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Improvisation

Objective: Students will demonstrate their improvisation skills by participating in various activities and assignments that require students to use their improv skills.
Subject: Improvisation - Acting
Class Level: Beginning
Main Concepts: thinking on your feet, making choices, acting without a script
National Standards: CONTENT STANDARD 1: Script writing by improvising, writing, and refining scripts based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature, and history.
CONTENT STANDARD 2: Acting by developing, communicating, and sustaining characters in improvisations and informal or formal productions.
Description: 10th Grade Beginning Theatre
90 minute class period
Author: Tara Brooks

Lesson Plans

Lesson 1: Introduction to improvisation

Students’ will demonstrate their understanding of improvisation by performing simple improvised activities, and by actively participating during class discussions.

Lesson 2: Improvisation-Learning by example

Students will demonstrate their understanding of improvisation by observing a professional improv team, and writing a one page “free write” of what they observed.

Lesson 3: Introduction to improvising monologues

Students will demonstrate their understanding of improvisation by performing a simple improvised monologue. Students will learn the technique of ad-libbing.

Lesson 4: Beginning Improvised Scenes

Students will demonstrate their skill of improvisation by performing an improvised scene.

Lesson 5: Advanced improvised scenes

Students will demonstrate their ability to use improvisation in scene acting by performing improvised scenes.

Lesson 6: Silence is deadly on stage

Students will gain an understanding of improvisation by performing simple pantomime scenes using improvisation.

Lesson 7: Let the games begin!

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of improvisation games or theatre sports, by participating in improvisational games with the class.

Lesson 8: Celebrity; The end of improv as we know it

Students will demonstrate their skill of improvisation by participating in an improvisational game of “Celebrity”. Students will need to demonstrate skills learned over the improvisation unit such as; quick thinking, pronunciation, ad-libbing, pantomime, exaggeration, etc.