Contextual Theater

Contextual Theatre: “Audition” Unit by Meredith Gale-Johnson Developed June, 2003 for Fundamentals I: Advanced Acting Course (Fall 2003) Harrison High School Grades 9-12 [email protected] Introduction Unit Plan Bibliography Biography Introduction: “Fundamentals I: Advanced Acting” is the third course in the Cobb County High School sequence of drama courses. Thus, students bring to this course some prior knowledge of acting techniques, as well as some experience with a number of this unit’s components. Students are introduced to improvisation, for example, and must perform a monologue in Introduction to Theatre (the first course in the sequence). Likewise, students perform some rudimentary character analysis and hone their improvisation and acting skills in Intermediate Acting (the second course in the sequence). The “Audition” unit in Fundamentals I is designed to teach students not only new auditioning skills, but also how to use previously learned skills to successfully audition for roles and scholarships. This structure capitalizes on one of Parnell’s “Seven structures that can transform a classroom,” the “building” principal, which states that “new knowledge and new units of study are deliberately and specifically connected with students’ prior knowledge or past learning so that the new learning builds on prior experience” (Parnell, 1995). As well, students will have the opportunity to use the skills learned in this unit later on this same semester when they participate in an actual audition for student-directed plays. This unit is designed to fall roughly halfway through the “Fundamentals I: Advanced Acting” course and to last a total of four weeks. Since Harrison High School has a four by four block schedule, this class will meet for an hour and a half each day for each of the nineteen days included in this unit plan (one day is a teacher workday). Though this unit runs the risk of being long, and thus losing student interest, it is my hope that the authenticity of the assignment with help keep the students focused. As well, the workshop-type setting of the classroom throughout this unit has proven to be a powerful method of instruction. Truly, this classroom will become a “working laboratory or studio, where genuine knowledge is created, real products are made, and authentic inquiry pursued” (Daniels, 1998). Students in this class will truly “learn by doing.” As you p eruse the following (vague and tentative) lesson plans, please note that not every day includes a “National High School Language Arts Standard” or an “Assessment.” National Standards may be taught on these days, and the classroom teacher will certainly wish to implement some sort of evaluation or assessment each day. “Since students are working on different topics . . . the teacher needs a system for recording students’ choices and monitoring their day-to-day work. [And] because conferences are a key ingredient of the workshop, the teacher typically develops a simple system for jotting down the highlight of these conversations” (Daniels, 1998). Likewise, students will be expected to self-evaluate and keep records of their own, two proven “best practices.” Students will be

Contextual Theater

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