Series

Week 6: Introduction to Theatre Arts

4 Min Read  •  Arts Appreciation

Welcome to The Art of Curriculum Design: Introduction to Theatre Arts

In this six month series, we explore the fundamentals of curriculum design, via an Arts Appreciation course created through arts collaboration.

-The first few weeks were devoted to the “how and why” of the curriculum design process.
The Art of Curriculum Design
The Art of Curriculum Design: The “Why”
The Art of Curriculum Design: The “How”

-Then, we looked at applying the Plan Like an Artist method of Curriculum Design to create a secondary level Arts Appreciation course.
Arts Appreciation: Planned Like an Artist

During the current portion of the series we are looking at weekly objectives, outcomes, and assessments designed for the Arts Appreciation course (links to the entire series can be found below). The full curriculum, including daily lesson plans, handouts, and assessments will be available, at the completion of the series.

Remember:

-When Planning Like an Artist, everything is designed with the end performance in mind. So, as the course was designed, we remained focused on the ultimate goal of the course and the final assessment/performance task; how the students are going to demonstrate the goal.
-Goal/Aim: After this course, it is our hope that students have the ability to articulate an appreciation of all art forms while defending artistic preferences.
-Final Assessment/Performance Task: Students will design an arts company and create a performance season utilizing a common theme, based on their personal artistic preference. They will then present their performance season to a board, in the form of a proposal, for funding as a way to articulate an appreciation of all art forms.

Arts Appreciation Weeks 1-5

The first 5 weeks of the Arts Appreciation course provided the foundational information for students to participate in viewing, and discussing art in preparation for building their own arts organization. For instance, Week one built a class definition of art, while the second week focused on applying the class definition to artistic work. Then, the third week helped students identify artist intent. Students should be able to identify the intent, defend the intent, and determine the effect of artist intent on the emotional landscape of the art as viewed by an audience, and as viewed through the lens of the class definition of art.

Through the viewing of controversial art, students continue to defend what they believe art “is” and “is not,” and acknowledge the emotion behind the art, as well as identifying the artist’s intent. By taking a look at a theme, the students will conclude the fourth week with the foundational information needed in order to actively view art. The ability to identify the theme behind the art will help students create their final project.

And finally, The goal of the fifth week was to start helping students profile their arts advocacy, by brainstorming the ways in which they want to showcase art for their final assessment. This involved composing an artist statement, determining the theme of their performance season, developing their artistic brand, and drafting the mission/vision for their arts organization.

The next portion of the Arts Appreciation course takes an in-depth look at Theatre, Dance, and Music.  Through analyzing these three performance arts, students should begin to develop their final project, which is a theme-based performance season for their arts organization.

Week 6: Introduction to Theatre Arts

Objectives:
At the completion of week 6, students will be able to:

  • Identify theatre roles and dramatic structure
  • Apply dramatic structure to familiar stories
  • Perform tableaus and order them using dramatic structure
  • Identify important parts of a script
  • Read a full script with the ability to identify title, scene heading, action, stage direction, character name, dialogue, parenteticals, extensions, transitions, and shots
  • Determine artist intent
  • Determine artistic theme

Week 6: Introduction to Theatre Arts

Outcomes:
At the completion of week 6, students will demonstrate:

  • Distinguish the roles and dramatic structure of scripts
  • Application of dramatic structure
  • Tableaus in proper dramatic structure
  • All parts of a script
  • Defense of artist intent and theme

Week 6: Introduction to Theatre Arts

Assessments:
At the completion of week 6, students will be evaluated on:

  • Effective and appropriate demonstration of class discussion/debate and gallery walk/station procedure
  • Quality contribution to class discussion/debate
  • Identification of parts of a script
  • Application of dramatic structure to familiar stories
  • Tableau performances
  • Determination of artist intent and theme

Series Links
The Art of Curriculum Design
The Art of Curriculum Design: The “Why”
The Art of Curriculum Design: The “How”
Arts Appreciation: Planned Like an Artist
Week 1: What is Art?
Week 2: Talking Art
Week 3: Artist Intent
Week 4: What is Theme?
Week 5: Profiling Yourself as an Arts Advocate

Next Week: Week 7 Understanding Theatre through Scripts & Structure
Week 7 of the Arts Appreciation course, including lesson plan objectives, outcomes, and assessments.