Drama Free Stuff

The extensive and detailed stage directions of playwrights such as Ibsen and Chekov can prove a challenge for students when it comes to set design. How do they produce a set that stays true to the playwright’s vision and at the same time works on different types of stage?

To help your students with such issues, we’ve created a free presentation on set design.

This highly visual presentation helps students:

• Identify types of stage, from proscenium arch to traverse.
• Consider the impact different stages have on set design.
• Create their own two-dimensional plan of a set.

To download the free presentation, click the button below.

Have you seen our homework product, MyWorks? Available for all creative arts subjects, it’s perfect for cover lessons as well as specialist teachers! To find out more, try our free drama sample, art sample or music sample!

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Below is an archive of our most popular free drama resources. To download this content all you need to do is click on the links below and you will be prompted to register some additional details with us.

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OnBoard is the free email service that we’ve launched to provide great free stuff for your teaching, saving you hours of time.

Our first free activity for you to try out is an audio clip of Jaques’ ‘All the world’s a stage’ speech from As You Like It, to mark Shakespeare’s birthday this week.

Use as a starter to introduce your students to one actor’s delivery of the speech, then ask them to develop their own interpretations playing close attention to the rhythms of Shakespearean language.

To read and listen to the speech, just click on the 'Start' button.

Did you know that at the end of every KS3+KS4 Drama presentation there are evaluation slides summarising the skills students have covered? To find out more about how Boardworks Drama resources support your students’ self-evaluation skills, order your free sample disc today.

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From the prosaic: How can I tell you that you have terrible taste in music? To the dramatic: I lied. This devising activity offers a range of scenarios to help ignite your students’ imaginations when it comes to creating devised work.

Use as a lesson starter to loosen students up before working on longer devised or written pieces, this free resource is taken from the ‘Skills’ section of our KS4 Drama resource which is designed to help students practice a variety of dramatic skills.

To download the free resource, click the button below.

With sections on ‘Design’, ‘Technical’, ‘Acting’ and ‘Writing’ skills, Boardworks KS4 Drama contains 25 skills-based presentations covering a range of dramatic skills from familiar acting techniques such as role play, to less familiar skills such as set design and stage management. To find out more, order your  free sample disc  today!

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Drama teacher and resource specialist Clive Hulme shares his Olympic-themed drama activities.

On July 27th you will either be out of the country or watching the Olympic opening ceremony. Or both. The Olympics will be inescapable this summer so it would only be sensible – and fun – to capitalise on your students' enthusiasm and curiosity by teaching some Olympic-themed lessons.

Why let your PE department have all the fun? You will be spoiled for choice, but here are a few ways that you could approach this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

1 – Social Drama
For work involving role play, hot-seating and simulations you could look at what happens to the Olympic venues after the games have finished. The official Olympic website (www.london2012.com/legacy-after-the-games) forecasts what the Olympic legacy will be. You could use this topic to get your students to debate the following:

• Are there better things that could be done with the site and facilities?
• What about the residents who lost their homes when they were demolished for the venues to be built? A number of people lost their homes to make way for the Olympic village; see here (www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/02/olympics2012) for the story of some of them.
• Could the £9.3 billion the games are projected to cost have been better spent? If so, on what?

In all the above, you could choose from, or mix-and-match, monologues (with cross-cutting), role play chat shows, still image work or docu-drama.

2 – History of Drama
Of course, the Greeks didn’t only give us the Olympics; the opportunity to look at modern Drama’s Greek origins is too good to miss. How about some mask-making based on Greek theatrical masks? There should be enough here (http://tinyurl.com/7wtvo4d) to give your students ideas. A great opportunity for some cross-curricular work with your Art department.

3 – Let’s Do The Games Right Here!
Students can devise their own Olympic ceremonies using physical theatre, or even enact their own versions of some of the events. Alternatively, if you have younger students – and the time – perhaps an Olympic-themed musical would be of interest to you. There are several "pre-pack" musicals available.

4 – Devised Drama/Assembly
Two weeks after the main games finish, the Paralympics begin. You might be interested in some of the information on the official Paralympics (www.paralympic.org/Science_Education/Education/) website. Focusing on one person’s story, rather than an entire event, is usually a very good strategy. That of Oscar Pistorius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Pistorius) could be the basis of some very interesting devised Drama, especially with KS4 students. There are tremendous opportunities for physicality as well as a very interesting human story. Watch him in action here (www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-fbSHENjHc) to inspire your students. A great opportunity for BTEC students to devise and present assembly work.

It’s highly likely that someone at your school will suggest, at the last moment, that every department takes place in an Olympic day/week. Be a hop, skip and a jump ahead of the pack by starting your planning now and going for Gold. Or should that be Outstanding?

Please note: the above weblinks were working correctly at the time of publication. Boardworks takes no responsibility for the content of external sites.
 

Boardworks KS3+KS4 Drama resources contain video clips to help you teach important acting techniques, such as hot-seating and vocal warm-ups. To find out more about how Boardworks Drama can enhance your practical lessons, order your free sample disc today.

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“The lesson reverses the normal process of writing dialogue or scripts for reading. Instead, real dialogue from classroom exchanges and video extracts is captured and recorded.”

For drama students used to improvising and acting rather than writing and directing, the value of scriptwriting conventions can sometimes be unclear.

Featuring a variety of practical activities, this English lesson plan can be easily adapted to help reinforce your drama students’ knowledge of the literary conventions used when writing spoken language. And, with a final analysis of an extract from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, your students can apply what they’ve learned to an actual play.

To download the lesson plan and the Boardworks slides, click on the buttons below.

Did you know that Boardworks also publishes English resources for KS3 through to AS-level? Like our Drama resources, Boardworks English is packed with audio-visual activities, literary extracts and is closely mapped to all the major exam boards. To find out more, why not order your free sample disc?