher help

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

June 22, 2022 By dhcbaldwin Leave a Comment

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

Congratulations! You’ve been hired to teach theater and direct several productions a year. You probably have the class curriculum nailed down or you are in the midst of it. However, you realize that although you have some experience on stage as a performer, you may need some help with other facets of a production. This post should help–Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

When I majored in theater at Stephens College about a 100 years ago, although I was mostly interested in performing we were expected to work backstage for the first semester. I still think that’s an excellent idea. Some students who began as performance majors find they are more suited to stage management, costume or set design for instance. Plus, an actor needs to understand what goes into mounting a production.

Too many people get out there and think they are going to end up on the Broadway stage after their first audition. Many give up too quickly, but perhaps if they’d found another way to be involved with theater they would have stayed with it.

I love theater so much, I didn’t care if all I ever did was sweep the stage–it was that important to me. If you want to know how theater saved my life, go to How Theatre Saved My Life

Newbie Theater Teacher Expectations

It’s only natural to think that when you enter your first teaching position in your career, everything is provided for your classroom and stage. You may have come from a high school or certainly college which fully supported the theater arts department. That’s understandable and certainly the way it should be.

Some high schools even have technical directors who oversee the technical aspects of productions and teach the technical theater classes. That’s terrific!

You expect to have a lot of materials and resources all ready organized–set pieces, costumes, makeup, storage space, etc. If the school and their theater department has been in existence for several years, you should expect to take what was left from the previous teacher and grow from there.

Did you know I have the secret to boosting student engagement? My new book, “We’re Live! Radio Theater #101” explains my journey to implementing this unique tool in the classroom. Check it out here

The Reality

Here is the reality– In many school systems, the theater department and arts in general are looked upon as unimportant. (Because the general public does not understand what it takes to teach theater much less produce a play or musical.) Generally, the arts play second fiddle to sports. It’s not fair and not right but it happens all. the.time

If you find a school, which is not a performing arts school, who supports the arts you are lucky to teach there.

I can’t even count how many times people have said, “This school doesn’t have a budget for me! They don’t have materials or resources for mounting a production. What do I do?”

Tip: One question you need to ask when you interview for any teaching position should be about the budget for your classes and/or productions. If the administrator doesn’t know the budget, this is a red flag. It doesn’t mean you don’t have a budget, but this is easy to ascertain for them and they should be willing to divulge it.

Tip: When you interview, ask to see the stage and check out backstage as well. See if they have any costumes, props or set pieces. Do they have stage lights, light trees and amplification equipment? Does anyone else use the stage other than the theater department? Who and how much time do they use it?

Tip: Find out if there is a parent booster club for the arts. They are invaluable to your success at this particular school. They can help you in many ways–fundraising, building sets and sewing costumes, advertising and box office.

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality

If the school doesn’t have a production budget, the first thing you will need to do is raise money to pay the expenses of the production. These expenses can range anywhere from $500 to (gulp) $10,000 a piece. Consider ticket prices and talk with other teachers in the district to see what they charge. Check out my fundraising suggestions here: Turn Your Theater Department Fundraising Into A High Performing Machine

If your set inventory doesn’t have much to offer, then you may need to build flats. There are many ways to do so. I’d check out this video for instruction on building a Hollywood flat. Or you can build a muslin flat.

I’d suggest watching the Cal State A & L videos on youtube.com They teach just about everything you’d need to know in a clear and concise method.

If you need help with costume design, check out my post: Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Costumes

One of my lesser strengths is light design. I know what I want, but I don’t know how to make it happen. I defer to my husband about light design because he’s designed for me for years. (See the photo above) In your case, I’d check Cal State for help there.

My Most Important Advice

Many directors of school productions think they have to produce their shows having the quality of a Broadway production. Not only is this unreasonable to expect of yourself, but not necessary. If you do a good job and balance the production so that everything is of equal quality (your show is imbalanced if the only set piece which was completed for your set is the staircase you spent all month building for your play), then you can rest knowing you did your best under the circumstances.

You should not be expected to do more with less. Just do the best you can understand the circumstances. You shouldn’t spend all weekend for several months working on one production. You shouldn’t be doing all the work yourself. Don’t forget that without YOU, none of the magic happens and the students need YOU the most.

What is most important is what your students learn from the experience, right?

Here are a few blog posts that can answer some questions or help you:

Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Stage Makeup

Critical Steps in Producing a Play or Musical: Costumes

My Advice for FREE

I am willing to advise you for free. You can find me many places– on instagram @dramamommaspeaks, Facebook @dramamommaspeaks or email me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com. I have been where you are now. Luckily, you have someone like me to advise you.

No one learns much of anything completely by themselves. A good teacher asks for advice and help. You will be a better teacher for it, I promise!

If you’ve had any experiences you’d like to share, please hit reply and share them with me. I’d love to hear from you.

You can contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com

Why is it Important to Create a Lesson Plan?

September 9, 2020 By dhcbaldwin 5 Comments

Why is it Important to Create a Lesson Plan?

Today, let’s discuss why is it important to create a lesson plan. I studied education about a million years ago when I was in college. My teacher was terrific! I thought I was prepared. I could write a lesson plan.

Consequently, her instruction provided invaluable. It’s not always that I think I’m prepared to do something. For instance, I didn’t think I was trained enough to become a professional actress when I graduated from college. But teaching? I was ready.

I remember my student teaching experience as if it was yesterday. Considering it was over 43 years ago, that’s saying something. Don’t you think?Also, yikes! That was a long time ago.

When it became time for student teaching, I student taught at a junior high school called West Junior. It was a typical junior high school, grades seven to nine. Ironically, many years later my husband taught there and both of our daughters attended West. When I was student teaching, I never would have imagined such a scenario.

Expect Not to Have a Lesson Plan When You Substitute

My cooperating teaching was awesome and we became quick friends. Because she knew what to say to me to get through to me, I turned to her for advice when I began teaching and directing. She passed away many years ago, but I still think about her advice to me, “Deb, you can not to make everything a priority at once'” (What? You should do that?)

However, the only thing I still haven’t forgiven her for was when she was absent for two days in my second week of student teaching. A substitute was brought in, but Jackie asked that I teach the class instead.

Now, I’m quick on my feet and can jump into a situation and improvise. Except a couple of the classes I was to substitute teach, I’d never even been introduced to yet. She taught those in the afternoon while I observed. She left very little in the way of lesson plans for them. Other than a couple of boys tried to act out a dirty joke to try to embarass me, I did fine.

What did I learn? Always leave a lesson plan for a substitute. It’s difficult enough to be thrown into a class with students whose names you don’t know, but not to have a lesson plan is nothing short of torture.

Five Reasons to Use a Lesson Plan

I was looking around for some information about the importance of a lesson plan and ran on to preservearticles.com.

I thought their reasons for having a lesson plan were good ones:

“The lesson plan is a guideline through the help of which a teacher can teach well and reach his desired goal. Making use of these guidelines the teacher can deliver the good materials to students in a logical sequence.

In the absence of a lesson plan the progress of the class is hampered. For good teaching we have to use a good method of teaching. Thus, the only best way of good teaching is possible is by making use of integrated teaching of content and methods. The teaching through better methods is definitely superior to teaching contents. Because of these advantages planning of lessons is considered essential for becoming a good teacher.”

In another article about lesson planning, I found this from preservearticles.com:

Lesson- Planning gives the teacher greater assurance and greater freedom in teaching. The teacher who has planned his lesson wisely, enters the class-room without anxiety, ready to embark with confidence upon a job he understands and prepared to carry it to a workman like conclusion.
It provides for adequate lesson summaries, ensures a definite assignment for class, and availability of materials for lesson when needed.
It stimulates the teacher to introduce pivotal questions and illustrations.
Since lesson planning establishes proper connections between different lessons or units of study, it provides and encourages continuity in the teaching provides and encourages continuity in the teaching process.
It ensures association between various lessons in the same main, unit, the selection and organisation of subject-matter, materials and activities.

Simply put, a lesson plan is basically an outline for the class. It includes the objective, procedure (including time allotments), space requirements, materials list, assessment. Within the procedure, it includes a hook, study and application of the learning. Also, it contains enrichment activities. Want to know more advice of mine? Check out: Never Underestimate the Influence of Teaching with Videos

A Lesson Plan Template for Drama Class

To begin with, I am a member of several drama Facebook groups and nearly every day someone posts a plea for help creating a lesson plan. There are many openings throughout teaching because older teachers or have left teaching all together. Enter the less experienced but enthusiastic newbees!

If you’d like a free guide And lesson plan from me, click here LESSON PLAN

If you are one of those just starting out on your journey, I am so glad you are teaching students about theater this year. First person of I advice– I promise you, you all ready know more about the subject than the students do because of your life experiences and age. That’s important to remember.

As you would expect, a lesson plan for a drama class is pretty much the same as anyone else’s. (Except we’re more fun. Tee hee!)

This is how I put a lesson together. Everyone is different, but this was how I was taught to do it, so I keep to the old school version.

Date:

Class:

Hour:

Duration:

Lesson: (Title)

Objective: (What do you want the students to learn. Be fairly specific.) The students will learn about: In this example…The students will learn about the origin of theater, a time line of the origin of civilization and examine three ways it may have begun. They will take notes by drawing a picture of the various ways it began.

Standards: This will depend upon what state standards you are expected to cover and the grade level. Each state is different. Currently, I am using the Dramatic Arts/ Theatre-Fine Arts Georgia Standards of Excellence to create lessons for a teacher. They look like this: https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Pages/Fine-Arts-Dramatic-Arts-Theatre.aspx

Materials: (video project, overhead, white board, laptop, ipads, etc.)

Procedure:

Warm Up Title (for instance–Freeze Frame)

Duration: (in minutes)

2. Lesson–The Origin of Theater

Hook–what question, video clip, object will you use to engage the students? “How did theater begin?” (10 minutes)
Show time line and discuss (5 minutes)
Terms–vocabulary you want to cover
Hand out Origin of Theater papers and read aloud (10 minutes)
Assignment–Using the information the students just learned, they draw a picture of the various ways theater may have begun (10 minutes)
Turn in assignment

3. Cool Down–(another exercise which either secures this learning e.g. Drawing slips out of a hat, students are grouped and pantomime one of the ways theater began except there are several ways acted out which are not true. (15 minutes)

4. Assessment: Will this be a participation grade? Will you grade the assignment? Will you have a rubric which the students understand and follow?

That’s pretty much it. Does a teacher create one of these for every class?

Probably teachers do. However, I can’t answer that question for others. Usually I have a lesson plan for every lesson until I become familiar with all of the the information, memorize important facets of it or I can just look at my notes and know what to say and cover. If you are interested in some other experiences of mine, check out: The Lessons I Learned from Working as a Drama Teacher

Energize Your Classroom with Laughter

Looking for some tried and true lessons you can depend upon? Pick up this Lin Manuel Miranda biography and one pager assignment.

Who taught you how to make a lesson plan? I’ve love to hear about it. Contact me at DhcBaldwin@gmail.com

Play Production for Newbie Theater Teachers: Expectations Versus Reality