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BYU Theatre Education
Contemporary Scenes Unit

Day 6 – Rehearsal Day (Relationships!)

August 12, 2025 08:32 PM

by Andrew Walker

National Standards:
TH:Cr3.1.I.b. Explore physical, vocal, and physiological choices to develop a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant to a drama/theatre work.
TH:Cr3.1.III.b. Synthesize ideas from research, script analysis, and context to create a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant in a drama/theatre work.

Other National Standards Met But Not Assessed:

TH:Cr3.1.III.b. Synthesize ideas from research, script analysis, and context to create a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant in a drama/theatre work.
TH:Cr1.1.II.c. Use personal experiences and knowledge to develop a character that is believable and authentic in a drama/theatre work.

TH:Pr5.1.II.a. Refine a range of acting skills to build a believable and sustainable drama/theatre performance.

State Standards:

Standard L2.T.CR.5: Explore physical, vocal, and emotional choices to develop a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant in a drama/theatre work.
Standard L2/L3.T.CR.8: Generate ideas from research and script analysis to devise a performance that is believable, authentic, and relevant in a drama/ theatre work.

Other State Standards Met But Not Assessed:

Standard L2/L3.T.CO.3: Examine contemporary social, cultural, or global issues through different forms of drama/theatre work.
Standard L2.T.P.2: Share leadership and responsibilities to develop collaborative goals when preparing or devising drama/theatre work.

Enduring Understandings:

  1. Students will understand that relationships are about love.
  2. Students will understand that performance takes practice.
  3. Students will understand that they are capable.
  4. Students will understand that performances can always be better.

Essential Questions:

  1. How do we interpret relationships?
  2. How do we effectively rehearse?
  3. Why do we rehearse?

Objective:

Students will explore and refine their acting skills through rehearsal of contemporary scenes with an emphasis on relationships.

Materials:

1. Exit Ticket: https://forms.gle/XBX3PTw34hhvJeJV6
2. Large empty space
3. Contemp Scenes Rubric
4. Drama 2/3 Daily Question
5.Projector, Projector Screen, Laptop, HDMI Cable, and HDMI to USB-C adaptor

Instructions:
Hook 1 – Daily Question (10 minutes)

  1. Put the Drama 2/3 Daily Question up on the board and have the students scan the code and add their answer.
  2. Read off answers and have the student attached to each answer raise their hand and give us a brief reason why they said that.

a. Suggested Question: What’s the most important kind of love? Hook 2 – Relationships (5 minutes)

  1. “I want you to think about some things. First, think about the person you love most. Not necessarily romantically. Any kind of love. Once you have this person in mind, give me a thumbs up”
  2. “Okay, now think about how often you think about this person. Show me on your hands – 1 being I never think about them to 5 being I think about them multiple times a day”
  3. “Thank you for sharing. Now think about the person you hate the most. They make your skin crawl or whatever. Once you have this person in mind, give me a thumbs up.”
  4. “Now think about how often you think about this person. Show me on your hands – 1 being I never think about them to 5 being I think about them multiple times a day”

a. Chances are there won’t be any 1s here, but if there are, ask the students holding up a 1 if they really never think about this person that they HATE with every part of them. It’s more likely that they think about this person sometimes.

Instruction (5 minutes)

  1. “So let’s talk about relationships. Not just romantic relationships, though”

  2. “All relationships are about love. If there’s no love, there’s no relationship. There’s different kinds of love, but love has to be there for there to be a relationship. Even if you hate someone, you think about them and spend time caring and thinking about them. They have a spot in your heart. If they don’t, you don’t actually care about them and you don’t really have a relationship with them. It’s a weird kind of love, but that’s why “enemies-to-lovers” works as a trope. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. So if your character truly has a relationship with someone else, they aren’t indifferent and

    they do have some love for the character (or parts of them).”

  3. “Take Mean Girls, Cady has her monologue about how she was obsessed with Regina

    and she hated her. But she wanted to talk about her all the time. She cares about her. She has love for her, in a weird way”

4. Then have students give examples of how different character relationships still have love in them. As necessary, give prompts of character relationships and let them find the love

in the a. b. c. d. e.

6. “So when you’re rehearsing or creating characters, think about the love in the relationships. Why do they care about this other person?

Brief Instruction/Rubric Review (5-10 minutes)

  1. Now explain to them that next class they will be doing a preview performance for me and one other group, so they should get their scene to a place where they would be getting helpful feedback.

    a. They shouldn’t be stressed about the preview, I just want to give them good feedback. So they should just have it in a good enough place where we can give meaningful and helpful feedback.

  2. Project the performance rubric ( Contemp Scenes Rubric ) on the board and briefly go over each criteria. NOTICE THE CHANGES IN SOME OF THE CRITERIA!

    1. Ownership
    2. Communication & Relationships
    3. Character
    4. Objectives & Tactics
    5. Group Work & Overall
  3. Check For Understanding: See what questions students still have about the rubric. Answer as necessary
  4. Explain that they’ll have basically the rest of the class to rehearse. “See how you can incorporate age into your scene, but also don’t forget our other tools we’ve been working with!”

Rehearsal Time (45-50 minutes)

1. Give the students time to rehearse
a. I will walk around and informally assess how each group is doing, answering

questions, and generally helping out as needed

Wrap Up/Exit Ticket (5 minutes)

1. Once there’s about 5 minutes left in class, gather attention back and have students start filling out the Exit Ticket: https://forms.gle/XBX3PTw34hhvJeJV6

a. Put the QR code on the projector and/or write out the link on the board.

relationship.
Hans & Anna – post-betrayal
Ursula & Ariel
Inigo Montaya & The 6-Fingered Man Regina George & Janis
Queen of Hearts & Alice
Harry Potter & Ron Weasley

you feel like the students understand this element of relationships, move on to the next piece of instruction

f. 5. After

  1. Also remind students to keep exploring their chosen contemporary issue!
  2. Thank the students for their work and participation today!
Tags
acting skills