In Defense of Theatre: How to Start a Theatre Program at Your School Regardless of Budget or School Size
By Emily Haven
This is not a story of quirky beginnings or an underdog program winning local competitions despite the failings of their underprepared but well-intentioned teacher. No, this is the story of a teacher who, despite all beliefs to the contrary, fell in love with teaching drama regardless of its numerous challenges and the naive belief that all that was needed to pull off a big spring play was determination. Spoiler alert: It didn’t go according to plan.
Like many teachers at small schools, I was thrown into running a brand new drama program without any previous theatre experience, simply because I was an English teacher. Apparently all that was needed to take on the daunting task of teaching two classes and advising after school activities was an ability to understand plays. It’s laughable really. Me, the individual who, in school, panicked if I had to give a speech in front of my classmates, was somehow going to build a drama program from scratch!
Realistically, numerous teachers find themselves in similar situations where they are expected to start up a new program without the proper background knowledge or necessary budget. If you’ve worked in public schools at any point in the last 10 years, you know that most programs are underfunded, especially arts programs. There has been a recent push to grow such programs, at least within the state of Georgia, where I work. Still, many small, rural schools do not have full-time drama teachers. Instead, they either share arts teachers with other schools throughout the day or hire teachers like me to act as part-time academic teachers and part-time drama teachers.
Despite the obvious challenges, starting a small drama program can add so much to a school and doesn’t have to be the enormous undertaking I described. It is entirely possible to start a small afterschool program or class that is manageable, novice-friendly, and won’t break the bank.
For anyone considering building a drama program, here is how I generally structure my Intro to drama class:
I recommend focusing on skill building and working through potential stage fright as a starting point. The key priority at the beginning stages, and especially when working with kids who have never been on stage before, is to make sure that students feel that projects are meaningful, build up to a bigger picture, and are not so overwhelming or terrifying that they shut down or give up.
Typically I start out small, giving students a chance to warm up to one another and the idea of speaking in front of a group. One of the first activities I do at the beginning of each year is a rather fun and silly team building activity that takes just about a class period. It is a Trash Bag Costume Contest. In small groups of 2–4, students use trash bags, scissors, and tape to create costumes. The goal is to create a recognizable character that the rest of the class can identify. They can use multiple bags, cut them up however they would like, and use the parts in creative ways. I’ve had students use the drawstrings on the bag to make all sorts of interesting accessories for their costumes, such as a headband or belt. I’ve even had students cut them up to create the Superman “S” for the front of the costume. The best part about this activity is that one student within each group models the costume and presents it to the class. This allows teachers to immediately find out who is comfortable being silly in front of the class, even when they don’t know everyone just yet. This project also lets you see just how creative your students can be and who might be a natural artist or the more practical and organized type. This can help you greatly when casting and assigning roles within a larger play.
Next, we move into a pantomime unit, which takes about a week. This unit allows students to act without having to say anything out loud or memorize any lines. It also teaches students how important body language and movements are to a scene, and encourages students to be much more over-the-top with their actions and facial expressions, a skill that is highly transferable to a stage setting. To begin, I start my students off with a pantomime version of the game telephone. If you’ve ever played this game as a kid, you know that it goes something like this: one person comes up with a phrase or sentence and whispers it to the next person, going down a line of individuals until the last person repeats aloud what they heard. Usually, by the time the sentence makes it to the last person, it is completely changed and often hilarious. The same thing typically happens when movement is involved. In this version of the game, students stand in one long line all facing the same direction, and convey an action or activity (such as rowing a boat) to the person in front of them without words. No one else but the two performing and watching should be facing one another. Just like in regular telephone, by the time the action gets to the end of the line, it has completely transformed into something else. I typically challenge students to keep the action as close to the original as possible, and reward them if they are successful. The teacher can play along or just enjoy the entertaining chaos.
To build on their movements, we often play a game of charades following this activity. From there, students get into groups to create a series of short pantomime scenes that are clear enough for the audience to understand without words. I start by asking them to pantomime a story about an object while the rest of the class guesses what the object is and what happened to it. Eventually, students create 3–5 minute scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends, all without words. One note of caution: if your students are anything like mine, these scenes may quickly devolve into arguments or fights between characters. High schoolers seem to think this is the most entertaining thing. To deal with this, I created a rule that students cannot use the emotion of anger unless they find another way to convey it besides arguing or fighting. This forces students to either become really creative or express new emotions.
From there, I move into short scenes that are usually student-created to avoid royalty requirements. Students retell a famous children’s story, coming up with dialogue and narration in their own words. They also think through costumes in the sense that they wear a shirt that matches the idea of their character (ex: Little Red Riding Hood might be in a red t-shirt), and create at least one prop (this can be entirely out of scratch paper and drawings). We go over general blocking rules like not turning your back to the audience and using your upstage hand, etc. From there, students experiment with directing, acting, and costume design in small and manageable ways. They ultimately present these scenes to the class, which also allows them to perform as a group in a low-pressure setting.
As they get more comfortable, I move into monologues and the skills of memorization, which is a particular struggle for my students. They pick a monologue from a list of free monologues I found on the internet and curated so as to avoid any controversy. Once monologues are chosen, I have students hand write them and label the emotions for each sentence as well as the movements they plan on using. Finally, they perform in front of the class. This is nerve wracking for some of them, but I always make sure that we cheer each other on before and after each performance to create a more welcoming environment. They are also allowed to have a buddy stand with them for comfort if needed. I typically do two rounds of monologue memorizations to allow students to improve and practice with different types of emotions, mood, etc. This lasts anywhere from 2–3 weeks depending on how much time they need to practice and memorize.
This year, I added two new projects to my curriculum. The first was a Christmas/Winter themed performance for the local elementary schools. The students wrote their own scripts, blocked it out, created costumes, props, and backdrops, and memorized it. I told them that they were not required to spend any money and should try to use things they already own to make the scenes work. They also had access to all of my art supplies like markers, pencils, paper, etc to create whatever they needed. Not only was this a positive experience for my high school students, but it brought in the elementary school students, helping to foster community outreach, advertise for our future plays, and encourage the younger students to consider drama in the future. This project took about a month to complete.
The second project I added this year was a movie creation project. Students had to write their own school-appropriate scripts, which I approved, of course. They then had to block it out, and, using their phones, film it and use Canva or iMovie to produce the video, which are programs that students already have access to or are provided free by my school. If your school doesn’t have something similar, I am sure there are other decent movie editing programs available online. As a culmination of this long-term project, we are going to present the movies at a movie premier night coming up that will also function as a fundraiser for the program. We will sell popcorn and sodas, watch each movie, and, at the end, I will announce annual awards, allowing each student in the class to shine in their own unique ways.
In conclusion, I would highly encourage anyone who is considering starting a drama program with or without a budget to think about all of the benefits such a program could have on students across academic disciplines. I talked with several teachers at my school and discovered that having a drama class has provided students with significant boosts in self-confidence, allowing them to better advocate for themselves when they are struggling. Similarly, students are much more likely to risk being wrong in front of their peers when answering questions and to attempt a difficult task by themselves before immediately assuming they can’t figure it out. Drama programs, even on a very small scale, show students how everything is a learning process and encourage them to be okay with laughing off mistakes and trying again. Drama encourages students to branch out and try new things that they might not have otherwise and shows them that thinking creatively is not limited solely to artistic pursuits. Rather, it can be applied to most academic disciplines, including things like math or science.
Personally, I view my drama class as a special opportunity to help students feel heard, seen, and important while also helping them to grow as individuals both artistically and academically. And for a teacher who never expected to be involved in drama in any way, teaching that class has given me more chances than ever before to help students through some of life’s more challenging moments, such as peer-pressure, social anxiety, and motivational discouragement. I honestly believe that it has made me a better educator and has challenged me to reconsider what it means to work with emotionally vulnerable teenagers on a daily basis.
Emily Haven is a high school English and Drama teacher in Temple, GA. She got her bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education from Mississippi State University and her Masters in English from Middlebury College’s Breadloaf School of English. She has taught in both Mississippi and Georgia and has started multiple drama programs at the middle school and high school level. She also has coached a Speech and Debate team and taught video broadcasting.
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